Monte Cassino

by Sven Hassel Book 6 in the Legion of the Damned series.

First published 1963

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4.1(3,009)

The 27th Penal Regiment is transferred from the Eastern Front to Italy, where the Allied advance has reached the German defensive lines around Monte Cassino. Sven and his comrades are ordered to hold exposed positions beneath sustained artillery and air attack, then counter-attack whenever ground is lost. The monastery heights and the surrounding valleys become a landscape of rubble, mines and repeated assaults.

Set within the Italian Campaign of 1943–1945, the novel presents Adolf Hitler’s insistence on holding ground through the experience of soldiers who understand that tactical withdrawal may be their only chance of survival. Hassel’s fictional regiment encounters the multinational character of the battle and the physical difficulty of mountain warfare, while the destruction around Cassino undermines official claims that sacrifice can redeem an increasingly hopeless war.