In 1944 the Germans had created a defensive line across Italy called the Gustav Line which they hoped would be able to stop the progress of Allied forces as they pushed towards Rome and the north. At one point this line passed near to the historic Monte Cassino abbey, built high on a rocky hill and commanding great views of the surrounding landscape. Fearing it was being used by the Germans as an observation point at least, the Allies destroyed the abbey by bombing, but this then gave the Germans excellent defensive positions with which to resist the advance, and it would take four months of bitter fighting and huge numbers of casualties before the remains of the abbey were captured, and the Gustav Line breached.
The soldiers of many nationalities found themselves on this battlefield, but it is the Poles that are featured in this set by Italeri. The figures used are:
Also part of the package are the following kits:
- 1 sprue of M4A2 Sherman III (7511)
- 1 sprue of Italeri Sturmgeschütz III (7522)
German paratroops made up a large part of the defence in this area, and the set is a mostly good one. The British are here standing in for the Polish troops, who looked exactly the same, so those figures too are right for the role. The steep slopes around Monte Cassino made for difficult country in which to operate armour, but the inclusion of the tank and assault gun help to add value to this set.
There are no accessories here, just the biggest one of them all, the laser-cut MDF abbey. This model has a footprint of about 32 cm by 34, so is obviously just a fraction of the size of the real thing to scale. However it is a complex structure with many interesting features, and makes a really unusual environment in which to stage a battle. Of course most of the actual fighting took place outside of the abbey, and happened after it had been largely reduced to rubble, so this model has the ability to be made either whole or 'wreckable' as the walls can be partly removed as shown above. This does not begin to adequately show the devastation of the ruined abbey, which was more about piles of rubble than it was damaged walls, but it is a start.
The completed diorama looks great, but as always there is much cheating going on here. The modeller has shown the abbey in intact condition, which is fine (and saves a lot of extra work), but as well as the complex base and terrain, he has also added figures which are not part of the set, which is naughty. Italeri always do this, and it does seem a bit mean to imply that the box will provide everything seen in these photographs, so it should be seen as no more than inspiration for what can be achieved using this set as a starting point. However to our mind this is one of the less exciting models Italeri have made, though still something to be proud of had we done it ourselves!
The battle for Monte Cassino was mainly a hard slog against well-entrenched positions manned by high-quality troops, and the casualties were immense. However this also makes it one of the less appealing battles of the war to us, since it was about pounding rather than manoeuvre, and the often harsh conditions also played a major part. Of course that is a matter of personal taste, and you could choose to rewrite history and have your troops fight it out room by room in a largely intact abbey should you wish. Certainly this must be one of the most elaborate settings for a World War II battle, and one of the best model buildings we have seen, even if it cannot adequately portray the enormous original.