This book, published for the first time in 1945, was well-received by critics. Eugeniusz Lukas, in the Swiss-published Horyzonty, appreciated the talent of Gliwa and his collaborators, ‘who, by arranging photographs and photomontages and supplementing them with interesting drawings, sketches and diagrams, were able to create a fascinating whole. The text by M. Wańkowicz played second fiddle in the book’. Gustaw Herling-Grudziński was of a similar opinion:
The fourth secret of the value of ‘The Battle of Monte Cassino’ can, fortunately, be mentioned by name: [...] Gliwa. The vigilant care of this graphic artist makes him actually the co-author of Wańkowicz's book.
In total, the book comprises of 1,968 illustrations. Gliwa was tasked with obtaining photographs from French, English, American and Polish press papers, amongst others. In a conversation with Maja Elżbieta Cybulska, he recalled:
I selected the photographs, except that they had to be absolutely accurate. So many Polish soldiers took part in the battle that it was impossible to fool them. Not this hill, but that one... They knew every bush. Wańkowicz insisted on absolute faithfulness to the facts.
The artist could not wait for the premiere of the first volume, so he went to the printing house in Milan, from where he took a copy without the title page and the printing certificate. The still uncut publication is now in the graphic artist’s collection, stored in the Municipal Library in Toruń. Three drawings depicting a chess game between Wańkowicz and Gliwa can also be found there.
In 1947, the artist was given another challenge: he was entrusted with designing the cover, vignette and typography of the Kultura monthly and the logotype of the Literary Institute. Although Jerzy Giedroyc rejected Gliwa’s graphic concept after the first issue of the magazine, the characteristic Ionic column remained the hallmark of the émigré magazine to the end.