lafeber

На подступах к Риму, на перевалах, ведущих в долины Лири и Рапидо, в начале 1944 немцы организовали оборонительную линию "Густав". На вершине одного холма располагалось древнее здание местного аббатства, которое имело статус "зоны культурного и исторического наследия". Немцы не заняли территорию аббатства. Точный артиллерийский обстрел немцами наступающих групп союзников заставил союзное командование предположить, что в аббатстве находились немецкие корректировщики, после чего было принято решение разбомбить здания аббатства авианалетом, что и было сделано. Аббатство было разрушено, но военный успех не последовал. Союзники торчали там еще 4 месяца.

Эти действия американских ВВС напоминают действия спецназа ФСБ в Беслане. Никаких ювелирных манипуляций и хирургических стежков. Только грубая сила несоизмеримой мощи. В расчет берутся только соображения военной целесообразности. Невоенные (гражданские) соображения полностью отметаются. Гражданские объекты полностью теряют свой защитный гуманитарный статус.

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From:

tijd

В январе-феврале 1944 в попытке штурма Монтекассино американская 34ая пехотная дивизия потеряла 80% личного состава и вынуждена была отступить. Линию Густава взломали в мае-июне 1944 интернациональными силами с участием французов, поляков и канадцев. К этому времени наступление на Рим приобрело стратегическое значение, потому что оттягивало немецкие силы во время высадки союзников в Нормандии.

Впечатляющая кинохроника из февраля 1944, как аббатство сравнивают с землей: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kM00KDFhsV4

В военном отношении эта операция была провальной ещё и потому, что немцы немедленно заняли территорию холма после бомбежки.

Some of the Allied generals believed that even if the Germans were not already using the high ground at the monastery grounds, all efforts should be expended to prevent the Germans from doing so. On 11 Feb, Brigadier Harry Dimoline, acting commanding officer of Indian 4th Division, requested aerial bombing of the monastery, which was passed on by Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg to the air forces. The bombing was approved and conducted on 15 Feb, with 229 US heavy and medium bombers dropping 1,150 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs, demolishing nearly all structures; the aerial bombing was augmented by artillery shelling as well. On the following day, while artillery shelling continued, 59 fighter-bombers attempted to destroy whatever remained standing. Point 593, the German strongpoint beneath the abbey that the Allies attacked but failed to take in early Feb, was nearly untouched by the attacks. Interestingly, the Allies failed to immediately launch a major ground assault immediately after the bombing (though a company of 1st Battalion of British Royal Sussex Regiment of Indian 4th Division did indeed attack Point 593, failing to take it). With the Monte Cassino monastery in ruins and thus no longer of cultural and historical value, troops of German 1st Parachute Division moved in and precisely used it as an observation post as Allied leadership had feared.
https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=312

В марте-мае 1944 массированная бомбардировка в Италии проводилась в рамках доктрины Interdiction (в русской военной терминологии - «Изоляция района боевых действий»). Хотя эта бомбардировка не помешала снабжению немецких войск, у которых на тот момент хватало припасов, она сильно ограничила их тактическую маневренность и тем самым помешала залатывать бреши в линии обороны.

M.A.A.F. succeeded in crippling the enemy's means of road transport in the critical forward area through the destruction of bridges, roads, and vehicles, and by creating road blocks and choke points in places where rerouting was difficult or impossible. Though the enemy's road mobility was severely impaired by these attacks, they did not produce the desired effect on the supply situation of the German frontline troops whose stocks of ammunition and even fuel, though depleted, never fell to a critical level.
The attacks did, however, achieve another result which, by the enemy's own testimony, contributed more than any other single factor to his defeat. The reduction and occasional paralysis of his freedom of movement in the combat area made it increasingly difficult for the field commanders to strengthen weak positions or seal off an Allied breakthrough by rushing reinforcements quickly from one sector of the thinly held line to another. Since the Germans had no tactical reserves behind the front, there was no other way of shoring up a threatened position. The strategic reserve divisions held in the north were not intended for this use, and when they were finally released to the front their movement was so delayed and hampered by Allied air attacks that they arrived too late and too disorganized to stem the tide. Tactical mobility was essential to the German combat tactics, and its denial dealt them a crucial blow.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA596075.pdf

From:

lafeber

Меня в этом эпизоде поразило то, что немцы уважили исторический (культурный) статус аббатства и не ввели его в военный оборот первыми. Англоязычная Вики подчеркивает этот факт. Такой официальный статус, наверно, был выписан Лигой Наций. Типа как предтеча "Юнеско".

