Battle Of Ortona: The Bloodiest Fighting Of The Italian Stalingrad | War Story | War Stories

[Music] a that's a strange thing in war it is such a desolate feeling if you happen to get trapped out by yourself somewhere and you're being shot at and there's nobody there to to help you as a m as a matter of fact I openly said mother please help me that's how bad it was it's uh there's there's days yet that I I don't want to have any connection with humans at all nothing to do with them I have certain places where we live now and I had places where we lived before that if I want to get away from it I could go to those places in the woods and I could put my hands up and scream as hard as I could scream to try and get this devil off of my back [Music] an epic thing is happening amid the crumbling and burning walls of the compact Town above the Surly green waves of the Adriatic Western Canadian troops got into the outskirts today can you tell me about ortona oh ortona yeah ortona was only a town on the east coast of Italy of no particular importance and never quite sure why the Germans decided to make a stance there but they did the Artona troops were a bit cocky and said as they went in we'll have Artona for you in the morning they got the shock of their lives they didn't realize the kind of troops that the Germans had in there they had their best airborne troops in against us and I don't think there was one of those buggers under 6 foot tall they had the great big leather boots up to here they were they were vicious they they weren't human our fine troops found themselves facing a parachute division a formation of savage cunning young zealots as good as anything the warrior Germans ever produced best well day one was to get from this side of the street over to that side for what reason I don't know why we had to get from here to there cuz to me it all looked the same going up houses on both sides for the town of Bona was piles Rubble the Germans had blown a lot of houses down and the streets were literally full of rubble they done this deliberately they'd blow houses down on both sides to fill the street full of rubble they' set their machine gun up on top of that and they're looking down on you and if you get out in the in the open you're dead and now in ortona the action is as Fierce perhaps as modern man has ever F Western Canadian troops and tanks are fighting a vicious street battle against Germans who contest every window and every yard with cunning skill and desperate courage you couldn't stick your head out in the open and they had you covered that's why we ended up mous huling well mous hauling most of those houses were all joined together and uh with the butts of our rles we would bang and bang on the walls till you opened a hole and then we just toss the grenade in sometimes when possible we'd use the anti-tank gun and blow a big hole in and then just go from room to room you know then just somebody else would come along clean up the bodies and you just keep on [Music] going you know you see a guy all bleeding and wounded and shot up with his guts hanging out you just forgot about fear or or stress or anything you just went out and you tried to go and save them this this is what of that's what I joined up for and this is uh what what we done in the command post Captain Vic soy of up said something that sent a thrill down my spine he pointed at two lightly wounded men and said those two men and several other wounded have disobeyed orders they refused to evacuate they don't argue they refuse one of them said sir we are going to see this thing through to the end in the town of Artona let's say first day you lose 30 men they're replaced you're still standing there the next day or that next night you lose 20 or 30 or however many you're still standing there i' done this for 23 months so you can imagine how I felt you know your luck just keeps running out and running out and you're you're down to the last last breath of air and you're still standing and I would like an answer to that like Stalingrad and through the same apocalyptic pole of smoke and fire and maniacal determination the battle has this quality of nightmare and the rattling hurricane of the machine guns never stops nobody could move it was one of Hitler's last stands in Italy he told his troops that you fight until the end you I know you just keep wondering in the name of God is this ever going to stop you know when will it stop it was one of the the most fiercest battles you've ever seen one of our boys was his leg was shot up real bad just hanging there so I run over and I try to get a field dressing on them and I'm tearing away at these pants and whatnot and Dr Granger come over and says Rudy really quickly get your your your jack knife out I got it out and I thought he meant to cut the rest of his paths away so we can get out of his wounds oh he said cut his leg cut the rest of his leg off it was horrible the square was the killing ground in the morning when we stepped out the sergeant Hold Us step out and have a look but don't go too far but when we did get out and looked what I saw was a dead German lying there with with no head and right beside him was a big donkey it was puffed up ever so big but that head thing bothers me because it wasn't there and I I seem to dream that I wonder what he looked like I I don't know what happened to the head I don't know and that's still to this day sticks in my brain it was a melstrom of noise and hot splitting steel perhaps 30 or 40 Canadian German machine guns were bring at once but it sounded like H if it wasn't hell it was the courtyard of hell order [Music] I remember for this one incident a German machine gun setting up on this one of the higher mounds of rubble in the street and the machine gunner was just a kid and he got hit in the face and his eyeballs were hanging on his cheeks Corporal Squire's he could speak German he hollered for him to give up he says come and get and just duck the machine guns like that until he run out of ammunition that's what they were like he was about 17 years old did you did you shoot him or yeah I didn't but yeah he was he was shot cuz even though he's blind he's still pouring the Le at you discover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and