Wojtek the Bear [paperback] by Aileen; Orr

telling them: ‘For this action let the lion’s spirit enter your hearts
and keep deep in your heart God, honour and our land – Poland.’ He urged his men to go and take a revenge for all the suffering in Poland, for what they, themselves, had suffered in the
many years spent in Russia and for the years of separation they had endured from their families.
    At 11 p.m. – H-hour – some 1,200 Allied guns opened up. Their coordinated artillery fire was so great that it practically turned night into bright day. It was a shock-and-awe
engagement where the very ground shook. But Wojtek stayed with his comrades, ensuring the munitions got through.
    All along the Gustav Line, Allied troops were engaging the enemy in attacks which resulted in the wholesale slaughter of their men. The single most critical phase of the battle was the crossing
of the Rapido River under the German guns. If that failed so did the offensive.
    At separate points, infantrymen of numerous nationalities attempted the crossing, including the 8th IndianDivision far west of Monte Cassino at San Angelo and the 4th
British Division just west of the town near the railway cuttings. The 2nd Polish Corps’ task was to cross the river and advance up the north-east flank of the monastery at Hill 593.
    That most decisive phase of the battle to capture Monte Cassino was recalled by Black Watch veteran John Clarke MBE. He recalled that the river crossings attempted by the Poles and their British
counterparts were almost a complete disaster: ‘To cross the river, canvas folding boats had been sent from Burma. They had only arrived a few hours before zero hour. Attacking infantrymen
assembled the boats and set off across the swift-flowing river. Many were simply swept away to their deaths.’
    Other men drowned within yards of setting out. Their boats sank almost instantly because the canvas sides were riddled with holes caused by insects which had infested them during their storage
in the Far East. The men in the canvas boats were mostly soldiers from the Argylls and the Hampshires, although the attrition rates were so high that many others, including Poles, were brought in
as re-inforcements. And all this was happening before the Germans, from their well-protected positions, laid down withering curtains of artillery fire.
    Against all the odds, some of the troops made it to the other side and established several frail bridgeheads. As they dug in amid the smoke and the river mist they faced a new and unexpected
danger. The soil around them was heavily impregnated with phosphorus. They disturbed it as they dug their foxholes and there arose an eerie glow which made the troops easy targets for German
snipers.
    Every yard the troops advanced was bought with theblood of brave men. The carnage was almost beyond computation. Nowhere was the fighting more brutal than on the route
being forced to the top by the 2nd Polish Corps. For six days and nights the battle raged. With fanatical courage the Poles hurled themselves at the entrenched positions of the Germans on the hill
leading up to the monastery; it was as if a great and implacable hatred for all the agonies visited on their country by German invaders was driving them to feats of superhuman endurance. At one
point, cut off from their supplies, Polish troops who had run out of ammunition resorted to throwing stones at the enemy.
    Tomasz Skrzynski, then a 20-year-old cadet in the Carpathian Lancers Regiment, who would later be part of 22nd Company with Wojtek, was with the Poles in the uplands above the monastery. Like
other Polish soldiers, he had been fighting at close quarters to gain control of the hilltop. But when the savagery of hand-to-hand combat was over, there was no respite. He and his comrades were
forced to spend days sheltering in crude foxholes and a ruined stone hut to escape enemy shelling. When they dug into the ground there they uncovered the corpses of three Germans, whom they