1944: The Canadian Armored Corps' War For Italy | Greatest Tank Battles | Timeline

my name's dan snow and i want to tell you about history hit tv it's like the netflix for history hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the world's best historians we've got an exclusive offer available to fans of timeline if you go to history hit tv you can either follow the information below this video or just google history hit tv and use the code timeline you get a special introductory offer go and check it out in the meantime enjoy this video italy 1944 the allies fight to wrest control of italy from the germans while the germans turn every ridge and mountain into a fortress the germans always had a hill higher than us they could see us coming battle-hardened german troops set traps and wait for the allied tanks to roll into them we would let them come close then when they got very close leave it fire [Music] canadian troops fight the germans across rivers through valleys and up mountain ridges they had italy and they were doing their best not to give it up and we were doing our best to get them out of it it would be tank versus tank canadian and german armor clash in the battle for italy [Music] italy today beautiful peaceful but for thousands of years armies fought here the carthaginian general hannibal attila the hun and napoleon bonaparte all struggled here to win supremacy over the mediterranean sea italy is that great land bridge that connects uh three continents together so all of the great empires that exist around the rim of the mediterranean sea have sought to control the italian peninsula and never was the fighting more vicious or desperate than between the allies and the germans in the second world war on july 10 1943 thousands of canadian troops storm ashore near pequino on the southeast coast of the island of sicily as part of the allied invasion force in a mere six weeks the allies conquer sicily and on the 3rd of september they launched the invasion of the italian mainland five days later on september 8th 1943 italy surrenders the collapse of the fascist government in italy led to the removal of the italian armed forces from the second world war forcing the germans to backfill with their own naval forces air forces and ground forces to defend the south coast of europe in a dramatic turnaround italy's former ally nazi germany decides to fight for every inch of italian soil they didn't just send 60 divisions to the south coast of europe they sent 60 of the best divisions to stop the allies from breaking through into the southern approaches to germany itself and these well-trained well-equipped german troops quickly discover they have a crucial and formidable new ally the italian landscape running right down the spine of the italian boot is a central mountain range the aponyms spurs of the epinines reach out to both east and west coasts creating a thousand kilometer obstacle course of narrow coastal valleys steep ridges and an endless series of streams and rivers there were rivers everywhere a nuisance every three miles we had another river to get over a river every three miles is the worst possible tank country but what difference does it make that's what we were with that's what we had to do exploiting every twist in the terrain the germans build one defensive line after another turning over one thousand kilometers of mountain river crag and swamp into an unending battlefield the germans have every advantage of terrain there are very few avenues uh to advance northward in italy it takes relatively small number of germans to block all of the paths successfully they're in a stationary position we just wait for you to come along [Music] the canadians fight desperately for almost a year including the vicious street battles in ortona combat in italy has already cost the canadians almost 10 000 casualties in may 1944 the canadians finally smashed through the gustav and adolf hitler lines in the leary valley just 130 kilometers south of the italian capital rome we were getting ready quite literally to take rome that was our end-to-end objective one of the last obstacles in the advance to rome is the milfa river which cuts across the leary valley 15 kilometers beyond the smashed adolf hitler line the melfa river is a giant anti-tank ditch that bars the approaches to rome by cutting across the leary valley at right angles the canadians are ordered to seize the river crossings and open the road to the eternal city for the assault on the melfa the canadian fifth armored division mobilizes a striking force of over 4 000 combat troops two dozen light tanks and more than 160 sherman medium tanks the sherman is the backbone of the canadian attack the sherman 5 is armed with a low velocity 75 millimeter gun and has 51 millimeters of frontal armor that is dangerously vulnerable to the powerful cannons on most of the german tanks and if the sherman is hit it has a deadly weakness they called him the bunsen burner because winning when that fire really went on fire almost invariably you'd lose all five men if the tire tank went on fire at the milford river the shermans and their crews will be put to a severe test [Music] the german high command is desperate to defend the melfa its crossings are virtually the only escape route for the german soldiers retreating north from the smashed adolf hitler line what we see in the melfor river is a giant collision between the 26 panzer division that's rushing into the area to try to stabilize the german front and the canadians that are trying to seize a crossing over the melfor river before the germans have a chance to turn it into a new defense line to defend the river crossings the germans field 1 000 combat troops and more than 30 tanks and assault guns including a dozen panther tanks may 24th 1944 the assault on the melfa begins the shermans of the british columbia dragoons race towards the river crossings i i was very apprehensive before we went into battle every day i used to try and cover up by telling funny stories and everybody would laugh you know it's a tense moment before you go in but once i was in action i was too busy fighting to get to be tense the infantry went in and fighting their