The Mules of Monte Cassino

Sacrifice, slaughter, and stupidity. The Battle for Monte Cassino, in southern Italy during the bitter winter of 1943-1944, was the most gruesome, spine-wilting, pointlessly devastating battle of America's Twentieth Century, perhaps in all of America's history. The enormity of the mistakes of Monte Cassino was misunderstood and overlooked then and remains under-reported and ignored to this day. Three hundred and fifty thousand dead soldiers, along with no accurate count of the civilian dead, for no reason other than the hubris and egos of men with golden stars pinned on their shoulders, hobnobbing with Popes, Presidents and Prime Ministers. Priceless and irreplaceable art treasures were destroyed for no better reason than incompetence and impatience. Military advantage gained from all of this: nothing. This is the story of that battle told from the fox holes and from the blood-stained rivers, with the hands of wounded and drowning comrades clutching at your legs as you try to swim back to shore. One survivor of the devastation said, "We were all of us mules."