Editing Battle of Monte Cassino (section)

===Aftermath===
On 11 February, after a final unsuccessful 3-day assault on Monastery Hill and Cassino town, the Americans were withdrawn. U.S. II Corps, after two and a half weeks of battle, was worn out. The performance of the 34th Division in the mountains is considered to rank as one of the finest feats of arms carried out by any soldiers during the war.<ref>{{harvnb|Majdalany|1957|p=87}}</ref> In return they sustained losses of about 80 per cent in the Infantry battalions, some 2,200 casualties.<ref name="Majdalany, p. 91"/>

At the height of the battle in the first days of February von Senger und Etterlin had moved the 90th Division from the Garigliano front to the north of Cassino and had been so alarmed at the rate of attrition, he had "mustered all the weight of my authority to request that the Battle of Cassino should be broken off and that we should occupy a quite new line.&nbsp;... a position, in fact, north of the Anzio bridgehead".<ref>E.D. Smith, p. 69.</ref> Kesselring refused the request. At the crucial moment von Senger was able to throw in the [[71st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)|71st Infantry Division]] whilst leaving the 15th Panzergrenadier Division (whom they had been due to relieve) in place.

During the battle, there had been occasions when with more astute use of reserves, promising positions might have been turned into decisive moves. Some historians{{who|date=December 2018}} suggest this failure to capitalise on initial success could be put down to Clark's lack of experience. However, it is more likely that he just had too much to do, being responsible for both the Cassino and Anzio offensives. This view is supported by the inability of Major General [[Lucian Truscott]], commanding the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, as related below, to get hold of him for discussions at a vital juncture of the Anzio breakout at the time of the fourth Cassino battle. Whilst General Alexander, C-in-C of the AAI, chose (for perfectly logical co-ordination arguments) to have Cassino and Anzio under a single army commander and splitting the Gustav Line front between the U.S. Fifth Army and the British Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant General [[Oliver Leese|Sir Oliver Leese]], Kesselring chose to create a separate [[14th Army (Wehrmacht)|14th Army]] under General [[Eberhard von Mackensen]] to fight at Anzio whilst leaving the Gustav Line in the sole hands of General [[Heinrich von Vietinghoff]]'s [[10th Army (Wehrmacht)|10th Army]].

The withdrawn American units were replaced by the newly formed New Zealand Corps ([[2nd New Zealand Division|2nd New Zealand]] and [[4th Infantry Division (India)|4th Indian Divisions]]), commanded by Lieutenant General [[Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg|Sir Bernard Freyberg]], from the Eighth Army on the Adriatic front.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=General Francis Tuker and the Bombing of Monte Cassino – James Holland's Griffon Merlin |url=https://griffonmerlin.com/2008/08/05/general-francis-tuker-and-the-bombing-of-monte-cassino/ |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=griffonmerlin.com}}</ref>