WWII Battle of Monte Cassino - Green devils June 2017

The Battle of Monte Cassino was a series of assaults performed by the Allies against German forces during the Italian campaign of ww2. 
This battle is sadly famous (for us Italians) for the non-sense Allies HQ's decision to drop 1,400 tons of bombs on the monastery of Cassino that controlled the key valley of the Liri.
The destruction of Benedict of Nursia's monastery was the turning point of the battle. On February, 15 1944, after the failure of Allies raid, German paratroopers occupied the rubble and established excellent defensive positions amid the ruins.

This is an image of the battlefield days after the Allies victory publiched by LIFE (May 1944) 

 The German paratroopers unit that was involved in the battle was the 1st Parachute Division. They fought against Allies during Sicily invasion and later in the defense of the Winter line at  south of Rome. 
I decided to paint them using a mix of camo and not-camo uniforms. Below some historical images. The second-one is a photo taken in July 1943 (Sicily).

and some of my miniatures in action

Following Ezio's tip I decided to insert in this post historical photo and imagines of my figures

The photo below shows a real fallschirmjäger scanning the landascape on Monte Cassino. In the second photo I imagined the same fallschirmjäger after perfor his duty speaking with his comrades.

I painted also a doctor. Unfortunately the only historical colorized photo I found was taken in Normandy and the German doctor is not a fallschirmjäger but it is sufficient to justified  the colors I used

After the Allied bombardment the struggle was fought between ruins. Below some imagines

At the end other two photos of my miniatures. In the first-one in foreground a young lieutenant and in the second-one a group of soldier that are taking a new position with the effect of artillery in background

The last two imagines are a copy of the original alert to Italian population that threatened the bombardment and the first page of The New York Times that announced the American victory at Monte Cassino

Copyright The New York Times