Name: 36th battlefield Tour in Monte Cassino Area
Brand: Monte Cassino War Tours
SKU: 36th-division-tpur
Price: 90 Eur
Availability: InStock

Table of Contents

36th Texas Division Battlefield Tour: HISTORICAL BACKGROUD

After the Battle for San Pietro Infine in December, the US 36th Texas Division needed many replacements to be ready for a new battle. Major General Fred Walker was worried about the success of the next attack and the lack of time for preparation. The Germans in front of the 36th had excellent observation from the fortified village of Sant’Angelo in Theodice, situated on a high bluff on the far side of the Rapido River in the center of the valley.

36th Texas Division Battlefield Tour smoke — Smoke bombs used to cover the American Attack to the Rapido River (Nara)

36th Infantry Division on the Rapido river: Monte Cassino Tour

Major General Fred Walker knew it had to be a nighttime attack, but he was worried about the river itself, which could be a formidable obstacle, as well as the many mines and barbed wire on both sides of the river. The attacking troops would have to carry their own boats to the river’s edge, where engineers would need to construct footbridges to get most of the vanguard troops across. However, such bridges, as General Walker had discovered, were in very short supply, along with other engineering materials.

36th Texas Division Battlefield Tour minefields — On January 20, 5000 soldiers of the 36th Texas Division attacked the Rapido River. Minefields were everywhere, and clearing them was a very hard work (Nara)

36th Texas Division War Tours: the Rapido River crossing on 1944

The Rapido River, south of Highway 6, was between twenty-five and fifty feet wide, nine feet deep, and fast-flowing, with vertical banks about three and a half feet high from water level. The Germans had diverted enough river water through irrigation channels to turn the eastern, or Allied, bank into a kind of marsh. The German defensive positions at the ruined village of S. Angelo and on either side of it were well developed and were located between two hundred and one thousand yards from the riverbank.

36th Texas Division Battlefield Tour White Lines on the minefields — The American patrols put White lines on the ground to show the cleared path between the minefields, but the Germans moved them and about 2000 soldiers of the 36th Division were killed (Nara)

Monte Cassino tours: the Germans on the Rapido River

These positions were held by the 1st Battalion, 129th Panzer Grenadier Division, and the 3rd Battalion, 104th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, both of the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division, backed by the 3rd Battalion, Hermann Göring Panzer Regiment. There were no covered approaches to the river on the eastern bank, and the bank had been heavily scattered with mines.” (Molony C., History of the Second World War, p. 618)

36th Texas Division Battlefield Tour rapido river — Rapido River area

36th Infantry Division attack on 20th January 1944

The crossing of the river began at 8:00 PM on 20th January, and after several hours of fighting, the Americans counted 1,300 dead and 770 captured. Let’s learn the story of the 141st Regiment and the 143rd Regiment trying to cross the Rapido River. American newspaper reports described it as the worst disaster since Pearl Harbor. New Zealand officer Howard Kippenberger bluntly stated two weeks later: “Nothing was right, except the courage.” In an action that lasted just short of 48 hours, the 36th Division lost more than 1,000 men without making a dent in the German line.

Montecassino Battlefield tours: after the battles

Bitter arguments about the wisdom of the operation arose immediately, and after the war, veterans of the 36th Division Association called on Congress “to investigate the Rapido River fiasco.” They blamed it on Mark Clark, whom they called “inefficient and inexperienced.” Congress duly investigated and found no reason to blame him. The Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson, declared that the action “was a necessary one and that General Clark exercised sound judgment in planning it and in ordering it.” (Wallace R., World War II: The Italian Campaign, p. 117)