way across then they couldn't get up the other side because of the machine guns there were machine gun nests everywhere and there were tanks they were up the cliff and they were a couple of them were already down giving the infantry a hard time apart from the artillery then we were the solution there was a 12 foot drop from the countryside down to the river then we went down this 12-foot cliff to help them it was a hell of a drop and the germans were trying their best to kill us shells are coming in like raindrops everybody's firing the dust goes up everywhere and it becomes a real mess they came down their 12-foot cliffs and they met us on the beach it would be tank versus tank the canadians at the melfa are the first in the west to do combat with a deadly panther the panther weighs a formidable 45 tons and has sloped frontal armor 80 millimeters thick its long-barreled high-velocity 75-millimeter gun can easily cut through a sherman we had no intimation whatsoever that they had moved panthers down into italy the total shock to us the panthers were much slower than we were but our shells just bounced off so they were real competition they would go on fire same as we would if we hit them properly if you were lucky enough to be able to put your shell right between the turret and the hull where there was a hole you could get in there it's nice when the tank is firing at you and they were and you fire back and he blows up that's a very good feeling except that there are plenty of other tanks around you don't sit around glory you're looking at the other tanks i saw a couple of tanks go but that was what you were there for at the end of the battle virtually all the german tanks have been destroyed and the canadians are across the melfa the german reinforcements are decisively defeated in and around the melfor river making it impossible to defend rome by june 1st the canadians are almost in rome the eternal city and the grand prize of the campaign we were 26 miles away from rome and we figured we were going to be in rome in about an hour and we were told to stop we found out why the americans wanted to take rome except there was no particular glory because the germans didn't defend rome films taken by italian anti-fascists show the evacuation of rome the streets were deserted as the nazis left the americans enter rome on june 4th but their glory and the headlines don't last long two days later is d-day june 6 1944. as allied troops land on the beaches in normandy and the decisive battle for france and western europe begins suddenly the italian campaign becomes a sideshow we had been in action for about 11 months before d-day so we thought it was kind of funny these guys who were just coming into battle now slanking about it so we called ourselves the d-day dodgers we dodged the d-day by fighting for 11 months before it but even as france is invaded the germans redouble their desperate fight for italy and the canadians are now about to face some of their bloodiest battles ever after crossing the melfor river and with rome in friendly hands canadian and allied forces rush northward up the italian peninsula heading towards the core of italy's industrial and agricultural power in the vanguard of the advance our canadian tank crews and their sherman tanks it will not be a walk over the german armies are determined to defend northern italy to the last north italy is the bread basket and industrial heartland of italy as a whole and that industrial heartland has been integrated fully into the german war economy it is essential if the germans are going to carry out their strategy for 1944 and 45 to maintain control of that industrial and agricultural heartland in the summer of 1944 the germans are desperately building a defensive line in the north to protect the po valley the supposedly invincible gothic line but the gothic line is not yet complete so the german high command decides to delay the allies at the so-called trasimen line the line lies 160 kilometers north of rome and where it confronts the canadians it extends across an eight kilometer gap between lake tresamen and les cusi between the two lakes the germans have improvised a three kilometer deep zigzagging swath of dug-in strong points and machine gun posts the germans choose the lake trazamine battlefield because any allied drive that's going to reach the po valley has to come through those rolling foothills west of lake trazumi the rolling ridges and high ground offer the germans ideal terrain for their cat and mouse delaying action the germans always had a hill higher than us they could see us coming june 21st 1944 canadian tanks of the ontario regiment go into action against german panzers he was in a sunken road and all i could see was his turret and the gun sticking away out there him facing me with that gun was really no contest it never is he gets a direct shot onto you he put a hole through you anyway you seem to try to want to get up out of that road maybe get at me the gun was up here like quite an angle oh it's just like waving at a chimney at you it looks so kind of long he tried to get up but he couldn't make it if he got out of there i was facing that gun head on i shot two or three shots at him i think i hit him only chance i had knocking him out was get him broadside their side armor wasn't as as good as their front armor their front arm is very thick and well slanted he just about disappeared about that time and he went into some trees there and i didn't see him from then on after two days of fighting the tanks of the ontario regiment successfully smash through the german defenses and push ahead north along the shores of lake trasimen five kilometers to the west the tanks of the three rivers regiment sit at their start line waiting to enter the battle we were scheduled to start at seven o'clock in the morning they forgot to tell us the starting time had been changed so we rolled out of our tank park and up the road to take position and only to find it was behind the german lines so the germans closed in behind us and then they completely cut us off as we move forward with major johnson we got a call on the radio from captain hunter who said that he was being attacked from