AD free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all on History hit watch them on your smart TV or on the- go with your mobile device download the app now to watch everything from the gripping story of the Band of Brothers to operation Barbarosa and D-Day immerse yourself in the dramatic stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the description you know it it was a terrible feeling to to see people die I know I put many of the Germans away with with morine we used to bring bring him we bring him in there was German prisoners that were wounded they were shot through the lungs and I remember Fairfield and Dr Granger and both Dr Anderson they they say well we can't help him so just give him a couple of shots and mor Fe go and bury him and and we we done that I I know I've buried some Germans that they weren't even dead yet we just threw him in a dug a little bit of a grave and threw some ground over him they weren't even dead well I I well you have to give them a couple of shots of Mor Fe they're out you don't know whether they're dead or not but they're going to die anyway with you know with with with long shots did it did it disturb you oh yes yes it did disturb I I still get nightmares over it I this is why I haven't talked about it for years and years I'm I was trying to you know to to avoid to have these memories come come [Music] back it is Christmas Eve there is still the hardest of fighting in the streets of ortona each day we thought the bloody combat would become less intense each day it became more intense the enemy would not break ortona was just just about blown Rubble on the 24th of December the Germans blew up uh St Thomas Cathedral there was there was hundreds of Italians hiding taking shelter there they drove them out onto the streets before they blew it up there was no Christmas Truce there at all Christmas Day I am speaking now from this Canadian field dressing station not many miles behind the front where Canada is fighting one of the greatest battles of our history on Christmas day just near me are some Canadian soldiers in the world who are going to sing carols for the benefit of the Wounded they're just starting to [Music] sing [Music] and there were the one interesting part that I found amazing is that General vs who was commanding one div decided that his people were going to have Christmas lunch war or no war and we had captured a big church on our way into ortona and he he brought all his his cooks and his kitchens up there and he made kiss Christmas lunch the Christmas dinner it started 11:00 December the 25th they they held in a little church they called one company at a time they'd have dinner and uh the pipe major Essen would would blow the bag pipes and they'd have the orgon playing and they'd be having carols and whatnot and they'd have a great dinner all all the food you could eat I don't know how they brought it up they must have come as far as they could with a Jeep and then they carried it in containers it was it was warm and I'm not sure if it was beef or or pork but it was warm meat and gravy and and potatoes and one bottle of beer was the Christmas dinner within range of the German guns oh yes yes you you still they were still the German guns was the shells are still breaking all all around the Germans with their 88 guns still lobing their shells and into our Dona yes I never took part of it because we were too busy picking up the wounded were your thoughts about Christmas that day no I thoughts about staying alive I realized it was Christmas Day and I suppose for this film I might as well add I actually shot a German on Christmas Day and uh at the time he it was just another day and he was just another enemy was he down on the Square he was down on the St stair Square coming towards the building that I was in you kill him I don't know he dropped and two guys ran out and dragged him back and and I held my fire and uh at that time you know I was just doing my job it was just another day but uh I I kind of hate to talk about it now why it was Christmas you know I I thinking about it now you know I I should have taken my chances and let them go because you know it just bothers me because it was I'd killed somebody on Christmas day or wounded somebody I don't know if he was wounded or killed I have no idea but uh just the thought of me doing that is kind of upsetting very upsetting as a matter of fact but uh uh when I talk to the kids sometimes they cry still at 8:00 this morning there was a strange [Applause] silence the colonel Grim when I came in I said don't tell me and he replied yes I think we've got ortona Ember [Music] for everything was dead silent What a Feeling to hear that nothing just dead silent it's hard to uh for you to gather all all these thoughts all of a sudden you know everything just comes to a standstill it was a pleasant feeling what a relief you know everybody is is uh tired and you've been going straight for eight days day and night I don't know where the people that lived in noron I have no idea where they went but I know that the day that they pulled out of there German pulled out that they were coming in from the caves that they had dug in and I always remember one woman uh carrying a little baby just born I presume into a pie a burlap carrying it over this cave and they were all asking for food and we never had food to give them so so they suffered too population the [Music] poor [Music] for the dead of orona the bell of its Cathedral the Cathedral of St Thomas the apostles home for the Canadians who died in taking the town for the Germans who fell defending it and for the dust and Ashes of the cathedral itself the Bell told for the living as well the Bell told calling them to pray the priest I have nights where I I dream that I go back to ortona and saw this German going with these long winter coat on there's three guys they tried to get me but they haven't got me [Music] yet [Music] you could see the flame shooting out of some of the tanks that have been already hit and if you couldn't actually they see the tanks you could see the smoke uh going up in the air it was a scary scene to hear those tanks blowing up and the flame shooting up in the air sparks flying out of them it was pretty pretty awesome you up