Images of our week in Italy
Monday May 18: The Polish Ceremony Tuesday May 19: Point 593 Wednesday May 20: BeachHead War Cemetery and Minturno War Cemetery Thursday, May 21: Piana delle Orme and the American Cemetery at Nettuno Friday May 22: The RBL Service at Cassino War Cemetery, the Abbey at Montecassino and Cassino War Cemetery Saturday May 23: The Canadian Ceremony at PontecorvoThank you to Chris Parker, John Lewis and Perry Rowe for the photographs of our week.
A note from Perry Rowe
Studying Cassino
It has been a few months since I had the pleasure of being historian attached to the Monte Cassino Society's tour to Cassino, so let me take this opportunity to say hello to the lovely group of people I met at the time. I hope you've all settled back at home OK.I had hoped to give a talk to those of you who were interested in the work I have been doing on the history of the battles in this part of the world, but it wasn't able to be arranged, so Rosalind has asked me to put a few words together here instead. So first, a bit of background. My grandfather, Keith Brandon, fought with the 24th Battalion of the 2nd New Zealand Division, from April 1944 (just after the Kiwis pulled out of Cassino) to July 1944 (just before Florence fell). Like many veterans, granddad spoke little of the war, and never to the kids. It was only when he died and I read his diary and letters home that I got any idea of what he did during the war. From these sources I found that he had been a reluctant soldier, trained to be a cook but sick several times with hepatitis. After the heavy losses the Kiwis suffered at Orsogna and Cassino, many of the troops still in Egypt were rounded up and sent to the front. Granddad would have been expected to join the South Island battalion, the 23rd, but by then the reinforcements were going wherever there were gaps and so he was posted to 24Bn. His first time in battle involved a steep climb up Colle Belvedere, to the north of Cassino, where he "cracked up" and ended up in the RAP. His personal doctor from Dunedin ran the RAP and it appears that it was arranged for granddad to become a stretcher-bearer. This wasn't a cushy job and he saw his first action a few nights later in a patrol that took several casualties. Having survived this initiation, he bore his stretcher up the Italian peninsular until on July 26th he was caught in a German artillery barrage across from the town of Cerbaia, just over the last ridge before Florence. He was seriously wounded and, after a period in 3 General Hospital in Bari, was sent home to New Zealand.Those details piqued my interest in the history of the campaign. In 2004 my mother and I travelled to Italy for the 60th commemorations in Cassino. We spent seven weeks following the course of the New Zealand division - the 'Black Diamond Trail'. The last week of it was at Cassino itself and we made a number of good friends both Kiwi and Italian. Before leaving New Zealand I spoke to an author who was writing some articles on the New Zealand involvement in Italy. He asked me to take some photographs for him to be used as comparisons for wartime photographs - a 'Then and Now' match. I loved the way this kind of photographic record could show the reader what had changed and what had stayed the same over time. It also proved to be a wonderful way to clarify actions and even correct some errors and myths that had grown up around events during the war. (If a picture shows one thing and the story says another, it is hard to argue with the picture!)So my interest turned to getting the comparisons for wartime photographs. I have amassed thousands of copies of original photographs of the Gustav Line area over the last five years, and hundreds of comparisons. To get these comparisons requires quite a bit of detective work, not to mention leg-work. I have to gather clues about the photograph: where was it taken? When? Who by? What units are pictured? Sometimes some or all of these are given in captions written by the photographer, but often they are not, and sometimes there are no clues at all. The historical record helps to say where a unit was at any time so I visit the archives regularly. To fill in the gaps I go to Google's fabulous Google Earth(TM). If the picture has a ridgeline, and I know roughly where it was taken, there is a good chance I'll find it! Add to this the many photographs posted by other Internet users and I may be able to nail the spot before I even get to Italy. This way I can often get to within 100m of the correct place. Once I get to Italy I have to confirm this work and narrow it down to the last 5m. This isn't always that straightforward as new buildings and foliage have sprouted since the war in all sorts of inconvenient places. Oh, and motorways and high-speed railways as well. After visits in 2004, 2007, 2008 and of course 2009, the book I am co-authoring is getting closer to publication. Its working title is Cassino: Then and Now, though really should be Gustav Line: Then and Now, but I guess the former is more widely known. I have just discovered another 60-odd matchable photographs that may mean another trip to Gaeta and the coast. There are worse places to do research! In the meantime I am busy writing all the captions for the 1500 or so photographs we have put together so far so that we can get the book to the publisher in time for your Christmas stocking.I had hoped to get contact details off the veterans on the trip, particularly from those who served at Termoli (my next article). Since I failed abjectly, it's up to you to contact me so I can get your story. Maybe you'll be the one who provides the clue to the next matched photograph? Or perhaps you have photos of your own that I could match... 'Bye all. A presto! Perry Rowe 29a Upper Oldfield Park Bath BA2 3JX Back to Main News Page »