MONTE CASSINO, IMPREGNABLE CORE OF THE GERMAN DEFENSES, looming over the most savage battlefield in Italy, stands between the advancing Allies and their goal. Lieutenant Saville's Assault Engineers and their escort from the crack New Zealand 2nd Division are ordered to destroy a key position in the shadow of the Monastery. None of them can foresee the ferocity of the enemy's attempts to obstruct them. Cut off, forced to shelter behind the corpses of their comrades, they face the fanatical paratroops of the Hermann Goering Division. With the Paras, pitting his wits against Saville and staking his life on success, is Hauptmann Wolff, the engineer who designed the strongpoint. It is a struggle neither can afford to lose, because whoever holds the Fuehrer Emplacement controls the road to Rome?and the armies are poised for battle.