in these tanks have knocked out burn the tanks are still hot and warm and smelly and smell the flesh everything else and you got to get inside the tanks and they get these clumps of L of blood and uniforms stuff like that and hand these bodies out that to be identified and buried and uh work it's that's a horrible bloody job what place is a good place to die definitely not a [Music] tank it was not tank country Italy is is in the shape of shape of a shoe and there are mountains running right down the middle every 3 or four miles was another river that we had to fight our way over very very rough Bad Country for tanks we found canals we found ditches we found Vines we found Rivers never did we find tank country this is Peter stursberg of the CBC reporting from the Italian f after the Canadian core broke through the adult hit line and the firm base was established the Rond was ordered to drive through SE and hold the crossings of the Mela River the of the situation before we were all ready to go I was sitting in in the turd open a can of bully beef and and have breakfast and wash it down with rum CU I always had a lot of rum around and I would be scared I knew what was coming and I knew I might be dead I knew my tank might go and I would try to tell funny stories over the microphone to my men even if they weren't funny they'd laugh because they were as uptight as I was we were Sherman tanks it's an American Tank weighs 31 tons not nearly armored as well as the German pancers or grenadiers our shells would just armor piercing shells would just bounce off a panther ATT but we move quickly fighting a tank is complicated there's no one tankman there's five tank men and they've got to work together and they got to learn to do it and they got to live together and they become almost like brothers they have to I would say we were quite close but they also kept changing too I've had lot of them die we went into action oh about 6:00 in the morning sun was you know this was May the sun was up early and we started to head for the next river which which the Germans were behind as always when we got to the melfa we were pinned down and so leftenant Ed Perkins took his tanks across the M River and he got into a position where were heavily outnumbered by German troops and and German big tanks Panthers and tigers and he was wounded I think twice uh twice the colonel told him to evacuate and he said no I'm staying we're now on the North Bank of the Mala and our tanks are in the whole down position there was a considerable amount of tank fire in the meantime Perkins is going back and forth up and down the bank and no doubt he's looking for places that he can put the West ministers when they arrive uh unfortunately the West ministers didn't arrive until 2 hours after we got there 2 hours so Perkins thought and it was a good idea that we uh should fire off all of our ammunition that we had let the Germans be the impression that we had a strong force so we'd fire P 5 machine gun and BR guns uh the three-year-olds anything and fire them out in front of the German tanks and infantry to have them think that man those guys are some are some force and it worked at least I guess it worked CU we're still some us are still here the night the M for River and the next morning and total we lost 25 guys in 24 hours Perkins and his crew established the bridge head across the river that enabled us to break the line and go forward Bud mlan was part of the group with Perkins that grabbed and held the side of the river which uh they both won Perkins won a medal and so did Bud mlan the mm for holding that [Music] position but our worst part of the Mur River was that the following [Music] day there was a good deal of haze between the Mela and the lii from the smoke of battle but I could make out some movement on the road spread over the green Countryside were Canadian tanks and some were moving forward as there were handkerchiefs of dust Hing to them May 24th was the day of the Mur River we pulled back May 25th we were not seasoned veterans we all pulled our tanks back and parked them near each other and jumped out of the tanks to see who was hit and who was alive and so forth and unbeknown to us there was a German with a radio not far away and brought the nebble workers as they were called and brought them right down on our [Music] tanks well they found me in a field I got out gotten out of the tank evidently and uh was wandering around I can't remember exactly what happened I was in a field somewhere and the tanks were burning up we lost 26 men I'm the only one alive for my troop the tanks brewed up they call for stretcher bearers and you have to go out there whether they're the shells are busting the where the bullets were flying that this is their job and and there was very few of us that could do it a lot of the other boys when they're firing in the shells were firing they would they wouldn't dare go out I volunteered many of times to do different things where other boys wouldn't go and when we pulled people out of the tanks we' we'd grab a hold of their arm or or their head would come off there would cook like a [Music] tooker a German came up and he fired and fortunately for me it was over 45° and they need to be almost at 90° to penetrate and it bounced off the tank and I can tell you my heart was was up in my throat but it it bounced off the tank if it didn't it it would be it would create a brew up and unfortunately some of my tanks did Brew up everybody dies usually they call it a brew up that's an army expression that means it catches fire explodes and goes up yeah m it would be an awful way to an awful way to die to to be burned up yeah we took one of my friends out in a shoe box a third of our tanks were lost in that one day and a third of our officers that was worse for us in casualties than the actual action at the melfa itself drove through in a solid wedge of armor next the best of the German armor the famous pank and although knowing themselves out another group Commander his many times the [Music] ger the Germans were retreating at this point yeah we put them on the Run we were advancing in all this line there's not just the Strath konas but there other reg brigades and the Perth regiment and Irish and the various infantry