the rear and johnson said that's impossible and well if it's impossible they just knocked out seven tanks after major johnson told hunter that he couldn't understand why he was getting hit from the rear his tank got hit now surrounded by germans and far beyond infantry support the canadian tankers hunker down to prepare for a long fight we were being shelled and we've hit a hole a bomb crater went into the bomb carrier into it what you call a turret down position the land was fairly flat and that we were on a mold and could see what was going on the crew commander he saw the panther it was around 500 yards away from for a panther or a tiger tank that was nothing and they had the long barrel on it and they could ray out rangers well our tank had an hg high explosive in the breech i said leave it in i'll use it as a tracer as a marker my job was to make sure i picked up the target and fire at it and i was lucky enough to hit the planter tank we never knocked out a panther tank with a sherman he'd never do it but uh we had hit the turret ring just below the turret which prevented the tank from turning after immobilizing the panther the remaining tanks of the three rivers regiment hold out against repeated counter-attacks for more than seven hours until they are relieved you go into those things with the idea that you're you're invincible that regardless of what happens you they're not going to get you but the day has been a costly one we lost 13 of the 15 tanks that went into action that day our regiment never gave up an inch we didn't back up we stayed held our position and uh we never never gave up a position once we took it [Music] the relatively unknown battle at lake trasimene actually cost regiments in first canadian armor brigades some of their heaviest losses of the war but first canadian armor brigade is considered to be the most effective best-trained tank brigade of all the allied forces in italy and it becomes essential to the fight for the rolling hills west of lake tresumi the germans retreat northward toward the formidable gothic line the last german bastion protecting the po valley and italy's industrial heartland in one week the canadians have vaulted through the tresemmend line they're now considered shock troops the canadians were central to all of the major allied assaults in the italian campaign and for that reason the germans understood wherever the canadians popped up that's where the point of allied main effort would be field marshal albert kesselring smiling albert the german commander in italy is determined to know where the canadians are headed next if he knows where the canadians are kesselring can be almost certain that that is where the allies intend to assault the gothic line they figure where the first div is going to be that's where the that's where the breakout's going to be and it usually was august 1944 the canadians know that their actions are being anxiously watched by the germans and so it is in secret that they transfer to the adriatic front and prepare to attack the gothic line allied commanders wanted to concentrate their best troops their most powerful armored and artillery formations to the weakest part of the gothic line and so they transfer first canadian corps secretly across the apennines to stage behind the folia river to deliver the main assault on the gothic line the canadians moved from their position near perugia over 200 kilometers through the mountains to their assembly point just inland on the adriatic coast the decision to move the canadian corps across the apennines was a tremendous engineering and transport feat the fifth canadian armored divisional engineers actually had to build a road for their armored vehicles that is still a well-used truck road to this day almost 11 000 vehicles including 650 tanks rumble through the mountains for the assault on the gothic line the canadians have 10 000 troops and over 260 sherman tanks and they aim to exploit to the fullest the sherman's greatest strength the biggest thing was our maneuverability the sherman tank was a great tank as far as that part is concerned but we needed the mobility for obvious reasons the adriatic sector of the gothic line consists of an anti-tank ditch river barriers that run at right angles across the front barbed wire entanglements extensive minefields but what this section of the line lacks is enough german troops to properly defend it on the morning of august 31st the german reinforcements are being rushed in from other parts of italy now that the germans know where the main allied effort is coming there's an awareness in allied headquarters and canadian headquarters that they've got to get high into the hills and take the german depth positions before the german reinforcements arrive [Music] the canadians will cross the folia valley heading towards the heights of 0.204 near the town of tamba di pesaro the canadians understand that the key to their section of the gothic line are the heights around tumba de pesuro the british columbia dragoons are supposed to attack up on those heights with a supporting battalion of infantry that battalion isn't ready so they make the decision to go alone it's a costly decision it means that they have to drive through a german anti-tank gun screen and thick concentrations of german artillery fire even without reinforcements the germans are ready for the canadians the worst part was the fact that there was entrenched in there and were waiting for us on the neighboring ridges on both sides of them german anti-tank guns uh machine guns mortars and artillery are working to stop them and pick off a large number of bcd shermans toppling some down the ridge side and picking off others on the crest of the ridge itself before reaching the german lines the shermans must cross a minefield we lost one tank it won these mines and poof what they would do is uh knock off the track and of course it was no good after that the british columbia dragoons are attacking up a ridge towards .204 the dragoons make rather skillful use of the crest of the ridge itself to expose themselves on the crest itself means certain death so when at all possible they keep the vehicles on the right side of the crest and