Monte Cassino - First Battle

German Paratroopers defending against the Western Allies in one of the most epic battles of WWII and the 20th century!
If you like our work consider supporting us on Patreon: / wwiiepicbattles
Literary sources:
Monte Cassino January-May 1944: The Legend of the Green Devils
amzn.to/2Tm83HS
Monte Cassino Ten Armies in Hell
amzn.to/2DKB0Yz
Music:
Five Armies
The Escalation by Kevin McLeod:incompetech.com/
Behind Enemy Lines by Gregoir Lourme: www.gregoirelo...
Graphics purchased on: www.shuttersto...
videohive.net/
Archive Films:
BATTLE OF NORTH AFRICA, PART 1 - Department of Defense 1960 - PIN 30126 -
36TH INFANTRY DIVISION - Department of Defense 1953 - PIN 20358 -
#WWII #MonteCassino #ItalianFront

[@ww2-epicbattles]

And of course youtube had to demonetise our two Cassino videos. That is beside the fact that they pay next to nothing anyway. If you'd like to support our work you can find some cool merchandise in our teespring shop: teespring.com/stores/world-war-ii-epic-battles

[@toddmoss1689]

In 2004 I visited Cassino, the rebuilt monastery, and the cemeteries now surrounding the town. I left awestruck and with great respect for those soldiers.

[@1buddahead]

Great series. Here's some little known history too: Among the American units in the 34th Division was the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate). They were a "bastard" battalion formed following the attack on Pearl Harbor. They fought with distinction in North Africa before arriving in Italy. What made their unit unique was that it was, except for the officers, composed entirely of Japanese-americans from the Hawaiian islands. Many Japanese-americans were enlisted at the time of the attack and were stripped of their weapons and effectively discharged in its wake. They begged the government to let them fight to prove their loyalty and eventually their wish was granted. The 100th Infantry Battalion (Seperate) was formed, attached to the 34th Division. and sent to North Africa and then Italy. At Monte Cassino, they suffered tremendous casualties trying to cross the river. Their B Company was reduced from 187 to 14. They made ground including taking Castle Hill on Feb 8th but they could not hold and were ordered back. They left with the rest of the 34th but their story doesn't end there. They fought at Anzio until Monte Cassino finally fell and took part in the push to Rome but never set foot in the city being told to wait on the roadside while other allied troops went first. Reinforcements and replacements were brought over consisting of volunteers and draftees from the Japanese-american internment camps on the mainland. This brought the unit to full regiment strength. Due to their outstanding performance, the 100th was allowed to keep its designation officially turning the new unit into the all Japanese-american 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team. They would go on to serve with distinction until the war ended. To this day, they remain one of the most decorated units in all US Army history. Thank you for reading.

[@wyllmark]

Guys...this is my second video viewed on this channel and i may say that you convinced me that you are great people with highly greater purposes. I hope that you will do(at least) the same good work and involvement as you showed us so far. I respect you and i wish good luck. Cheers !

[@patricksullivan3887]

My great uncle served with the Royal Scots fusiliers and received the distinguished service order for his service there. It reads as follows. During the night attack on 23rd January, 1944, Major MacMichael's Company reached the objective, and at once came under heavy machine gun and mortar fire at close range. At this point the Commanding officer was killed, and Major MacMichael took charge of operations to clear the enemy from the hill. He arranged covering fire from mortars and light machine guns, and led a bayonet charge himself to force the enemy from their nearest post. The enemy withdrew, but Major MacMichael's party was itself outflanked at close range by a party of Germans with light automatics. He thereupon organised one platoon to provide covering fire, and to hold off this threat to the flank. He himself with another platoon attacked round the flank of the main German position. He led this against a series of machine gun posts in person, showing the greatest bravery. At least three enemy localities were captured, the enemy running away and abandoning their weapons when our attacking troops reached close quarters, each time a position was captured and occupied, it came under heavy fire from enemy posts further back. Major MacMichael was wounded in the head by a rifle grenade bursting on his steel helmet, but in spite of this he carried on leading his men, and inspiring them by his courage and fine example. He did not withdraw from the fight until Forced to do so by loss of blood from his wound. It was undoubtedly due to his leadership that his Company reduced by casualties to under 60, was able to gain a footing on the position in the face of formidable opposition estimated at 6-10 machine guns, two mortars, and several light automatics and machine pistols. If anyone has any specific information about this particular incident I'd love to have more info. I've done enough research to know they were in Italy and the timeline seems to match up with the battle for Monte Cassino.

[@Armorius2199]

Wonderfull video, the artwork is getting better. I suggest that your next video is the second battle of Monte Cassino.

[@ww2-epicbattles]

It will be. The maps are already done. And the text is almost finished. It should be sent to the voice actor soon.

[@Armorius2199]

Wonderful keepthe great, your videos are more inspiring than any history channel documentaries.

