http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3486805.stmTomasz Skrzynski was a 20-year-old cadet in the Battle of Monte Cassino, in which Polish forces played one of their most prominent roles in World War II.
It was they who finally walked into the ruins of the monastery on 18 May, once the remaining Germany soldiers there had surrendered.
Mr Skrzynski, a member of the Carpathian lancers, was in the uplands above the monastery.
Like other Polish soldiers he had been fighting at close quarters to gain control of a hilltop or a mountain hut, sometimes spending days in a foxhole.
At one point, Polish troops who had run out of ammunition, and were cut off from their supplies, even resorted to throwing stones.
"The shelling continued day and night, there was no such thing as silence," he says.
"Once I was ordered to count the shells falling nearby, but after two hours or so it was above 500 and I lost count."
/Marcus
