[Challenge] - The Siege of Monte Cassino

        Prompt: In 1944, over the course of 4 months, the Allies attempted to take the town of Cassino with its surrounding valleys in order to strike at Rome and dominate the Italian theater. The major landmark of this massive siege was the Monastery of Monte Cassino. 
        The Germans informed the Allied commanders that due to the historic significance of the monastery, they would not take up defensive positions within it. The validity of this declaration is questionable, but it is questioned by the victors, as is the way of war. 
        On the 15th of February, one month after the first salvos were fired, the Allies dropped 1,400 tons of bombs on the monastery, reducing it to rubble, which in a cruel twist was then used by the Germans as cover for artillery scouts. 
        The monastery was unoccupied, but I'd like to think about the kind of men that might have stayed [edit: further research revealed that 230 Italian civilians were occupying the ruins when they were bombed; no one survived]. This prompt is for a narrative piece, entitled "The Siege of Monte Cassino"

I. Czerwone Maki

It was a still sky on the morning
Of Feburary 15^th, 1944
So a man could see for miles
And Sierzant Sojka could see for hundreds
For hundreds, aye, for hundreds
From the glass of a B-17
He could see the red poppies, red poppies
Czerwone maki, czerwone maki
A hmm hmm A humm hmm hmm
And a whistle at the end

Write us a song, Sierzant!
From the glass of your B-17
Where you can see the Gustav Line
And the devils on the other side
The devils in the Monte Cassino

And the Sierzant felt the belly
Heavy with a thousand hulls
Of sleeping fire, fire, of sleeping fire
A hmm hmm A humm hmm hmm
Upward, upward he would take them
I poszli szaleni, zażarci
A hmm, a hmm, and a whistle and the end

For the thousands dead, Sierzant Sojka!
For the brothers and the cousins
While we can still see the bodies
Before the poppies, look!
Before the poppies drink their blood
For the red at the top of the hill
Czy widzisz, czy widzisz ten
Ahhh hummmm, hm hm hm
And a whistle for the dead

And the Sierzant heard the moaning
The rumbling and the rolling
He heard the engines groaning
He heard the airmen singing
Singing Czy widzisz te gruzy!
Te gruzy na szczycie!
Singing can you see the rubble
The rubble at the top
Sierzant Sojka would see the rubble
At the top of Monte Cassino
And he would teach the 228
Bombers who followed him
The song about red poppies
Czerwone maki
Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino
A hmm, hmmm, A humm hmm hmm
And the bomb bay doors opened
A thousand tons of sleeping fire fell to wake
With a whistle at the end

II. Giovinezza, Giovinezza

It was a still sky on the morning
Of Feburary 15^th, 1944
So a man could see for miles
And Lorenzo could see for a hundred
He could see the Liri valley
The men who came to take it
And the men who stayed to save it
The heroes built from ordinary men
The fatherland bricked from ordinary clay
Salve o popolo d'eroi
Salve o patria immortale
A brum da da daa, A brum da da
And a whistle at the end

Giovinezza, giovinezza!
A la da da!
Viene, Lorenzo! His mother called
For him to join the 230
Who had taken to Monte Cassino
Leave the dead, take the mountain
Watch the fire down below, down below
And sing over the keening of the shells
Il tuo canto squilla e va
Sing like the ringing of the bells
Sing, Lorenzo, a brum da da daa
A la daa, da laaa da da
With a whistle at the end

Quiet abbots and crying men
Pray for the war of today
Per la guerra 
La guerra di domani
And watch their houses burn below
While they are safe, ah, safe
In the heart of the monastery
They pray for peace 
Per la pace e per l'alloro
And for the victory
A brum da daa, they sing beneath the prayer
A la daa, da laaa da da
With a whistle they repent

Lorenzo and his mother and
The 228 stood on sanctified
On sacrosanct
On hallowed, holy, and redeemed
(On blessed!) ground
And they outnumbered the bombers
By one
Con la fede, certo!
La fede!
Faith and promises
La vision, la vision del l'Alighieri
A brum da da daa, A brum da da
A la, a da, a daa brum da daa
And he saw 229 devils
Vomit from their iron mouths
A thousand tons of sleeping fire
With a whistle at the end

III. Westerwaldlied

It was a still sky on the morning
Of Feburary 15^th, 1944
So a man could see for miles

But Leutnant Brandt could just see the abbey

And hills and trenches and barbed wire

And he'd rather march

Heute wollen wir marschier'n
A zhaa rum dum, a zhaa-aa rum
But he was told to stay,
Hold the Gustav Line,
Rally the troops,
And whistle with the men.

And he'd whistle with the troops

Though the Fatherland's back

Was breaking in France

Though a hundred thousand men

Were being swallowed by Italian mud

Though his men were given orders

Not to refuge in the abbey.

Monte Cassino is a holy place

Said the general

Though we men fight and die

Let the mountain have its crown

Über deine höhen, deine höhen
Pfeift der wind so kalt
A zhaa zhaa zhaa, a zhaa-aa rum

They gave their word
To let the abbey lie
Hold the houses, dig the trenches
Shell the mortared walls
But let Monte Cassino stand
And their petty struggle pass it by
Echte menschen der natur
Von falschheit keine spur (keine spur!)

A zhaa rum dum, a zhaa rum a zhaa

And so Leutnant Brandt

Saw the abbey in the morning

And whistled to his men

Before he heard the moaning

The rumbling and the groaning

Before the bomb bay doors opened

Before the devils with their iron mouths

Before the lies that left the teeth of men

Spat a thousand tons of sleeping fire

Jedoch der kleinste sonnenschein
Dringt tief ins herz hinein

A zhaa rum, a zhaa

A zhaa-aa, rum a zhaa-aa-aa

And their waking,

Like sunshine

Fell towards the mountain's heart

Towards the abbey

With a whistle at the end