On the Chosen Road

Near the southwestern end of the Allied line across Italy, the town of Cassino nestles at the base of holy, historic Mount Cassino. There, Byzantine conqueror Belisarius paused on his way to Rome in 536; the Benedictine Order was founded in 529.* Forbiddingly fortified by the Germans, Cassino now straddles the road to Rome chosen by General Mark W. Clark's Fifth Army. Last week, yard by yard, French, U.S. and Canadian troops advanced toward the ancient, strategic town.

They had to claw their way along a mountainous, broken front of 20 miles. In the north the French, under Tunisian veteran General Alphonse Pierre Juin, drove the Germans from Mount Ferro (3,500 ft.), Mount Pagano (3,600 ft.) and Mount Pile (3,700 ft.). They slid into the village of Acquafondata, gained a hold on one of four roads to Cassino. In the central-southern sector, U.S. and Canadian soldiers took Mount Porchia (where 16 stretcher-bearers were killed), Mount Capraro, Mount Trocchio, the strongly held village of Cervaro. From Trocchio, they overlooked Cassino itself. They rushed down Trocchio, massed to crash the outer Cassino fortifications.

Krauts at Cervaro. The haggard faces, worn bodies of soldiers who survived the mountain fighting, often in or above the clouds, testified to the intensity of German resistance. Out of the fighting came many a tale:

Germans of the veteran Hermann Goring Division (Libya, Tunisia, Sicily) surrendered Cervaro only after hours of artillery, machine-gun, grenade fire. Then they counterattacked with eight companies, tanks, self-propelled guns. Repulsed at last, they left a few prisoners--arrogant, undaunted teen-age Nazis. Said Private Donald Gunther, prodding two of them with a bayonet: "You're just a couple of Krauts to me."

Men of the famed U.S. Third Division emulated airmen, formed their own society of aces. Members qualify by killing one German, get a distinctive sleeve flash when they have killed five, call their society the Kraut Killers' League.

Sergeant Camille Gagnon, a French-Canadian ex-butcher, lay for 14 hours on the frozen ground, between counterattacking Germans and his comrades on a newly taken hill. His warnings enabled the Canadians to repulse a dozen counterattacks. Then the Germans brought an 88-mm. field gun to bear on Gagnon. Feeling safe, the Germans attacked the hill again. Gagnon, still whole, shouted another warning. The Germans quit trying.

U.S. Private Floyd Lindscom, once a truck driver in Colorado Springs, attacked a German machine-gun nest, killed the crew with his .45, dragged their gun and ammunition back to his unit, which then turned German bullets on German coun-terattackers. Recommended for Lindscom: the Medal of Honor.

*On a huge stone overlooking Cassino an undated inscription reads: "Our Father, Who art in Heaven, unite England to us again in the brotherhood of the faith."

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