shield themselves from the german any tank guns to the west anti-tank guns you they were finals some aren't able to do it at some points on the top of that ridge it's impossible to stay on the right hand side you have to expose yourself across the peak and at those times those tanks are picked off by 88s that 88 millimeter that was a powerful deadly thing a number of tanks actually make it to 0.204 and that's when we saw the big panther tank only here we got was just a glancing blow off the side of the tank rammed the noise inside was quite loud he was facing us and when i saw us all three of us coming out of them he started to turn i didn't get very far crew commander said fired well so i'm slamming the shells in and they're gonna be firing away in with another one greater broadside and in the turret once the canadians carve out a tow hold on 0.204 they've effectively cracked their finger into the door the gothic line the germans begin a massive withdrawal the supposedly invincible gothic line has been smashed after their victory in the gothic line the canadians thought the war with germany just might be over they assumed that the germans were retreating from the gothic line and were about to abandon all of italy in fact at that moment german reinforcements were rushing to restore the front and keep the allies from breaking into the po valley and setting up a new line of defense around a place called coriano the heaviest of the fighting was about to break out [Music] september 1944 the allies are on the verge of breaking through into the italian north they plan a massive push along the adriatic coastal plain but first they must clear german positions that overlook the coast near the hilltop town of coriano the town of coriano lies atop a ridge that bars the allied approach northward to the po valley and the ridge itself is an excellent place for a defensive position allied command believes the coriano ridge is vulnerable he thought it was going to be a cakewalk through coriano but the canadians soon discover that coriano is anything but lightly defended the germans throw in every available elite unit including the canadian's old foe from ortona the first parachute division we found the parachute divisions were the worst ones of all for us because they they would never give up if i this was articulating i had heard some canadian presidency are very tough the the paradise are very hard on this one so they said we were very tough very hard so we started helming the valley and we knew sooner or later got over the passenger ridge then they started whaling hell out of us i was the artillery observer for the eleventh company of the first parachute division and i had two radio operators visit me henry jones all of a sudden we heard thanks from the front fish [Music] until some artillery arrived the canadian advance is totally exposed to the fire of german guns we're out there bare naked the other ones turned around two b squadron tanks from the eight hussars make a break for the bottom of the hill when we get down there there's this tank and our tank got there with the same time and uh we rubbed against one another and we straddled this dry creek bed well it was a natural tank trap where he couldn't get over there the stranded b squadron tanks are assisted by the tanks of a squadron positioned on the ridge above them a squadron lays down a smoke screen giving the men of b squadron the cover they need to abandon their tanks and escape on foot by the grace of god we hit our lines so we got away with it none of our crew even got a scratch there i feel i was very lucky to get out of that thing the germans successfully repel the canadian attack of september the fourth we fought off those attacks they did not get through but the cost to the germans is great in spite of the huge loss of men and equipment the germans are ordered to hold manhattan we just did our duties does he and kept on believing that we would get out of there okay september 13th the germans face a second canadian attack on coriano ridge in the second battle for coriano 15 hazard shermans penetrate into the center of town assuming that the germans have started to abandon coriano ridge in fact they find that the germans are intent on clinging to coriano at all costs those 15 hazard shermans reach the town square and meet an ambush force of german tigers panzer fours and infantry [Music] we would let them come close without firing at them on earth then when they got very close we had fire and now the shermans must face the most dreaded tank in the german arsenal the fearsome tiger the 57-ton tiger is the jewel of germany's panzer force at 100 millimeters its frontal armor is twice as thick as the sherman's and its 88 millimeter gun is much more powerful than the 75 millimeter cannon on the sherman [Applause] [Music] there's some kind of a weapon figure thing the shells just bounced off and they engage in a violent close quarter battle in the town square itself the number of canadian tanks are hit how many guns the canadians they're very hard-pressed and in order to escape the hazards actually have to tow their wrecks out of the way under heavy fire the shermans retreat from coriano for the remainder of the day their tank guns shell the germans from the outskirts of town the next morning they mount another assault the whole of fifth canadian armor division regroups and goes back into coriano by this point the german tanks inside coriano have been wrecked by canadian artillery after a day and night a vicious pitiless struggle coriano and its ridge are finally in canadian hands just on the horizon the po valley beckons the men call it the promised land after the battle for coriano the allies are finally on the edge of the vast po valley being flat the valley looks like ideal tank country when the canadians finally broke it into the po valley many of them thought that for the first time in this war they were going to be able to fight a battle without the germans looking down on them tankers had been dreaming of the day when they'd be able to use their tanks in a breakout role and chase the germans back to the alps unfortunately that was not going to be the case the desperate german fight