European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 15, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A As file the allies rained bombs on Abbey and town below during five month Battle. Army the Abbey that had to Fifolt to say whether it is being put Toi military purpose at this  Ter the raids by 254 bombers hatred 576 tons of bombs the Bene inc Abbot signed a German prepared ment that inside the enclosure of sacred monastery. There never any German  warning id bets were dropped before the , All Art treasures and valuable bks and records had been , the casualty toll among re no Ning monks and refugees was High Ven though the order for the attack e from the Headquarters of thes rican 5th army commander Gen. K Clark he has since repudiated Ita mistake of the first magnitude i psychologically and tactically it made the Job More difficult More by in terms of men machines and Star memoirs from the German compared Cassino to Stalingrad n example of the Street fighting Ige that houses must be demolished in order to be converted from mouse to s into bastions of  Erman soldiers from the nearby posit ans were Able to shift their defences to the bombed out ruins of the Abbey an prolong their resistance until the Uli mate Allied Victory in  Allied standpoint was that Al Thi ugh the Abbey intact presented Anun satisfactory fighting position due to structural handicaps such As narrow windows its 10-foqt4hlck Walls served As a perfect shelter and on the whole it would be More useful to the germans if left  the fourth and greatest destruction others by the lombards in 581, he Saracens in 883, and an earthquake in 1349 of the monastery site founded by St. Benedict in 529 was sealed. But this time there was a differ ence philosophize Majdalany be cause the ideals for which the Abbey stood were in  Benedict s monastery had to die once again in order that his ideals might have another Chance to survive in a world that had largely abandoned  if 1969 the Hail of bombs on of a. 15, 1944, reduced the monastery 10 this shattered pile of rubble. The stars and stripes Page 13