This map, created by joining sections of two topographic maps, one for the Cassino area of Italy, the other for the Isernia area, creates a single focus for military activities of the Allied Forces soon after the invasion of Italy began on 9 September 1943 with the landing of American troops at Salerno, and just before the battle of Monte Cassino, fought in four major engagements from 12 Jan-19 May 1944. The taking of the monastery of Monte Cassino, which punctuated the line of German fortifications called the Gustav Line, was finally accomplished after bitter fighting by American, French, Canadian, British, and perhaps, most memorably, Polish forces who are credited with finally taking the rubbled monastery itself at very great cost. Although the owner of the map is not identified, the inscriptions of observations of various military actions, labeled by time and oriented to the military grid on the map, primarily of the Isernia area, attest to heavy fighting southwest of the town of S. Pietro Infine, much apparently centered on the town of Mignano. This Mignano Gap area was taken by American forces in mid-December 1943, but represented only a step in the arduous push northward toward breaking the Gustav Line by crossing the Rapido River and taking Monte Cassino .
From the guide to the Inventory of World War II Map of Italy : Sheet 160 Cassino and Sheet 161 Isernia Ragan MSS 00114., ca. 1943, (Cushing Memorial Library, )