From:

tijd

Аббатство действующее, соглашение не трогать его у немцев было с Ватиканом.

Как выяснилось, решение разбомбить аббатство принималось из-за ошибки полковника британской разведки в расшифровке перехваченного сообщения:

The world's most glorious monastery, at Monte Cassino in Italy, was destroyed during the second world war because of a mistake by a British junior officer, according to new evidence in a book due out this week.
The officer - translating an intercepted radio message - mistook the German word for abbot for a similar word meaning battalion. His version convinced his superiors this meant a German military unit was using the monastery as its command post, in breach of a Vatican agreement which treated it as neutral.
Allied generals ordered a huge bombing attack. Only when the planes were in the air did a British intelligence officer, Colonel David Hunt, recheck the full radio intercept. He found that what it actually said was: "The abbot is with the monks in the monastery". <…>
Col Hunt - Alexander's personal intelligence officer - later became Sir David Hunt, diplomat, author and private secretary to the post-war prime ministers Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill.
In February 1944, when Monte Cassino was bombed, he was general staff officer in charge of intelligence in a unit with Sir Rupert. German strongpoints in the mountains around Cassino were imperilling the allied advance towards Rome.
Fighting in conditions almost as severe as the trenches of the first world war, allied units on exposed slopes were under heavy artillery fire which they were convinced was being directed by spotters in the 1,600ft high monastery. But Sir Rupert's book says Hunt told him after the war that the monastery was not occupied by the German parachutists who were holding the Cassino feature.
"However, a radio intercept of the German command net reported that a parachute commander had been heard to ask 'Ist Abt in Kloster?' and was answered, 'Ja in Kloster mit Monchen'.
"The intelligence officer who received the intercept only recorded the answer 'Yes from the enemy'. The translation then produced was 'Is the HQ in the abbey?' - the word 'abt' being taken as an abbreviation for 'Abteilung' (a battalion) rather than abbot. It was only when Col Hunt questioned the translation and the whole intercept that it transpired that the correct reply to the question was, in fact, 'Ja, Abt is mit Monchem in Kloster'. ie: 'Yes. The abbot is with the monks in the monastery'."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/apr/04/johnezard

Что касается международных договоров, то до войны существовал Пакт Рериха, но европейские страны его не успели подписать https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roerich_Pact
После войны (в 1954) его сменила Гаагская конвенция о защите культурных ценностей в случае вооружённого конфликта.

В июне 1943 Рузвельт создаёт комиссию по охране памятников европейской культуры во главе с судьей Верховного суда Робертсом. История освещается и перевирается в голливудском фильме “The Monuments Men” http://www.nww2m.com/2013/08/robertscommission/

В декабре 1943 Эйзенхауэр выпускает приказ об охране памятников культурного наследия, в котором, однако. оговаривается, что спасение жизней людей важнее.

“If we have to choose between destroying a famous building and sacrificing our own men, then our men’s lives count infinitely more and the building must go. But the choice is not always so clear-cut as that. In many cases the monuments can be spared without any detriment to operational needs.”
https://uscbs.org/world-war-ii---monuments-men.html

В аналогичном приказе в мае 1944 Эйзенхауэр прямо ссылается на случай Монтекассино, как исключение из правила:

“In some circumstances the success of the military operation may be prejudiced in our reluctance to destroy these revered objects. Then, as at Cassino, where the enemy relied on our emotional attachments to shield his defense, the lives of our men are paramount. So, when military necessity dictates, commanders may order the required action even though it involves destruction of some honored site.
But there are many circumstances in which damage and destruction are not necessary and cannot be justified. In such cases, through the exercise of restraint and discipline, commanders will preserve centers and objects of historical and cultural significance.”