Cape Rett and Highlanders they were all coming in line after us the tanks went in there first you were trying to go forward basically to kill the Germans and you saw them you started to kill them I was much too busy to be scared and I wanted to do what I came to do in the first place which was to beat the Germans we shot the first Tiger tank in Italy and if you shoot it head on you can't you can't penetrate it uh the only way is from the back or we knock the tread off which is has to be a good lucky shot and the first tiger we knocked the tread off and the uh Crews of the Tiger tank evacuated and we shot with machine guns on them it was a a feeling of elation yeah we got them we never to my knowledge ever killed a prisoner ever but we could refuse to take prisoners which is what they were doing and did one case I overran a position and the people jumped out and dropped their their rifles and stuck their hands in the air and started to scream camad camad and I refused to accept their their surrender I just turned my my Gunner loose on them and wiped them [Music] out after the Hitler L 3 days after we were still picking up we had our wounders pick we were so we were loading the dead on a flat car on a flat box of a of a truck and our Sergeant picked up his own son he didn't know he was in the Army he absolutely went berserk I'm telling you there were so many dead and and Germans and and our boys and everything else that they had to push them out of the side for our our artillery and our tanks to come through and after 3 days we didn't have our our our our dad picked up so the bulldozers came in and dug big holes and just pushed everybody in so they they were both German and Canadian de both German Canadian and there was animals and everything else the meler river was the great breakthrough that sort of paved the route to [Music] Rome the road to Rome was lined with the wage of Nazi Legions blasted by Allied air power that breakthrough at the meler river was probably the last major fight that the Germans put up before room we presumed they were going up to find another River and set up another line that we'd have to break again as it happens they left they didn't go to Rome we didn't know that films taken by Italian anti-fascists show the evacuation of Rome one of the greatest blows of the war to Nazi Prestige streets were deserted the Nazis left we were told to stop and uh we sent back a message saying we're only 26 miles out of Rome when they're running we can be there in 2 hours we were told you will stop immediately do not go any farther stop where you are and we stopped where we were and we found out later the Americans wanted to take Rome the Canadians were definitely the ones that broke the Hitler line which then opened up the road to Rome no question about it but within the short distance of being Rome they pulled us back and the Americans marched in that was two days before D-Day by the way June 4th 1944 Rome was free liberated after 21 years of fascist rule we could never understand it we were there to liberate it but politically the Americans marched in more citizens turn out to greet the Yanks as now in formal order they pour through the gates into the ancient city we done all the work and all the hard the the hardships and what not and they took the glory General Clark enters r Europe's first capital to fall to Allied armies of Liberation is now officially occupied the Roman populace begins to gather in a joyful reception General Mark Clark the American pulled the Canadians out and put the Americans to go into Rome oh we were so Furious we' to kill the Americans fashion the Germans if we got them but however Clark I think he got his come up and Slater I think even from the Americans because in going into Rome like that and picking up the glory he allowed a whole joury German Army to group to escape and they got up to the we had to fight them in the gothic line in August 31st with many more casualties a lot more you know troops killed and wounded and tanks lost and everything like that and that would shouldn't have happened if he had done his job and and surrounded Rome instead of going into it and cut off all those German armies we looked back what we had accomplished we had for Italian Army out of the war Al together we were containing close to a million Germans over 900 and somewhat thousand Germans we were containing them in Italy and if we hadn't done that both the Italian and the German troops would have been quickly transported up in Northwest Europe and would have made that campaign an even tougher one than it was and of course 6th of June D in Normandy and the kind of forgot about us down there in [Music] [Applause] Italy on dday the peoples of the world watched the Allied armies cross the channel and smash at Hitler's Atlantic Wall after D-Day we were kind of uh forgotten we were known as the D-Day Dodgers we felt that was a harsh thing for them to say because what calling us the D-Day Dodgers because we had already had 11 months of Frontline Duty when dday occurred yeah and I'm sure the world knew that Italy wasn't a a cakewalk I've been back to Italy five times he and I have visited one time or another every Cemetery that we have friends of mine buried in how does that feel it's cathartic in a way because uh at times I have felt guilty that I'm alive and they're dead can you understand [Music] that we landed [Applause] ater showed us the SES and US te we all free we are the in Sun Italy and a couple of names we only there [Music] [Applause] [Music] and when you look around the mountains through the mud and Rain you you find the crosses some which bear no name heart bre to and suffering goneys them on they were the dday doers will stay [Music] in am

Channel: War Stories

Views: 151,563

Keywords: Airborne Warfare, Combat Chronicles, Combat Tactics, Dramatic War Stories, Epic Clashes, Gripping War Tales, Harrowing Battles, Heroic Soldiers, History Chronicles, Italian Front, Italian Stalingrad, Legendary Battles, Memorial Battles, Military Operations, Stalingrad Comparison, Strategic Battles, Town of Ortona, War Documentary, War Heroes Tribute, War Reminiscences, War Stories

Id: ZzvCBdzc3sM

Length: 43min 34sec (2614 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2024