What happened during the battle of Ortona?

What happened during the battle of Ortona?

The ancient city of Ortona is located in the province of Chieti on the central coast of the Adriatic Sea in Italy. In the second world war, Ortona was of importance to Germany and the allies as it was one of Italy’s few deep-water ports on the east coast. This location allowed easy transportation of necessary machines and supplies to troops. 

The battle of Ortona took place between December 20th -28th 1943. This battle came near the end of what became known as “Bloody December”, a series of brutal fights on the Adriatic coast of Italy. 

In early December 1943 near the city of Ortona, the exhausted British 78th Infantry division was relieved by the Canadian 1st Infantry Division who continued to fight the Germans and push closer to the city. The fighting was intense and the conditions miserable and shortly, the 1st Infantry Brigade was replaced by the Canadian 2nd Infantry Divison so they could continue to advance on Ortona.

The German soldiers were very experienced and had been ordered by Adlolf Hitler to defend and keep Ortona secure at any cost. They hid machine guns and weapons all around the town which made moving around very difficult for the Canadian troops.

Whenever Canadian forces tried to move through the narrow streets of Ortona, they were riddled with violent gunfire from well hidden Germans. A Canadian captain named Bill Longhurst of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment invented a practice called “mouse-holing”. Instead of moving throughout the streets, soldiers would move through the houses with a charge of plastic explosives. When the men huddled safely on the first floor of a building, one person would go to the top floor and place the explosives against a wall. After the explosion ran up the stairs and scurried through the “ mouse-hole” tossing grenades and firing their guns at the enemy. As news of this “mouse-holing” tactic spread, it became a well-known practice. Germans had their own fighting practice. The fighting in the city didn’t just include the use of mouse holing, but the Germans would use tunnels to get around. 

One major event that occurred during this battle was the execution of 24 Canadian troops after they took shelter in a building that had been rigged with explosives by the Germans. Seeking revenge, the Canadians lured a few dozen Germans into a building, detonated it, killing all of them.

The fighting in Ortona was mainly between groups of men and from building to building. On December 27th naval gunfire was used for the first time in support of the troops fighting in Ortona as allied warships began to approach off the coast. 

On December 28th the Germans withdrew from the city of Ortona. They lacked reinforcements and could no longer continue to fight. After 8 days more than 1375 Canadians had been killed. This was reported to be one third of all Canadians killed during the Italian Campaign. 

The battle of Ortona was one of the bloodiest battles Canadians fought in, in World War II giving it the name “ Little Stalingrad”.