San Pietro & Cassino Project
A WWII conflict archaeology investigation


Season two plans
Second season information - Sept 2021 / Spring 2022
A detailed itinerary will be given to participants before the season commences.
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Actions/Dates, Places, and Military Units to be researched during second season
During our second field season, we will be concentrating on the events related to the Battles of San Pietro Infine and the immediate surroundings thereof, building on all the discoveries of season one.

Principal Action/Date
Battles of San Pietro (part of wider Battle of Mignano Gap),  December 1943
A detailed itinerary will be given to participants before the season commences.

Places
Monte Lungo and defensive sangars and a bunker
Monte Rotondo
​Audie Murphy, Ernie Pyle and Henry T Waskow action sites
Hill 193
‘Death Valley’ and Highway 6 (between Monte Lungo and Monte Sammucro)
Monte Sammucro (especially south-eastern slopes and Ceppagna/San Pietro road)
San Pietro Infine and the MLR (Main Line of Resistance)

Units
American
2nd and 3rd Battalions, 141st Infantry Regiment
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, 142nd Infantry Regiment
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, 143rd Infantry Regiment
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment
3rd Battalion, US Rangers
A Company, 753rd Tank Battalion

Italian
1st Italian Motorised Group

German
15th Panzer Grenadier Division (two battalions)
71st Panzer Grenadier Division (one battalion)

Main targets for further work/investigation in season 2

• ​The summit of Monte Sammucro. This site was recced by a team in season one, and is rich in artefacts and defensive features. It also has the site where Henry T. Waskow, was killed, memorialised by Ernie Pyle's dispatch "The Death of Captain Waskow.". We will be working here to survey and record the significant landscape features.

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• The village of San Pietro Infine, where we will continue the recording of the buildings and land areas identified from the cadastral map of the village, further identifying the locations, extent and type of the militarisation undertaken by German forces.  We hope to also clear and investigate a village street which has been back-filled since WWII.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The German main line of resistance to the south east of the village of San Pietro Infine, and in particular further excavation of a pill box on the MLR.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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• Monte Lungo. Here the work will include further examination of the sangar features at the south western end, and the commencement of a new investigation of a military bunker on the slopes in the centre of the mountain.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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• Monte Rotundo. Investigation of features associated with a specific action near the original line of Highway 6, and also an attempt to locate and record one of the main filming positions used by John Huston in the making of his iconic documentary of the Battle for San Pietro. 
  
  
  
  

This is a provisional list only. Archaeological fieldwork is necessarily driven by a range of logistical and site-dependent variables, so changes to the targets are possible. ​

Daily Timetable
from 7.00 breakfast in hotel
9.00: depart hotel for estimated 9.15 arrival on-site
9.15-11.00: first work session
11.00-11.30: morning tea/coffee break
11.30-1.30: second work session
1.30-2.15: lunch break
2.15-4.30: third work session
4.30: cease work for estimated 5.15 return to hotel
5.15-6.30: R&R
6.30-8.00: optional evening activities*
8.00: dinner in hotel

*Optional evening activities will include: lectures, seminars/discussions, handling sessions, film showings, finds processing, and data-entry. ​

Recruiting Now for 2021/2 
Click here to provisionally reserve a place ​