Cassino Pt. 1 - StG 44 assault rifle - Mp 40 - German 1st Paratrooper Div. Green Devels - Kesselring

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This footage is from the 1944 German training film called Nahkampf mit Waffen, or Close combat with weapons. At the end of this video I’ll be showing more so stick around, it’s worth it.

Using articles from early 1944 from the periodical series Die Wehrmacht in two videos I’ll be focusing on the second battle for Cassino and related subjects. If you’d like to get notified of future videos go ahead and subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon.

This illustrated relief map shows the lay of the land around Cassino and the approximate positioning of the enemy during the second battle for Cassino which took place in Feb. of 1944. To the left in front of the city Cassino, runs Street Nr. 6 which leads to Rome. Behind that Mnte. Cassino and the monastery that was destroyed by the enemy. Farther back behind Mnte. Cassino is Mount Cairo which is about 2000 meters hight. The enemy tried several times to occupy areas to the north and east of Cassino City on this mountain. Down the middle is the Tal von Rapido, or Rapido Valley, which was partially flooded. This is the direction that the enemy thrust to take Cassino came from.

These are scenes of Cassino City after days of intense often door-to-door street fighting. This particular footage is from a Portuguese source.

This is Fieldmarshal Albert Kesselring meeting with General Richard Heydrich the commander of the 1. Fallschirmjäger or paratrooper, Division. It’s interesting to see that this notice was issued by the so-called Strassenkommandant, or Street commander.

The first phase of the battle was highlighted by intense artillery duels. The Americans had a heavy superiority in firepower which they had hoped would compel the Germans to withdraw their forces from the Cassino area. They also enjoyed air superiority. This is captured footage of American artillery gun crews in action during the battle.

The Germans, however, understood that losing Cassino would leave Rome vulnerable to the Anglo-American advance which would have to be avoided at all cost.

This is a heavy Nebelwerfer, or rocket launcher, that has just been loaded. Notice the interesting camouflage pattern that it’s been painted with.

This nice photograph shows a frontal view of a Werfer with rockets loaded and ready to fire.

The Germans had the advantage of being well dug in and the mountainous terrain provided excellent elevated and unobstructed lines of sight for their artillery spotters who could call in pre-determined coordinates to their artillery batteries and quickly target groups of assault troops that had been gathering for attacks with devastating pinpoint accuracy.

Many of these crews had seen extensive combat on the Eastern Front and so were generally more experienced than their Anglo-American counterparts.

In 1943 the Germans had made a public commitment not to place military personal inside the monastery but as the casualties mounted, frustrated American leaders began to believe that the it was in fact occupied, at least by artillery spotters, and so they decided to bomb it.

The monastery was destroyed but the German’s were not intimidated. Rather than withdrawing the German 1st Fallshirmjäger Division immediately occupied the rubble which proved to be an excellent defensive position.

On Feb. 8 the Americans began a third and final assault on Cassino town and Monastery Hill. In the town intense street fighting broke out resulting in heavy casualties being taken by both sides. Here is more Anglo-American footage that was taken during that fighting. This is the American general Mark W. Clark.

I’ll be uploading the second video soon so remember to subscribe to the channel. And now here is more of the close combat with weapons training film that I promised. If you are a Patreon channel member you’ll receive a link to an additional clip. If you are not yet a member please consider becoming one. Thanks for watching.