ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Monte Cassino: April 30 - May 23, 1944 Part III(b)
Romuald E. Lipinski, 12 Podolski Lancers Regt.
2nd Polish Corps

A lot has been said and written on the question if the Polish participation in the battle of Monte Cassino did contribute anything to the Polish cause. There is no easy answer. Maybe looking at the overall political arena will shed some light on the subject. There are those who say that at that time Poland's fate was already decided by the allies, our government in London knew that one third of Polish territory will be given to the Soviet Russia and the rest will be within her orbit. It is my understanding, that the allies were panicky about a possibility of separate treaty between Germany and Russia. They did it in 1918, during the WWI, and the allies thought that they could do it again. In the United States as well as in England, there was a wide spread hysteria regarding heroism of the Russian people and their suffering from Germans. This was amplified by the pro-communist press in England ("Daily Worker") and in the United States. At the instigation of the Soviet government, the press on both sides of the Atlantic was writing that Polish soldiers are pro-Nazi, they don't want to fight Germans, and by their departure from Russia at the time of German advances they proved their pro-German sympathies. On May 24, 1944 prime minister Churchill in the House of Commons, had a speech in which he developed his views on resolution of future of Poland. It was an agreement for giving part of Poland to Russia and the remaining part to be under Russian domination. Later he was more blunt. During his talk with Gen. Anders on February 21, he said that England does not need any Polish help because she has enough of troops, and therefore, "...you can take your divisions out, we will manage without them."

Situation in the United States was not much better regarding of Polish interests. President Roosevelt and his advisers were all under the spell of communist propaganda. Their political philosophy was deprived of any moral scruples, any regard for the millions of peoples that will be thrown into Soviet Gulag. Their main objective was to be reelected for another term. It is well known from literature written after the war that when Roosevelt came to Jalta conference he did not even try to negotiate future of the Eastern Europe with Stalin. He agreed with his demands right away. This is what Churchill wrote in his memoirs. Churchill wrote that when he raised a question of Poland he was quieted down by Roosevelt. And Stalin knew what he wanted, at that time his armies were victorious pushing Germans to their fatherland. And later on nobody questioned his loyalty to the allies during the Warsaw uprising when Russian troops were on the left bank of the Vistula river while the insurgents were dying in the city. I read somewhere that during the uprising Russian soldiers were bathing in the Vistula river on one side and Germans were swimming on the other and they exchanged jokes in a friendly fashion. At the same time Polish uprising was being crushed by Germans. At one point Polish troops fighting along side of the Russians crossed the Vistula river suffering heavy losses to give some help to the insurgents. Russian command cut off any supplies to them and they had to withdraw.

It was obvious that although England was participating in that infamous conference all the decisions were made by the two big partners: Russia and the United States. Of course, we soldiers in combat, did not know all the sordid details about machinations of the powers dividing Poland and deciding about lives of millions of people. We knew, however, about Russian advances and had many uneasy thoughts about our future. Later on I read about the political situation that was developing in London, Moscow and Washington.

There are those who say that in accepting the assignment of assaulting the monastery General Anders was motivated primarily by his ambition and perspective of personal gain. I don't believe this. I think, that he was aware of developing of the unfavorable political situation described above. He knew that we will be used in other combat engagements and losses will be inevitable. He knew, that to refuse taking the assignment of participation in the battle would be like adding oil to the fire of the Soviet anti-Polish propaganda. At that he probably had illusions that some compromise will be worked out and Polish Army strong, proven its value, will be one of the factors in future negotiations and may change the history. Sure, the price was high. But it was the war, and in war people are killed.
In summary, there will be probably many opinions about the battle of Monte Cassino in general and about Polish participation in it in particular. There will be some rationale on both sides of the argument. I think, that we were in a no-win situation. Polish people because of our geopolitical situation are condemned to suffer more than many others and bear sacrifices to preserve their identity and freedom. Our national life has been a struggle throughout the centuries and unless Polish people are willing to fight for their place in the international community they will go to extinction. "We are condemned to greatness" said Józef Pilsudski, the first marshal of Poland after regaining independence in 1918, after 123 years of partitioning between Russia, Germany and Austria. Maybe it sounds too pompous, but thinking about the unfortunate situation that Poland is, there is only one of the two alternatives: fight to the end or succumb to nothingness. We lost many battles in our history, and we won many victories. Poles are generally good in winning battles. They are not so successful in winning peace. But we will always be fighting for our right to exist, to preserve our identity and our place on the map. Poland came out of the WWII as a looser. Ironically, the only countries that became the most prosperous after the war are Germany and Japan. But, it is not the first time in history of Poland that a war was lost. Somebody said: "Even a great nation can fall, but only dishonorable one can annihilate it." The bottom line is that Poland was raped, the biggest offenders were of course Germany and Russia, but the western countries were conspirators because they did nothing to prevent it. This was a crime that they had to pay for later in Korea and Vietnam with their blood and money. At Monte Cassino, having lost our country to the Germans and Russians, as well as many of us our families, we were trying to make a desperate effort to win some trumps that would help our cause. We were fighting for revenge and honor of our country without much hope to see it again. Tragedy of Polish soldiers is perhaps best summarized in the inscription that can be seen at the cemetery on the slopes of Monte Cassino:

We Polish soldiers
For our freedom and yours
Have given our souls to God
Our bodies to the soil of Italy
And our hearts to Poland.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.