British troops fire a captured Pak 40 near Monte Cassino

The Battle of Monte Cassino was a series of four costly assaults by the Allies in the Italian campaign.

The defending German forces held the Winter Line series of three defensive lines across Italy, centered around the town of Monte Cassino - Highway 6 ran through here all the way to Rome.

The plan was to break through and drive onto Rome, it took 123 days, 55,000 casualties to finally dislodge the German defenders.