The Allies Bombed a Monastery With NO Germans Inside

To break a German line in Italy, the Allies flattened a 1,400-year-old monastery. The problem: no German soldiers were inside it.

Early 1944. The Allied march up Italy stalled below Monte Cassino, an ancient abbey crowning a mountain over the road to Rome. Convinced the Germans were using it as a fortress, commanders demanded it be destroyed.

In February, over 200 bombers dropped hundreds of tons of explosives and turned the abbey to ruins. But the Germans had agreed not to occupy the building. The bombs killed civilian refugees sheltering inside and hit almost no defenders.

Then the plan backfired. Before the raid the Germans had stayed out. After it, they moved into the rubble, and shattered stone made a far better fortress than an intact abbey. Wave after wave of Allied attacks were thrown back.

It took months and four brutal battles before the line finally cracked. The bombing meant to open the road to Rome mostly destroyed a treasure and helped the enemy.

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