European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 8, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monte Cassino continued from Page 17 Quot look at this Quot Gearhart said As he held out his left. Hand. The fingers Are grotesquely Bent. A Quot the germans broke them. Life was t a snap in that Camp. More americans were beaten and shot to death in that Camp than anywhere else Quot said Gearhart who says that memories of the terrible things he witnessed during the War messed up his life for years. Quot i went to shrinks for years in order to be Able to think and talk about those things Quot he added. Gearhart s division was thrown Back across the narrow 10-foot-deep River losing 1,681 men in 48 hours. The 34th inf div operating nearby lost 2,200 troops in gaining a toehold in the Heights near Monte Cassino. The Battles sent a Clear message a there would be no easy Road to Rome. Allied forces eventually battled their Way into the City of Cassino and onto nearby mountains where in Early february they were bogged Down shivering without proper shelter under the assault of freezing rain and Snow while being hammered by German shelling. Morale was a Low. A a a Dick Fleming a retired army colonel still can t believe he made it through the Battle of Monte Cassino As a Forward observer without getting wounded. His wounds a two of them a came later in France. Quot the night of feb. 14,1944, Iny 21st birthday was the so called night of the Long shelling when the germans. Poured 2,200 rounds of artillery into our 11-Acrearea. Quot the next Day they american bombers blew up the Abbey. I did t approve of that though Quot said the 72-year-old Fleming a resident of Bath Maine As he gazed up at the brooding Abbey Ray Wells also 72, remembers Monte Cassino Well. It was where shrapnel hit his leg and landed him in a Hospital for four months. A Quot the ground up there was too Rocky to dig Foxholes. All we could do was to pull rocks whatever rocks were close by around us. Because the germans were using air bursts it was too dangerous to scout for More rocks Quot said Wells a resident of elephant Butte . Shells ricocheting off the Iron hard slopes cast splinters of Rock into soldiers eyes and Heads. The fighting raged at the height of Italy s worst Winter in decades. Quot the Best Way to get supplies up to us was by mule. We never missed a stars and stripes on the front lines. It was All we had to Tell us what was going on. They would Send the paper up Vilh our rations on the mules Quot remembers former private Wayne Kirby an Ellen Wood. Ga., resident. Kirby 69, toured the Battle Sites recently with his 12-year-od grandson Caleb Brown. One of the Supply soldiers leading the mules was a Harding Allernan 70, from Baton Rouge la. Quot we led the mules up the icy trails at night there was lots of exposure to hellfire. The mules were frightened like everyone else. Sometimes you could ride them Back Down the mountains because the mules wanted to get out of that area As fast As possible Quot recalled Ai Ieman. Looking Down from its Summit the Abbey of Monte Cassino dominated the Valley where so Many were dying. The Abbey founded by St. Benedict in 529, had been destroyed by the lombards in 581, sacked by the Saracens in 883 and crumbled by an earthquake in 1349, but the pounding it took during the Winter of 1944 was its worst. Many argue that it never should have happened. Shelves have been filled with books about the Battle for the Abbey and the nearby City the most bombed out City in Italy during world War ii. Historians say that no event of the War caused More heated and lingering controversy than the bombing of the Abbey. In his Book the bottle of Monte Casino Fred Majdalany who had served at Cassino As a British army officer Pointer out a Quot even in peacetime Monte Cassino overwhelms even a. I far if Ai Ltd f a it 2$ a �j%5 1 �<8p two we. V a of. A a. It. A a m 1 a a -. A. V to -. A a a s a v a a in it a a of \ a 5 a a 1 of. The least imaginative visitor gazing  it from below. In the cold desolation of Winter and the fatiguing Travail of unresolved Battle the spell of its monstrous Eminence was Complete and haunting. This was the psychological Crux of the matter. To the Soldier dying at its feet the monastery had itself in a sense become the  the Abbey had become the enemy. That s the Point. After All the other reasons for its bombing Are scrutinized that seems to be the Only one that makes sense. Some justify bombing it on the grounds it was occupied. A amps j. King Cruger Allied veterans return to the site of the lighting to Lay a memorial Wreath in the town of Sant Angelo by the germans not so is the conclusion of historians. Although the germans had observation posts close to the i Abbey it is w Ell documented that the Abbey was occupies Only by a handful of monks and More than 800 refugees Many of whom were killed in the eventual bombardment the germans swore they had no troops in the Abbey. The monks swore that no germans were in the Abbey. Allied officials differed with one another on this subject. German troops in the Abbey or not pressures began Toj build within the Allied command to destroy the Abbey. Some argued that if the germans weren t in the Abbey they soon would be and that the germans then would make excellent defensive use of the fortress like monastery. Those espousing such a View apparently put no Stock j in a widely held military belief that Quot buildings when destroyed can be More valuable to the defenders than intact  others argued that the germans were using the monastery As an observation Post to bring Down fire on every movement or the roads and open country below. Others maintained that if the germans weren t doing this they soon would. Evidence shows that the germans had sited their Well camouflaged observation posts quite a distance below the Summit. Key generals in the new zealand corps then directly involved in the fighting repeatedly demanded that the monastery be bombed. A reluctantly Clark who was deeply involved with events under Way at the Anzio beachhead bowed to these demands particularly to those of British general sir Harold Alexander Overall commander of the italian Campaign. A the overkill bombardment by 254 bombers that a dropped 576 tons of bombs began on the morning of a feb. 15 while worship services were under Way in the monastery. The bombardment is said to have constituted Quot the largest concentrated High explosive destruction that anyone had Ever  the enemy did not resist a then. 5ilence. Yet the allies did nothing because the generals who had been so eager for the destruction of the 600-by-300-foot monastery were not ready to launch their attack the germans came out of hiding to occupy not Only their Advance positions 18 the stars and stripes Pednea