at coriano had a clear aim the germans were waiting for the season to change autumn weather and rain will be the german's greatest ally in defending the po valley po valley is a tanker's paradise in the summer dry weather but because of all the rivers and irrigation canals that cut across it once the fall rains arrive it's a tanker's nightmare once it starts to rain heavily in september and october 1944 the po valley filled with water any attempt to move off-road means that a 33-ton sherman tank is going to bog down to its axles almost immediately tanks become irrelevant you thought it was going to be easy it didn't turn out that easy mud makes coordinated cross-country tank attacks almost impossible the germans dig in and the allied advance slows to a crawl both sides hunker down in the rain of the mud for almost two months the stalemate lasts it's not until the very end of 1944 that we see tanks once again employed uh in an off-road role to play a leading part in any major battle finally the italian winter arrives the ground freezes up and tanks once more become mobile the next task is going to be to break out across the po valley and chase what they think is going to be a german evacuation from italy but the germans have no intention of evacuating italy in fact they plan to fight for every inch including a bulge in their line south of lake camacchio the german position near the town of saint alberto on the south shore of lake camacchio is a mortal danger to the allies right flank the canadians prepare to eliminate that threat the canadian mission at the battle of lake camacchio is to destroy the german forces south of the lake and set the conditions for the final liberation drive in the spring of 1945. january 2nd 1945 canadian tanks go into action fifth canadian armored division uses two of its armored regiments they wait until there's been several successive nights of frost to freeze the ground firm because they know that german anti-tank defenses are only set up to cover the roads because for the last three months no allied tank has been able to drive off-road after a couple of days of frost when the ground's firm enough to carry the weight of a sherman these canadian shermans break out across the frozen ground frost hardened ground is not their only ally the shermans have been fitted with track grousers to aid the advance the track grocer extends the width of the sherman track and enables it to travel on softer ground additional pieces attached to the sides of the track links grousers add more than 10 centimeters to the width of the tank track thus spreading the weight of the tank and making it less likely it will sink into soft ground or break through the frost layer as the canadians advance across the frozen ground they come under fire from a german ambush a group of anti-tank guns and panthers begin to knock out the tanks of the eight bazaars sergeant daniel mccaskill crew commander of one of the shermans acts quickly he stops his tank and opens fire on the german positions as he exchanges shell fire with the germans the rest of his squadron continues to advance mccaskill sherman single-handedly knocks out four anti-tank guns and the panther while sustaining no damage himself with the sherman safely through the ambush zone they continue their advance towards lake camacchio leaving the german defenses in flames [Music] the canadians have penetrated past any of the german defenses that can stop them and race to lake camacchio when the canadians enter san alberto completely sealing off the southern shore of lake camacchio they have taken 600 enemy prisoners and counted at least 300 enemy dead lake camacchio constitutes the last big battle for canada in the italian campaign the italian campaign is the longest fought by the canadian army in the second world war and it was tremendously successful at drawing in and tying down some of the best formations in the german army [Music] we really weren't expected to win the war our job was to take the strength out of europe and the view of the fact that there were from 30 to 40 divisions german divisions sent to fight in italy we did a great job in taking strength away and of course we were causing tremendous casualties which they had to reinforce and they were using tanks and they were using ammunition so we were sapping a lot of strength out of europe [Music] the italian campaign saw some of the most famous armored regiments in canadian history earn their spurs and prove their ability in the italian landscape to win some of the most important canadian tank victories of the second world war [Music] each canadian victory was a step in the liberation of italy and many italians like those who live near what was once the gothic line still remember even today [Music] the italians in that area remember the canadian victory at 0.204 as a key point in the story of their liberation from german occupation [Music] the italians built the monument at 0.204 in tribute to their canadian liberators with their own money and their own labor it's a unique monument in europe in that sense the memorial's inscription reads here the heroic deeds of the first canadian corps breach the imposing german defenses with a loss of over 1 000 lives for the freedom of italy and peace in europe [Music] in witness to and as a warning for future generations the gothic line was just one battle in the 20 long months the canadians fought to liberate italy that success came at a heavy price in canadian lives 93 000 canadians served in italy more than 20 000 were wounded nearly 6 000 died those are brave men we didn't think we were heroes i was a lucky guy to survive each year i go to the memorial service for the 23 of my synagogue that got killed in action i guess i'm lucky to be where i am all my buddies in the regiment are all dead and that's not a very nice thing to even think about they're excellent people excellent soldiers [Music] we did what we had to do and what we were trying to do was prevent the germans from taking over the whole world and we succeeded it was really our baptism in the fire [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 48min 15sec (2895 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021