Christmas in Ortona: Remembering a legendary 1943 Canadian WW II battle

Eighty years ago, as some Canadian troops enjoyed a Christmas dinner that included roast pork, vegetables and beer at a church in Ortona, Italy, their fellow troops were busy fighting nearby in the rubble-filled town.

While Ortona is legendary for the Christmas dinner and the ingenious tactic the Canadians used to capture the town in the bloody eight-day battle, a forgotten detail is how a regiment from Nova Scotia helped pave the way to Ortona.

Lee Windsor, a history professor at the University of New Brunswick, said about three-quarters of the Atlantic Canadian units that served in the Second World War fought in Italy.

"Only a small number by comparison go to Normandy, so the national commemoration effort that focuses so much on Normandy in northwest Europe really leaves out Atlantic Canadians," he said. "So it's not only a forgotten campaign for the war as a whole, it's particularly troubling, I think, for Atlantic Canadian veterans stories."

The Italian Campaign that began in July 1943, was an effort by the Allies to loosen Adolf Hitler's grip on Europe. By fighting in southern Europe, the Allies believed it would spread German manpower and make it easier to take western Europe during the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, on D-Day: June 6, 1944.

After capturing the island of Sicily, Italy, in the summer of 1943, the Allies headed to the mainland with the aim of capturing Rome.

"They thought it would be fairly easy. We'll cross into the mainland and we'll just work our way up. It wasn't quite as easy as they hoped," said Julie Thomas, the chief curator at the Army Museum Halifax Citadel.

Part of the challenge was the Apennine Mountains, which run down the heart of Italy, meaning any advance by the Allies could only happen east or west of the mountains. As well, many rivers flow out of the mountains, which allowed the Germans to put up defensive line after defensive line and slow the advance of the Allies.

Thomas said that as the Allies worked their way up the boot of Italy — Italy's geography is often referred to that way because it resembles the shape of a boot — the Germans often pulled out quickly. As the Canadians approached Ortona, they didn't expect the Germans to mount much of a defence.

That all changed in early December at a land feature that came to be known as The Gully. On the map, it was a narrow line that ran from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea, which is on the eastern side of Italy.

"Canadian intelligence completely failed to appreciate the significance of this position," said Mark Zuehlke, the author of several military history books, including ones about Ortona.

He said The Gully was about a half-kilometre wide and 300 metres at its deepest point.

Zuehlke said the Germans dug a foxhole into the south bank of The Gully and would hide inside while the Canadians shelled the area. But when the shelling stopped, the Germans would fire their machine guns as Canadians would run into a "wall of fire."

Among the troops fighting at The Gully was the West Nova Scotia Regiment, a unit created in 1936 that merged militias covering the Annapolis Valley and the South Shore.