Poles kicked some major butt up and down the Italian Peninsula...when the Allies bothered to remember they were there and let them in on a fight. US and GB were so busy trying to be the first to do ____ that they often kept their smaller allies on a back burner, low heat. When we (Allies) finally broke the Gustav/Hitler lines, IIRC it was the Poles who pushed farther than anybody had a right to expect, from an unexpected direction, and decimated the German/Italian forces in front of them. The US/GB tended to get bogged down in battles for "strategic" objectives. Monte Cassino...that was just a hell mountain for everybody involved.