First Battle for Cassino, Italy.

The Allies had conceived a bold plan for an enveloping pincer movement against the German Winter Line in the area better known as the Gustav Line to open the routes to Rome, some 40 miles to the north along Highways 6 and 7. It would consist of a direct assault against the Gustav Line combined with a left-hook amphibious assault against Anzio, all performed by the US Fifth Army commanded by General Mark Clark. His US VI Corps would attack Anzio.

General Mark Clark began his advance against the Gustav Line in the Monte Cassino sector and launched the British X Corps, in blizzard conditions, towards the River Garigliano on 17 January 1944. The British soon established a bridgehead of some two miles depth but attempts to capture the high ground at Monte Maio failed and the attack then ground to a halt.

Further north, the main central thrust by the US II Corps was launched on 20 January against the River Rapido. Elements of the US 36th Division were unable to hold a bridgehead and after two days it fell back. The US 34th Division further north succeeded but were forced back having advanced to within several hundred metres of Monte Cassino. Further north again, the third corps in Clark's Army, the French Expeditionary Corps, which included the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division and the 2nd Morrocan Infantry Division, advanced but it too failed to achieve a breakthrough of the German's Gustav Line.

The offensive was abandoned on 11 February and was to be the first of four terrible battles for Monte Cassino.