The Battle of Ortona

The Battle Of Ortona During the invasion of Italy, Canadian soldiers improvised their way into the close combat textbooks, defeating a highly skilled, battle-hardened, well-equipped German enemy in horrifying house-to-house fighting, in an Italian city called Ortona. Despite the difficulty of an inner city campaign, against the odds, in the face of determined resistance by elite Nazi forces, they won the battle through bravery, initiative, and ingenuity. Around 1400 Canadian lives were lost in the terrible 8 day battle that took place December 20th – 27th, 1943. If it wasn’t for the brilliant new strategies devised by the Canadian soldiers, many more would have fallen, on both sides of the conflict, and the battle may have been lost.

The Canadian role in the invasion of Italy began on the night of the 5th of December. Canadian forces began an advance up the coast of Italy, crossing the Moro river and capturing Villa Rogatti, an Italian village, as well as a bridgehead near San Leonardo. By the 13th of December the Canadians had driven the Germans out of a gully to the south of Ortona, and on the 14th they suffered heavy casualties in the taking of Casa Berardi, a small farming village. They had driven the Germans into defensive positions in Ortona, and now had to capture what Canadian newscasters referred to as a “second Stalingrad” (the battle in which the German army had been defeated during their attack on Russia). Hitler was determined not to lose southern Italy, and ordered his troops to defend “every house and tree”. He sent in some of the most skilled units of the Wehrmacht, the German army, to defend against the Allied advance in Ortona. Interestingly enough, Wehrmacht is German for ‘defensive forces’, and the Nazi soldiers were excellent defenders, especially when provided with a location such as Ortona, a standard European city with narrow, winding streets, close buildings, and high towers to house their machine guns, anti-tank guns, and snipers.

And defend they did, fortifying the streets of the city, preparing for battle, determining defensive tactics, and turning their positions into terrifying strongholds. They had barricaded all of the streets into Ortona except for the main street that ran down the centre of the city. Along this street they had dug in heavily, bringing up Panzer tanks, many machine guns with excellent vantage points to cover the open areas and the doorways, and layering the buildings with bombs, machine gun nests, and defensive barriers from which they could hurl grenades and be protected from enemy fire. There were hundreds of casualties for both armies. In the tightly-packed streets and buildings, tank fire could kill scores of people with a well-aimed shot. German mines and explosives collapsed buildings as Canadians tried to enter, at one point killing an entire Canadian platoon, save for one soldier who survived in the rubble for 80 hours before he was found and pulled out alive. The booby-trapping went both ways, however.

The Canadians, in response to the terrible loss, wired a German-held building with explosives and blew out its foundations, bringing the building down on top of two German platoons, killing them all. The Canadians quickly realised that the traditional methods of building clearing were not going to work in such a heavily fortified environment. According to British training manuals, the correct way to take a building in a residential or commercial area was to enter on the ground floor, fight your way up to the top, secure the building, then exit the building and being again at the next ground floor. The Canadians discovered very soon how much life would be lost if they followed these guidelines. Grenades thrown down the stairs killed many soldiers, and getting between buildings was suicide under the withering fire of the German tanks and machine guns. The Canadians overcame these obstacles by inventing a key strategy known as mouse-holing, a tactic that saved many Canadian lives, and cost many more German ones. Mouse-holing was a unique tactic that gave the attacking soldiers a distinct advantage over their enemies. The new tactic caught the German defenders off guard and greatly decreased the effectiveness of their fortifications. Like most European cities of the day, the buildings were all connected in their outer walls, to save space. The Canadians took advantage of this by storming a building, taking its top floor, and then cutting their way through the wall into an adjacent building and capturing it from the top down. This gave them the ability to clear rooms below with grenades and explosives before they moved on to the next building. It also allowed them to avoid machine gun fire in the streets, and to capture their own fortified positions instead. There were still many places where soldiers on both sides were slaughtered in the streets where there were no obstacles, and cover fire was ineffective. Mouse-holing was not unstoppable, and was not always feasible, especially as the Germans caught on to what was happening. Fewer Canadians were killed than may have been, but there was still terrible loss of life, and many more people were horribly wounded, both physically and emotionally, and suffered for the rest of their lives.

With astounding creativity and bravery, Canadian soldiers earned their place as an Allied power during the invasion of Italy, along with the liberation of Nazi-held countries such as the Netherlands, France, and Belgium. Making use of brand-new tactics and strategies, the Canadians in Ortona gained victory in a terrible campaign, defeating some of the most potent German opposition available. Their valour and ingenuity played a key role in ousting the Nazi menace from Italy, and opening a major hole in Hitler’s defences. With the success of the invasion of Italy, the stage was set for the removal of the Nazi regime.

Bibliography:

The Battle of Ortona, Historical Writer - http://canvet.freeyellow.com/caw4.html

The Capture of Ortona, Juno Beach Centre - http://www.junobeach.org/e/2/can-eve-rod-ita-ort-e.htm

Return to Ortona, The National Online - http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/ortona/

Cost of Freedom, The Loyal Edmonton Regiment Museum - http://www.lermuseum.org/ler/cof/sacrifice/wwii/ortona.html