MINT NEVER HINGED COMPLETE SHEET OF 20 - ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO OBTAIN THESE DAY IN COMPLETE SHEETS - DON´T MISS THE CHANCE TO OWN ONE.
In early 1944 a German stronghold, dug in at the ancient Benedictine monastery on top of Monte Cassino, had blocked the Allies´ advance toward Rome. The forces of several Allied countries had attempted since mid-January to capture the German fortress. For a fourth major assault, which would begin on 11 May 1944, Polish troops were rotated in. A Famous Polish Song arose: Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino (The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino). The song´s melody was composed during the night of 17–18 May 1944 by Alfred Schütz, a composer, actor and member of the Polish Soldiers´ Theater garrisoned at Campobasso in the shadow of Monte Cassino. Two opening stanzas were written at that time by Feliks Konarski, a poet and song-writer and soldier of the Polish II Corps commanded by Major General Władysław Anders. The third stanza would be written a few days later. The fourth and final stanza would be written a quarter-century later, in 1969, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the battle. That final stanza is the least known and is sometimes omitted. On 18 May 1944, the day following the song´s composition, the Poles stormed and captured the precincts of the Monte Cassino monastery. Later that day, the song was first performed at General Anders´ headquarters to celebrate the Polish victory. The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino won popularity with the troops and was soon published by a Polish-American newspaper in New York. It would later be published in Poland. It was banned, however, during the Stalinist period in the People´s Republic of Poland, when the government sought to minimize memory of the wartime Polish Armed Forces in the West.
Voir plus
