Monte Cassino - 60 Years On

For me it was a disastrous battle from go to woe. How to explain the monastery? It became, not a monster, but a hypnotic attraction really. It embodied everything in evil: waiting, watching, glowering down from that sheer hill.

– NZ 19th Armoured Regiment soldier Brick Lorimer

Danger lurked all the time, especially in close quarter contact like that there. You couldn't relax for a minute...you didn't know what was going to happen next.

– NZ 19th Armoured Regiment soldier Brick Lorimer

The result is thousands of our people are lying here. This is shell shrapnel, that killed a lot of our people. It happened right here. The place might be full of it. I want to take this home.

– Stewart Black finds a relic in an Italian field

It was a terrible time in the lives of thousands of young men. We're not actually built for that sort of treatment you know?

– NZ 19th Armoured Regiment soldier Brick Lorimer

There are so many terrible horrors that we witnessed – it's unbelievable … We are all guilty for the things we did in Cassino.

– Stewart Black