A Symbol Falls

To themselves and to much of the world Cassino had become a symbol of Nazi invincibility. Three times since January the Germans had turned back whatever Allies--New Zealanders, Americans, British, Indian Gurkhas--had attempted to drive them out of the town and out of the ancient Benedictine monastery on a nearby hilltop. Said a Nazi general order captured last week: "Cassino has become synonymous with underlying heroism for the Germans. Hell to the Fuehrer!"

Last week, six days after the new offensive in Italy began, Cassino was in Allied hands. So were 1,500 "Green Devils" of the crack German 1st Parachute Division, plus enough captured materiel to outfit two artillery divisions.

This time the Allies relied not only upon their artillery and their bombing and desperate infantry charges. Reverting to the ancient military doctrine that what cannot be taken by frontal assault can be encircled, General Sir Harold Alexander sent powerful units of his Polish troops around to the right of Cassino. His Britons, Canadians and Indians crossed the Rapido River to the left, circled to cut Via Casilina and join the Poles. The Green Devils were outdeviled.

By this time Cassino, a mass of rubble and broken stones, had lost its strategic value. But morale-wise it was a great victory.

The Abbey. The Poles waded through heavy going until they finally reached the top of Monastery Hill, west of town. After they entered the broken abbey, which had been crushed beneath the weight of thousands of tons of high explosives, the grim Poles ran up their red and white flag, then ran up a Union Jack alongside of it.

Inside the historic landmark, correspondents found German hand grenades piled beside the headless statue of St. Benedict. Elsewhere there were bazookas, many cases of mortar ammunition, machine guns (the Germans had cried in February that the abbey was not being used for military purposes).

On the slopes below, thousands of unburied dead of many nations stank in the sun.

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