The Loyal Edmontons entered the operation well below strength. Reinforcing drafts were on their way forward but it is perhaps fortunate that most of them did not arrive until the battle was virtually over. Ortona was no place for new [...]
“Ortona, approachable only from the south-west, was admirably suited for defence. Through it passed the main coast road to the North, and the longer the town could be retained by the enemy, the longer would he delay Eighth Army’s arrival [...]
The Royal Canadian Regiment had been reduced to a stregnth of 159 riflemen and 19 officers. Despite this, Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Spry was determined to continue the advance because he believed that battalion morale would suffer if they failed to gain [...]
The first day of the set-piece attack by 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade involved both brilliant success and costly failure. The 48th reached their objective with light casualties. A troop of Three Rivers tanks ignored the threat of mines and “walked [...]
“…we are astride the lateral road on our left flank and command a ridge overlooking Ortona, which lies two miles beyond. But the enemy still occupies the town and holds a number of heavily defended draws and fortified houses which [...]
The decision to give 1st Canadian Division 48 hours of rest before launching a new attempt to secure the “Cider” crossroads allowed the enemy to replace its worn out units with fresh paratroop battalions. There was, however, no choice. Both [...]
The Canadians have now made seven separate attempts to capture “Cider,” the crossroads where Old Highway 16 meets the lateral Ortona-Orsogna road. Casualties to both 1st Canadian Division and 90th Grenadier Division have been heavy with a growing number of [...]
Captain Paul Triquet and his small force from the Van Doos face a desperate situation. Triquet declares: “There are enemy in front of us, behind us, and on our flanks… There is only one safe place – that’s on the [...]
The PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti-Tank) was the only portable anti-tank weapon available to the British and Canadian infantry. It was notoriously unreliable but with luck, at short ranges it could prove effective. On 14 December a German Mk IV special [...]
From the Canadian perspective the attempt to cross the Gully and seize the “Cider” crossroads were a series of costly failures that led everyone to question the value of repeated battalion-level attacks on a determined enemy holding exceptionally strong defensive [...]
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