Commemorative Medal for the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino, 1944-1994. British and Commonwealth veterans of the battle of Monte Cassino gathered on Sunday (May 15, 1994) to pay tribute to fallen comrades on the 50th anniversary of one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War Two. More than 1,000 old soldiers, their chests proud with the medals of battle, stood in silent homage to the thousands more who gave their lives in a four-month struggle in 1944 to push German troops from the crest of the towering mountain in southern Italy. Many saluted and others shed tears as buglers sounded the last post and three volleys of gunfire rang out, breaking the silence among the sunlit rows of low white gravestones. They mark where 4,265 young soldiers from Britain and the Commonwealth lie buried. Sunday's service started a week of commemorations at Cassino, 130 km (85 miles) south of Rome, to mark the 50th anniversary of allied victory in the battle to take the mountain. Monte Cassino, its peak the site of a Benedictine abbey founded in the sixth century, formed the strongpoint of the German defensive Gustav Line that protected the southern approaches to Rome from the allied advance. The fall of Monte Cassino enabled the Allied advance on Rome, which fell on 4 June 4, 1944. The name of Monte Cassino became a byword for Polish military bravery.