Ortona: Canada's Epic World War II BattleA masterful retelling one of the major victories of Canadian troops over the German army’s elite division during WWII. In one blood-soaked, furious week of fighting, from December 20 to December 27, 1943, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division took the town of Ortona, Italy, from elite German paratroopers ordered to hold the medieval port town at all costs. Infantrymen serving in the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders, supported by tankers of the Three Rivers Regiment, moved from house to house in hand-to-hand combat amid heavy shelling and wrested the town from the grip of the fierce German defenders. Getting into Ortona had been a battle of its own. Ortona, the pearl of the Adriatic, stands on a promontory impregnable from three sides, with seacliffs on the north and east, and a deep ravine on the west. The Canadian infantrymen, drawn from virtually every corner of Canada, attacked from the south under the command of Major-General Chris Vokes, fighting across narrow gullies, mud-choked vineyards and olive groves, into the narrow streets of Ortona itself. When the vicious battle was over, 2605 Canadians were dead or wounded. But the town that had become known as "Little Stalingrad" was now in Allied hands. |
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1st Canadian Infantry 48th Highlanders advance antitank gun Archives of Canada artillery attack barrage battalion HQ battle Bayerlein Bert Hoffmeister building Canadian Armoured Canadian Infantry Brigade Canadian Infantry Division Captain Carleton and York Casa Berardi casualties commander Company Company’s counterattack December Department of National Directorate of History Dougan enemy fighting fire flank Forin front Galloway German Gully Hastings and Prince Hasty P’s headquarters Highlanders of Canada Ibid interview by author Lieutenant Colonel Loyal Edmonton Regiment machine guns Major Matthew Halton Moro River mortar National Archives National Defence officer Ortona Panzer Grenadiers paratroopers Patricia’s Canadian Light platoon position PPCLI Prince Edward Regiment Princess Patricia’s Canadian radio Regiment War Diary Richards rifle road Royal 22e Regiment Royal Canadian Regiment San Leonardo Sangro Seaforth Highlanders Sergeant shells Smith sniper soldiers tanks troops University of Victoria Van Doos Villa Rogatti Vokes West Novas wounded yards