Although worn down by 220 days of uninterrupted combat, the 1st Div. Para, however, retained a high firepower, which was to prove itself when the second phase of the Battle of Cassino began on March 15.
During it, the Allies synthesized all their previous mistakes and returned to the classic hammering of the First World War. The results were exactly the same as in the Somme in 1916. The assault troops, who could not believe their eyes, found the surviving defenders still in position and with fires still just as effective.
On March 15, Heidrich's men suffered the most massive raid hitherto executed by the Allies in the Mediterranean:750 fighter-bombers, medium or heavy bombers dropped 1,250 tons of bombs over an area of approximately 1,650 by 550 meters; this aerial bombardment was followed by a second carried out by 746 cannons which launched nearly 200,000 shells. Only one company remained intact. of the 2nd Bn. of the 3rd Regt. Para to welcome the New Zealand attackers amid the rubble.
This time, however, the ruins of the monastery were no longer reached, and the summit remained in German hands.
The fight in the destroyed city was murderous:it was a fight of troglodytes among the cellars and the rickety walls. Obsessed with cleaning up the city, Freyberg continued to neglect Monte Cassino. After a week of fighting, most of what remained
of the city remained in Allied hands, but there was no longer any question of breaking through by road n° 6 which was well blocked. .
The German front was still intact; so, on the 22nd, Alexander ordered a new assault.
The paratroopers in line had suffered terribly. The companies were reduced to rubble and the meager reinforcements could only arrive at night. But despite losses reaching almost 50 percent (and more in the case of the 2nd Bn. of the 3rd Para. Regt.), the paratroopers not only held their ground, but put an end to the second edition of Cassino with a counterattack. -attack that gave them back control of Rocca Janula and the city of Cassino.
The second lull (March 23 - May 11) saw the failure of the Allied air offensive, Operation "Strangle", intended to prohibit, at both Cassino and Anzio, the redeployment and reinforcement of German troops. The 4th Regt. Para took over the sector of the city and the monastery of Cassino. As incredible as it may seem, Heidrich's division was reduced by a third of its effectives qt directed to France to form the r new units to be formed there. This left the Fe Div. Para with only skeletal battalions per battalion regiment no longer fielding an average of 200 to 300 men. But, in the d of the Atk artillery and the gne artillery, no change affected the firepower of the Div. who remained high