Editing Battle of Monte Cassino (section)

===After the bombing===
[[File:The ruined monastery at Cassino, Italy, 19 May 1944. NA15141.jpg|thumb|left|Monte Cassino in ruins.]]
[[Pope Pius XII]] was silent after the bombing; however, his [[Cardinal Secretary of State]], [[Luigi Maglione]], bluntly stated to the senior U.S. diplomat to the Vatican, [[Harold Tittmann]], that the bombing was "a colossal blunder … a piece of a gross stupidity".<ref>Hapgood & Richardson, p. 225</ref>

From every investigation that followed since the event, it is certain that the only people killed in the monastery by the bombing were 230 Italian civilians seeking refuge in the abbey.<ref>Hapgood & Richardson, p. 211</ref> There is no evidence that the bombs dropped on the Monte Cassino monastery that day killed any German troops. However, given the imprecision of bombing in those days (it was estimated that only 10 percent of the bombs from the heavy bombers, bombing from a high altitude, hit the monastery), bombs did fall elsewhere and kill German and Allied troops alike, although that would have been [[friendly fire|unintended]]. Indeed, sixteen bombs hit the Fifth Army compound at [[Presenzano]], {{convert|17|mi|km}} from Monte Cassino, and exploded only yards away from the trailer where Clark was doing paperwork at his desk.<ref>Hapgood & Richardson, p. 203.</ref>

On the day after the bombing, at first light, most of the civilians still alive fled the ruins. Only about 40 people remained: the six monks who survived in the deep vaults of the abbey; their 79-year-old abbot, [[:it:Gregorio Diamare|Gregorio Diamare]]; three tenant farmer families; orphaned or abandoned children; the badly wounded; and the dying. After artillery barrages, renewed bombing, and attacks on the ridge by the 4th Indian Division, the monks decided to leave their ruined home with the others who could move at 07:30 on 17 February. The old abbot was leading the group down the mule path towards the Liri valley, reciting the rosary. After they arrived at a German first-aid station, some of the badly wounded who had been carried by the monks were taken away in a military ambulance. After meeting with a German officer, the monks were driven to the monastery of [[Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino]]. On 18 February, the abbot met the commander of the XIV Panzer Corps, Lieutenant-General [[Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin]].<ref>Hapgood & Richardson, p. 221</ref> One monk, Carlomanno Pellagalli, returned to the abbey; when he was later seen wandering the ruins, the German paratroopers thought he was a ghost. After 3 April, he was not seen again.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

It is now known that the Germans had an agreement not to use the abbey for military purposes.{{refn|The Germans concluded an agreement with the Vatican in December 1943 giving assurance that German troops would not occupy the abbey.<ref>Molony, Vol. V, p. 480</ref> The British official history, first published in 1973, states that the German commanders considered the "Cassino Position" to be the keystone of the defensive line<ref>Molony, Vol. V, p. 694</ref> but concludes that "There is abundant and convincing evidence that the Germans made no military use whatever of the abbey's buildings until after the Allies had wrecked them by bombing."<ref>Molony, Vol. V, p. 695</ref>|group="nb"}} Following its destruction, paratroopers of the [[German 1st Parachute Division]] then occupied the ruins of the abbey and turned it into a fortress and observation post, which became a serious problem for the attacking Allied forces.