Canadians played a major role in the battle of Ortona; this was one of the biggest battles for Canadians in the Italian campaign. Canadians were the major fighting force in the battle. They used a technique called mouse holing, which involved breaching wall of building and since many houses in Ortona shared adjoin walls. The tactic would be used repeatedly as assaulting through the streets resulted heavy casualties on both Canadian and German’s. Canada lost 1375 during all of the fighting.  After 6 days of fighting, the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry joined with tanks from the 1st Canadian Armored Brigade’s Three Rivers Regiment. 

“Mouse Holing” Tactic Through Lego: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickdm/3827957132/in/photostream/ 

The main battle:

·         Canadian soldiers and tanks were ordered to take the city or Ortona, due to its harbours

·         In the town itself, the Germans had placed various barricades and left rubble strewn throughout the narrow side streets surrounding the Piazza Municipal. The only available route for the Canadian tank brigades was through the CorsoVittorio Emmanuelle 

·         Along the route the Germans had concealed anti-tank artillery and machine gun emplacements throughout the town.

·         Seeing that it was too dangerous the Canadians began the task of “mouse holing”

o   This process involved breaching and clearing each building individually

o   This tactic involved using weapons such as the PIAT (or even cumbersome anti-tank guns) to breach the walls of a building, as houses within Ortona shared adjoining walls. The soldiers would then throw in grenades and assault through the mouse holes, clearing the top floors and making their way down, where both adversaries struggled in repeated close-quarters combat.

Who was involved?

·         The Canadian 2nd Brigade’s Royal Edmonton Regiment Seaforth highlanders of Canada

·         And the German 1^st parachute division

Canada’s Contribution:

·         Did all the work to take Ortona 

*The Battle of Ortona was a small but very significant battle with major Canadian involvement in the War.

*Ortona is an ancient Italian harbour city, dating back to first being a major port for the Romans about 2000 years ago.

*The battle was part of the Italian campaign, to take control of the Italian continent. Canadians put up a fierce fight against the Italian troops but fought the German defensive lines at Ortona.

*Canadian fought a long and bloody war in the streets of the ancient Italian city, crushing the one of Germany’s toughest infantry, and finally managed to force the Germans to deplete after just over a week.

-Battle lasted for 8 days, December 20-28^th 1943

*Canadian casualties measured somewhere around 1,375 dead during the war and inside Ortona near the end of the battle.

-Almost a quarter of Canadians had lost their lives during Battle of Ortona in the Italian Campaign.

*Ortona was a key battle in terms of building a strong reputation, and proving to the allies the courage of the Canadians as it was mentioned to be the first, if not, one of the earliest clear victory for the Canadian army.

Ortona was of high strategic importance, as it was one of Italy’s only usable deep water ports on the east coast.

*With the capture of Ortona the allies could have had access to dock allied ships so they could quickly deliver line of supplies and more support if needed at Bari and Taranto which were under their control. Allied forces had maintained a strong offensive assault, going through the built up areas in and around Ortona to finally capturing the port.

*Unfortunately, the Germans had already known of the importance of the dock, thus they created  the Winter Line defense system.

- A series of skillfully designed interlocking defensive positions in the town.

* The Axis could not have afforded to lose access to Ortona. Adolf Hitler ordered the Germans to “fight for every last house and tree”, thus the Germans and Italians had fought to their very last breath in a bloody battle against the allies, primarily Canadian forces.  

*The Italian defeat at Ortona would be a devastating blow for Mussolini, as he had now lost both Sicily, southern Italy, and the East Coast. The exhausted Italian and German forces would prepare to fight for a last effort against the Americans at Operation Shingle. Slowly falling apart by losing against weaker allied forces such like Poland, and with the capture of Rome. Ultimately, Italy would submit and ask for truce against the Allies.

Italian Fascist Propaganda before the turning point of the Mediterranean Theater and Italy’s defeat