Killing wounded at Cassino?

[Frank Schneider]

Hi,

read a story about how the Poles stormed Monte Cassino, but the paras already left. Frustrated about this, they apparently killed wounded paras and medics left behind. Anybody else heard this? Is there any documentation to verify this is true/false?

Thanks,
Frank.

[Marco]

I found this for you...is a polish veteran story. Source www.bbc.co.uk

Romuald E. Lipinski, 12 Podolski Lancers Regt.
2nd Polish Corps
The Battle
In view of the successes of the 5-th Kresowa Division in the region of the Phantom Ridge prompted the division commander to order on May 18, at about 8:45 AM, to send a patrol from our regiment to find out what is the situation in the area of the monastery. They successfully crossed the mine field and reached the outer walls of the monastery. They found out that the Germans left the monastery during the night, leaving only 16 wounded, with two medics under a command of one officer cadet. The Germans were scared because their command told them that Poles murder their prisoners. Our men took care of the wounded, giving them the help that they could, and those who could walk were sent further to our area. It is interesting to note, that sometimes in 1970-s someone announced on German radio that Polish soldiers were killing their prisoners. To that answered one of those German paratroopers that was found by our patrol at the monastery, stating that it was a lie, that he was one of the wounded soldiers found by the Polish patrol on the 18-th of May, and that he was provided with medical care and was treated very well. The 3-rd Carpathian Division Association got involved in the act and arranged a meeting between this ex-German paratrooper and Lt. Gurbiel, the commander of that first patrol that entered the monastery. It must have been some meeting. It must have been similar to that I had on May 18, 1994 with the Germans ex-paratroopers at Monte Cassino. At that time, it was on the occasion of the 50-th anniversary of taking the Monastery, there was a big celebration at the Polish cemetery. Iza (my wife) and I went to Italy, and the trip was scheduled that on the 18-th of May we were at Monte Cassino. I met some of my friends, and we started to go through the surrounding hills trying to find some familiar places. Suddenly, from one of the houses there, came three German veterans who came like us to visit German cemetery which is in a nearby village. They told us that were in the 1-st Parachute Division, the one that we had against us during the battle. They were quite friendly to us, so we started talking to them. It was a funny conversation: we were telling them how we tried to kill them and they were telling us how they did their bes to kill us. But soon we found common language. This was the first time that I was so close to German soldiers alive. They showed us their decorations, we showed them ours. They told us about another meeting with veterans from New Zealand whom they met day before. They showed us a hill where five New Zealand tanks got to. They were all destroyed, by the these German's detachment and the crew killed, with one exception: one of the New Zealanders got away. Day before our arrival he came to visit Monte Cassino and they met that man. That must have been some meeting too...
At 9:50 AM a banner of our regiment was placed at the highest point of the ruins of the monastery as a signal that it was taken by our forces. This banner is now in the General Sikorski Institute in London.
City of Cassino was also taken by the British 10-th Brigade of the XIII Corps. Although by this time Germans were emerging from cellars and dugouts to give themselves up, sporadic fighting continued throughout the day. Mines, some fanatical paratroopers that did not receive orders to withdraw were still shooting at our troops, taking a tall of our soldier's lives.

[Jean-Loup]

I read this story recently. It happened in Normandy, not Cassino, but it makes quite an interesting read:

[Jean-Loup]

The part in red concerns the Poles shooting prisonners.

[Jean-Loup]

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[Paul B]

Guys

I saw a UK TV documentary a few years ago which seems to bear out some of the points made in Marco's post -a German paratrooper by the name of Robert Frettlohr (who I believe is currently still alive in Yorkshire, England) recalled being among the wounded captured towards the end of the battle. He and his comrades were immediately concerned that they would be finished off when they learned that their captor's were Poles, but in the event they were correctly treated as PoWs.

Hope this if some interest, all the best

Paul.

[besslein]

I dont think this disscusion is fair,I dont think too that we have here to disscus abaut Poles war crimes,I have never find informations,that Polish soldiers do somethig wrong on Germans POW,only I know very well German crimes on POW
in Russia,Poland,France,etc

[Don D.]

I think it has been a great forum in which to disprove this particular myth.

[Frank Schneider]

Don,

correct - my question was related to Cassino. Looks like the Polish troops behaved well to the wounded and POWs, and that the story I read was a myth (it was from a 70s book, so Marco, your article hit the nail right on the head). Unfortunately, killing of POWs and wounded was done by all sides, at all times during the war.

Besslein, yes, Germans commited atrocities in all those countries.... But others did that as well. Not trying to justify the German behaviour, but also not trying to make the Allies look like Saints. A lot of crimes were commited in the name of freedom and liberation too.

Kind regards,
Frank.

[Gran Sasso]

I dont think this disscusion is fair,I dont think too that we have here to disscus abaut Poles war crimes,I have never find informations,that Polish soldiers do somethig wrong on Germans POW,only I know very well German crimes on POW
in Russia,Poland,France,etc

So its not fair to discuss other countries´war-crimes, only the germans? What a one-sided point of view. IYO we are allowed to go into very deep detail about every german warcrime - but we are not allowed to even mention the other sides´? I always thought a aim or this forum is to help find the truth between all the myths and stories which were created after the war, but obviously this was a wishful thinking. Acting that way, the story of the "bad german" will live on forever.

Of course you will not find much about our enemies´ war-crimes, as history is always written by the victors.

[Willi Z.]

Thread closed. This has moved beyond the subject matter of the thread, which was on thin ice as is. Take it somewhere else.