GPMG,
How many casualties were suffered prior to the bombing? What was the reason bombing was tried?
Please note the wee difference between a few mud huts and Monte Cassino before making that comparison.
Bombing precision and tactics from WWII and today are quite different are they not?
Just to clear the air about misconeptions about the bombing.....it was requested by Brigadier General H.W. Dimolene, Commander of the 4th Indian Division and ordered by General Sir Harold Alexander.
The US 34th Infantry Division Commander, whose troops had made it to the top of the hill before being pushed off the hill by the German defenders told Alexander the German gunfire did not come from the Monastery but rather from the hill below the building.
The ground forces were not informed of the bombing attack prior to the bombing thus were not prepared to coordinate the ground attack after the immediately after the bombing. That allowed the German defenders to recover from the bombing before the ground attack began anew.
The US forces making the initial attack on the Monte Cassino defences lost 2100 men in 48 hours of fighting and the 34th division that followed up in the next few days took 80% casualties during their attack which got them to the top but then had to withdraw.
British troops then took up the attack and suffered casualties.....all before the bombing.
There are lessons to be learned from all that.