The battle of ortona
I will tell about the battle of Ortona, I can not tell you about the whole thing because most of the fight fell to the Edmonton’s and the Seaforths, Those boy’s had the awful job of trying to squirrel the enemy out of the town. The Patricia’s didn’t enter Ortona until the fighting was pretty well over, all of the hard fighting anyway. We held routes and such, I suppose in case the enemy tried to flank the whole bunch of us, But I can tell you from runs I made with the officers from command, who I went up with has part of a support unit to take ammunition and supplies to the town, we would go up in the evening to re-supply the units fighting in the town and the CO’s would recon the battle. So in all has far has the battle of Ortona goes, I myself had it pretty good, I got to ride for a change and I got to watch the men of the Eddie’s and the seaforths fight for the town of Ortona. Although it wasn’t like sitting watching something that you were enjoying, Most of these guy’s I had broken bread with, and been with for a couple of years, they had become like family, And you couldn’t help but worry for them. But at the same time you also couldn’t help but take pride in them, their being fellow Canadian’s and taking on one of the best German paratroop divisions.
The Germans bombed and strafed us a few times on the road to Ortona, they were trying to hit a bridge on a road leading to the town, And generally just trying to harass us, But that bridge is probably still standing, although the rotten SOB’s managed to kill Percy, a kid from my home town and a few of the other unlucky boy’s. Unlucky! That’s how we looked at it when one of the guys’s got it, because really that’s all it is, Luck! In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time! That’s what we use to say. The difference between coming home and being a hero or spending eternity in a far away place. Seconds! Half seconds! Your enemy blinked and you squeezed by, but your buddy didn’t. Your life can come down to a grain of dust blowing in somebody’s eye.
First for those that don’t know too much about the Canada’s war in Italy, I will tell you about the enemy we faced, Through most of Italy we faced different units of Herman Gorings divisions, The ELITE! They thought of themselves, The finest troops that Germany had to offer. Hardcore battle tested troops! What did we make of them, LANDFILL! It took to many of my friends and good young boy’s to stop your greed and your blackhearts for me to think of you has anything, but!
Anyway, back to The elite. German forces that I can remember in Italy were.
The panzer divisions. The1st and 4th paratroop divisions and some of the Luftwaffe field division. All well trained troops. But for the Luftwaffe ground troops, who maybe would have faired better with their feet off the ground.
But being a soldier, There is no nice way of telling how I feel about facing these troops, Being a soldier, one has to measure himself by the enemy he has defeated, or hardships he has endured, So being a soldier I guess I can say that we killed some of the finest troops that Germany had to offer. To harsh for some maybe, but the truth!
. In Ortona, the Germans left their 1st paratroop division, not what you would call an ill-trained bunch. They were considered some of the best troops in the world, somewhat fanatical and experienced.
I can tell you this; I was present during the Questioning of a German prisoner. A few days’s before the assault on Ortona started. He was quite arrogant in the fact that, we were merely a small obstacle that they had to overcome, The troops who were in Ortona were the elite forces of the German army and they would not surrender, and that in fact, Germany was going to win the war. Well! I said he was arrogant, I didn’t say he was smart.
Back To Ortona. If you know much about Italy, you know they like their balconies, dam near every house has one, good for sitting on in the evening, also good for snipers, They had themselves hid in almost every room in that town, They would pop out onto the balcony and shoot at a few guy’s, then pop back in. They also had built themselves machine gun nests and barricades using the buildings themselves by blowing them up and blocking the streets and laying mines .So they turned the whole dam town into a defensive position. It makes clearing a large town a dangerous task; almost impossible when your dealing with a large force that is intent on holding the town.
Since the houses were all built connected, someone came up with the idea of blowing a hole through the wall of one house and then men would enter, clear that house, then do it all over from house to house, and they cleared entire blocks doing it this way. Hard, Dangerous work, and it cost men’s lives, And anywhere the Germans pulled back from they booby trapped the hell right out of the building, and when you blow a hole in a wall, somebody has to go through first, a risky job.
But even though it was so tedious and dangerous, those boy’s didn’t back down, Hell!! They made the enemy run from that town, They had the German’s in such a hole from getting pushed out of everywhere, they started using terror tactics on them, By waiting until there was a bunch of men in a building they had rigged to blow and then levelling it. They caught one group of guy’s nearly thirty in one building, then blew it up, burying them all, But the fellows managed to save a couple of the boy’s, even while they were being shot at by sniper’s and having grenades thrown at them while they were trying to dig them out.
I will continue this in a little while; the old vet needs a nap.
A.C.(parkie)
