On January 24, after a week of fighting, Clark could only claim a narrow bridgehead on the Garigliano, in the coastal sector, and a bloody failure on the Rapido.
He launched in the third attack the French colonial troops, of General Alphonse Juin, supported by all the units available in the sector - American, British, New Zealand and Indian.
Opposite, on the heights north of Cassino, was the 44th Hoch-und-Deutschmeister Div. d'Inf., of Lieutenant General Friedrich Franck, who had suffered a lot during the preliminary battles.
After ten days of relentless struggle, the 44th Div. began to give way, the American advance elements reached the heights overlooking the Lin and prepared to attack the last two obstacles:height 593 (Cavalry Hill) and Monte Cassino itself.
So tightly squeezed, the town of Cassino now stood at the tip of a dangerous salient, on the edge of a deep gash created in the "Gustav Line" north of - and dangerously close to - Highway No. 6. /P>
On February 5 it looked like the Allies were on the verge of a landslide victory.