Description

In this enlightening historical narrative, Peter Bunnett centres his work around the wartime journal of his father, Bombardier Ronald Patrick Bunnett, RA, known as ‘Pat’ to family and friends. While serving as a Royal Artillery gunner attached to the 4th Indian Division during the Italian campaign in World War II, Pat was an eyewitness to the renowned Battle of Monte Cassino.

His log chronicles a pivotal 12-day period in March 1944, during the crucial third phase of four grueling battles aimed at dislodging German forces from the mountaintop monastery. This strategic location loomed over the road to Rome, just 80 miles to the north, hindering the advance of the Allied invasion force.

The challenging terrain and the monastery’s robust construction rendered it easier to defend than to attack, compelling Allied commanders to deploy all available resources against it. Despite enduring relentless artillery and air strikes, the resolute German defenders held out far longer than anticipated, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides and the almost total obliteration of the monastery and its surroundings.

Pat’s detailed minute-by-minute account of the combat, seen from his vantage point as a spotter, under constant enemy fire, provides a vivid immediacy to the events described. It is as if we are right there beside him, witnessing the unfolding drama over the course of those twelve days and the battle comes alive, allowing us to appreciate the harrowing conditions and fierce fighting faced by the many soldiers involved on both sides.

Peter Bunnett enriches the twelve days chronicled in his father’s journal with an array of maps and photographs. To give context to the events, he shares insights into Pat’s civilian life before the war, his military experiences in North Africa, Greece and Sicily leading up to the Battle of Monte Cassino, as well as his activities after the battle during the many battles that followed as the Germans fought a determined rearguard action to the very end. Pat’s war culminated in a long and gruelling train journey back home to England at the war’s end, after hard-won victory in Italy had been achieved.