Today In History

February 2, 1943


The nazi beast is fatally wounded in Stalingrad .

February 9, 1943


After six months of hallucinating fights, the U.S. Marines finally take Guadalcanal .

On seven separate days, each on one side of the world, the Axis loads two major and decisive defeats.





Of course, one cannot summarize Guadalcanal in one single sentence but, if something is the key in this battle, if something must be remembered as a major turning point in the Pacific War, i think it's this : From now, and until the end of WW2, the forces of the empire of the rising sun will remain on the defensive.

Also, it's always hazardous to compare names but, really, because of the key role of this battle, because it marks the very spot of the end of progression and the beginning of retreat for the Japanese forces, also because of its place in time, its duration and, last but not least, the intensity of the fightings, i feel easy to think that Guadalcanal is, somewhere, the Stalingrad of the Pacific.

February 13, 1945





Air Chief Marshall Arthur "Bomber" Harris, a man who asked himself no questions, accomplishes his "masterpiece" over Dresden .

During three days (13,14 and 15), scientifically, 1300 Lancaster will drop about 3900 tons of fragmentation and incendiary bombs over the city, causing the death of 25000 German civilians.


Winston Churchill will say, later (late ...?) : " It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed. Otherwise we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land… The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. I am of the opinion that military objectives must henceforward be more strictly studied in our own interests than that of the enemy.

The Foreign Secretary has spoken to me on this subject, and I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives such as oil and communications behind the immediate battle-zone, rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive. "

February 15, 1944.

Destruction of the Abbey of Montecassino (about 30 km from my town).
Allies thought that there were German soldiers inside it. But there were not germans. There were just innocent monks. They destroyed a very old Abbey, founded in 529 a.D. by Saint Benedict of Nursia , the Patron Saint of Europe.
After the bombing, german soldiers occupied the ruins.


After the bombing:


How the Abbey is nowdays:

It seems that Allied commanders were quite divided about whether or not to bomb the monastery. Some senior officers, including General Clark and his chief of staff, Major General Alfred Gruenther, were against the bombing. The supreme command has finally made his decision.

For me, i have always considered the bombing as a nerve crisis of the allied command, frustrated and annoyed by the failure of the Allied advance in Italy, the failure of the first battle of Cassino and the fiasco of Anzio. Also, the name itself of this operation, Operation Avenger, appears to me very revealing. When i look at the allied strategy in the Italian campaign, sorry but i see mostly amateurish, makeshift job, precipitation and naivety. Forgiveness, Mr. Churchill, but with all the respect you deserve, the soft underbelly of Europe had some guts ...

Nikita wrote: For me, i have always considered the bombing as a nerve crisis of the allied command, frustrated and annoyed by the failure of the Allied advance in Italy, the failure of the first battle of Cassino and the fiasco of Anzio. Also, the name itself of this operation, Operation Avenger, appears to me very revealing. When i look at the allied strategy in the Italian campaign, sorry but i see mostly amateurish, makeshift job, precipitation and naivety.

I agree with you Nik, but the problem is that often Allies didn't think about "It's really necessary to bomb?" Just like happaned in Dresden. It was not necessary to destroy a so beautiful city in a Country already (almost) down.
They didn't think "That Abbey is 1.200 yers old, we must be sure if there are enemies inside before to bomb it".
Last year a cousin of mine came from USA to visit my family. I brought her to visit the Commonwealth Cassino Commonwealth War Cemetery and Abbey of Montecassino. In the Abbey there were several pictures of the destruction caused by the American bombs, and when she saw it she burst into tears. There were also thousand of ancient books in the Abbey: some of them have been recovered after the bombing, but many have been burned or destroyed. Those books, that Abbey, were part of Italy and especially part of European history.
In my opinion that was the greatest error: to realize if bombing was necessary or not.