[@cityslacker6221]

Thanks for the video. My grandfather was in a Field Artillery battalion in II Corps there, one of the few shooting the 4.5" M1 as opposed to the 155mm Howitzer. He always said his battalion got that rig because more British battalions used the 4.5" and they had been an unassigned company fighting under Bradley in North Africa for a stretch, so it was easier to keep them resupplied.

[@SharkHai]

Great video!!!

[@gmanboskey3854]

How did I not find your channel sooner!? I love animations like this, but you barely find good ones

[@anicrowsenjixd8918]

My grand grandfather was in this battle he was a Gebirgsjäger I think so one of the mountain division at 2:10 I think, luckily he got shot and was taken to a hospital in Oberstdorf, there he survived the war. He lived until 1993 or something so I sadly never met him

[@eddienom]

Amazing Video.

[@christiant4596]

im exited to see the battle of the Gothic line were there were Xa Mas and others

[@historybuff4479]

This sounds like the guy from Simple History

[@ww2-epicbattles]

thats because it's him

[@historybuff4479]

Oh, that’s cool.

[@Lorian667]

Saw just 2 vids, but your vids are great so I sub. Keep up mate!

[@ww2-epicbattles]

Hey I like to welcome new members when they leave a comment. My first videos are not that good so you don't miss much. Back then I didn't expect them to go viral and was experimenting with different looks. I also had another voice actor who's not from an English speaking country so the overall quality was lower than now and most of my older videos have been deleted. I plan to remake them in the future.

[@GMKGoji01]

The guy from Simple History?! Is that you?!😮

[@torbai]

Maj. Gen. John P. Lucas' two-division-strength VI Corps was unable to capture the Alban Hills to cut the lines of communications and hold the beachhead at the same time. If he lost the beachhead, the VI Corps would be doomed since the reality showed the Heeresgruppe C had enough forces to hold the Gustav Line and deal with the VI Corps. There was no chance for a "swift victory in Italy".

[@ww2-epicbattles]

Of course the 6th Corps had limited resources. Lucas was criticised because he didn't exploit the complete surprise that was achieved. As Churchill famously said “I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat into the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale.”

[@torbai]

@@ww2-epicbattles Churchill said a lot of thing that never work... The VI Corps was not a "wildcat" with inadequate forces. The VI Corps was formed by 1st British Infantry Division, 3d Infantry Division, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion and some British commando and US Rangers battalions in its first wave. The 45th Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division were ashore several days later. But the goal of the VI were taking the Alban Hills and secure the beachhead rapidly at the same time, which are 30km apart. It was impossible to do them both. If the VI Corps lost the beachhead, it would be doomed by losing the supplies and reinforcements. The Heeresgruppe C organized 4. Fallschirmjäger-Division, Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Göring, 715. Infanterie-Division, 114. Jäger-Division, and 92. Infanterie-Division to counterattack the VI Corps. The AFHQ significantly underestimated the strength of the Heeresgruppe C, and the G-2 of AFHQ opposed the landing operation. Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark and the Fifth Army doubted if the VI Corps was able to achieve the goal, and gave Lucas a vague order by carefully choosing the word "by driving on to the Al ban Hills". Operation Shingle was a failure even in its planing phase.

[@mwhd629]

2:12 the guy in the middle is mussolini as a spy

[@hardlyworking1351]

I'm no expert on the topic, but the opening remarks of this video seem to suggest the Italian campaign was (in retrospect) a waste of resources which adversely effected the Allies rather than the Germans? I agree that Italian geography makes it good defensive country and that the war was never going to be won via-Italy. But In May 1944 Germany had diverted approximately 365,000 troops to Italy (Allies had about 650k), German forces available to repel the Allies during Overlord wouldn't reach 365,000 until 2 months after D-day, at the end of July. So even if you assume only half of the troops Germany diverted to Italy would have been deployed on the Western Front, that is still a 50% increase in German forces available for the Normandy Campaign and Overlord. The Allies had a 4 to 1 numbers advantage during Operation Overlord, so assuming that was the ratio to assure success if you gave the Germans 50% more men the Allies would have needed to muster a million more men for Overlord.

[@steadyjumper3547]

plus its not like the allies could just sit by and not press an attack on Italy which the allies knew were the weak link and would keep the British trade from the Med. The allies assaults and overly aggressive attacking in entrenched. Also while the invasion may have been justified, the amount of troops deployed to such a narrow and mountainous probably was an over commitment. Either way Italy was not where the war was won it was Germany that was and should always remain the first priority to the allies.

[@Bennyy85]

Is this from a documentary or made by the owners of this channel?

[@ww2-epicbattles]

what do you think?

[@Bennyy85]

@@ww2-epicbattles the voice sounds like mark Felton so at first I thought this was just a reskin of some of his vids. But idk. Gr8 content anyway I can't complain.

[@staffangoldschmidt2721]

Dear narrator, it's Italy not Idaly!

[@anicrowsenjixd8918]

Song name? ^^

[@nicholaslau264]

My poor 34th Red Bull Infantry Division

[@mutawi3i]

My great grandfather killed 6 germans in one night. With his barehands. He served under the colonial morrocain goumier regiment.