How true is it, that after the Battle of Monte Cassino in WW2, the French Army gave their colonial troops free reign for 48 hours to do as they wish without punishment, resulting in thousands of rapes and murders in Central Italy?

I've distanced myself from this because I haven't found a source for the years I've known about it that doesn't seem to use it either as a political tool or neutral sources just wishing to citing those pieces as fact. Even then, any sources are usually in either French or Italian and I'd find it difficult to believe that every 6 Facts You Didn't Know site spoke the languages and poured over the references.

I have not seen one single primary source that corroborates the idea that the Goumiers committed atrocities on any particularly larger scale than any units, and especially nothing that makes the "free reign" claim anything other than nonsense. Can you imagine the logistics of an order coming down like that? A high-ranking French general must ascertain that a specific cultural unit must have completed all objectives and and have superiors in Allied Command sign off on some "reward" for this one specific cultural unit that they're just allowed to commit atrocities with impunity. Then the order must be passed down with any paper documentation to the Corps, divisional, regimental, batallion, company and so forth level that all soldiers are allowed to commit heinous crimes for 48 hours. All done word of mouth and enough to reach something like ten thousand men who would all almost 100% have had to take part in the crimes. None of them have to be at their post guarding, patrolling, laboring, or anything else. No Allied whistleblowers. No acts reported like this in any theatres. No corroborating military documents saying the French hired Berber women to follow Goum units and satiate the soldiers. It really cracks under any scrutiny.

Axis news sources unsurprisingly tended to run hard and fast with the truth when politically convenient to the point where you'll see individual SS tankers killing dozens of tanks in battles where there was no enemy armor stationed or myths that Polish cavalry charged headlong into armor. As anyone would know, it's hard to dispute such claims without primary sources (like after-action reports or official documentation on either side). Claims like this are especially hard when the sources have no information pertaining to an event that may not have happened or is vastly exaggerated. The only English source I've seen is from a book by Edward L. Bimberg written in the '90s and he doesn't provide any sources, doesn't mention these events in any other books he wrote on the Goums and even mentioned he thought of them as "tribal savages" in his memoirs.

You did scrutinize and not immediately take a side, which is commendable. The best you can do for things like this is to always demand primary sources, numbers, documentation, etc. because *nothing* like this at the time it happened would only have Axis political news or rhetoric from a mayor of a fascist state as the only possible source of information. I'm not saying I take a side in this. Maybe it happened and was exaggerated, maybe it didn't, but I wouldn't make a decision until I get some hard evidence.

I'm not really terribly happy with my answer and if anything can be 100% gleaned from it, it's to just be careful.