The Forgotten Canadian Commanders Who Liberated Rome | Greatest Tank Battles | War Stories

central italy south of rome armies have fought for control of these hills for thousands of years but no battles have been more ferocious or intense than the fighting that erupted here between the allies and the germans during the second world war the germans you should shoot from here to down the other side you get it from there and then you yell from the side [Music] over there every day night day act like this july 10th 1943 the allies stormed the beaches of sicily beginning the invasion of occupied europe after six weeks of bitter fighting the allies overwhelm the italian and german defenders and make plans for their conquest of the italian mainland their goal quickly sees rome by launching a two-pronged attack with the u.s fifth army on the left flank and the british-led eighth army on the right and advancing with the eighth army are the untested canadians a mobile unit of eighteen thousand men three hundred heavy guns and over two hundred tanks and as this impressive force heads northward it quickly discovers that its first enemy is the rough italian terrain italy was nothing but uh a series of ravines and ridges all the way from the boot right straight up to the to the alps there was a lot of areas where they're very steep hills and high points and so on we were not well prepared we were being trained to fight in north africa which had no bearing at all for italy as the canadians struggle northward they encounter little opposition the italian government has surrendered leading many to believe that rome will be liberated in months but hitler knows that stopping the allies here is vital to protecting germany itself and he orders his forces to dig in for the defense of southern italy the germans have amassed six divisions totaling 95 000 troops [Music] 389 heavy guns and almost 400 tanks south of rome the germans established their winter line [Music] a network of pillboxes barbed wire and tanks forming a defensive barrier across the italian peninsula but the british unaware of the extent of the germans new fortifications land troops near the coastal town of termoli and stumble right into the enemy's lines the area that the brigade landed what happened to be the rest area for the german 16th panzer division and the british were very quickly uh assaulted by the germans and they they cried for help and we happen to be the closest armored regiment so we broke through and made a quick dash too termily rushing to the aid of the beleaguered british are 36 canadian sherman tanks the sherman 5 is primarily used as an infantry support weapon armed with only 51 millimeters of light frontal armor and a low velocity 75 millimeter main cannon the sherman sacrifices protection and firepower for increased speed and mobility we ran from about four o'clock in the morning to four o'clock at night across the roads cross fields i remember doing radio watch and hearing the german tanks were collecting at a certain point we said boy somebody's in for hell for the morning when captain yellen came back with the maps we looked we found we were the ones that were getting masked against and they were seasoned troops it was not a not a walk over with them we pulled up on the high ground just as the germans were launching another counter-attack we were a fair distance away from b squad they were much closer to this wooded area where the germans emerged from once they started moving then bee squadron tangled with them very quickly well they're firing back and forth and we lost some tanks we were uh in a position to give them supporting fire as soon as i saw any german tank i just gave a quick order to my gunner and i swung the turret around and anyway he gave him a fire order and he fired b squadron they bore the brunt of the battle and i think they lost two or three but they they destroyed eight germans as a and b squadrons watch the enemy withdraw from their sectors sea squadron continues their advance the british afford us that there is no f no um enemy tanks in that area and going across we noticed a haystack having known that the germans would hide things behind things like that buildings and i saw this haystack and wondered what the hell it was doing there so i fired at it i hit it with an hd high explosive when i did the haystack blew up and this tank appeared it was a mark ford the panzer iv is armed with a high velocity 75 millimeter main cannon that can destroy a sherman at ranges of up to two kilometers it is protected with 80 millimeters of frontal armor but at close range it can be vulnerable even to the sherman's underpowered main gun we usually had an hc in the breach but if it was a tank we put in an arm of piercing shell and we fired an app it burst into flames and that was it for that so we continued down the hill up the other side and held our position where we're supposed to be by day's end the canadians prevail at turmoil destroying at least eight german panzers but the canadians have lost a third of a squadron in their first major tank on tank battle in italy a harsh and bloody taste of what is still to come september 1943 after invading the italian mainland canadian and allied forces advance northward intent on seizing rome but german forces have prepared for the allies and engage the tanks of the canadian armored corps in a fierce battle near the town of termoli terminally was our first bat it was the first time we had a tank versus tank encounter although the canadian tankers take heavy casualties they force the enemy to fall back but in the wake of the battle the germans bring in reinforcements and now field 18 army divisions dedicated to halting the allies now before the canadians can continue their advance towards rome they must secure the heavily reinforced village of san leonardo charged with the task of clearing the village is the infantry of the seaforth highlanders supported by a handful of tanks from the calgary regiment we moved into position on the ridge overlooking san leonardo and we were all ready to go the brigadier comes up and says they haven't taken the bridgehead you take it now [Music] i couldn't do anything except yes sir [Music] this is pretty uh a dicey way to start going into a battle no reconnaissance no idea what the ground looked like we went over the red should we for the first time saw san leonardo was there looking at us coming down as soon as we got over the the route all hell broke loose and the road was just a winding and steep on the way down two of my tanks that were behind me went over the bank 40 feet one on one tank on top of the other when i got into san leonardo there are only about four of us four tanks we were just supporting the sea force and the sea force were clearing the houses if the infinitive we're going to go into a house you could put around in the window 10 feet from the door without blowing everybody to hell you could have a tremendous rate of fire it almost sounded like a machine gun because the motor was just bang bang bang we just kept banging away in that whole area slowly and methodically the canadians begin to clear the german infantry from san leonardo but just as it seems the battle is over a dozen german tanks charge towards the village intent on repelling the allied attack i think that the germans had many more tanks in san leonardo 10 tanks or 12 tanks or whatever it was there was a chaplain named aaron charbonneau and he was one of my troop commanders and he was positioned covering this road that went out towards the coast and the german tank went by and i guess he couldn't have been any more than about 50 yards from charbonneau's tank he's coming down behind the buildings the infantry the sea force were on both sides of the buildings and this one little soldier the sea force this german tank was coming right towards him trying to hit it and it brewed a little little seaforth soldier came out from behind those buildings he came over and he tapped the tank and he says you big cast iron son of a [ __ ] i could kiss you [Music] at the end of the day we felt pretty good we were in san leonardo it was in our hands and we took it having secured the village the canadians press on advancing towards their next objective the coastal town of ortona but to get there they must first seize a road junction codenamed cider crossroads now defended by one of the toughest units in the german army the first parachute division they were the best troops they were first class apartments we had the anti-tank warfare and we had sappers who were setting up mines in buildings they fought extremely hard and they made us pay for every bloody house we took i i never encountered better soldiers never i remember my squadron commander's tank hit a mine he came up on the air and said to the second in command come alongside and take off my crew the second in command said are there any mines there and the squadron leader said no i hit the only one can bang he hits another one as more and more allied armor arrives at the crossroads the german paratroopers begin to withdraw tortona leaving only small rearguard units to slow the advancing canadians we were the lead tank we had once one troop on one side and one troop on the other side melville asked permission from our left to use our path to get around the railroad tracks so he went ahead of us and he moved up about 25 yards the germans had packed the culvert with 200 pounds of gun cotton and when the tank got on it they just pushed the trigger the turret weighed about seven tons and it was thrown about 25 yards and the rest of the crew were blowing up the tank just split into pieces if melville hadn't asked permission to leave his position it would have been our time the whole crew was lost so i remember going back later on and having to bury them scrape the bodies together and then bury the buried to do a temporary grave this is when you first become aware of how bloody war can be when all of a sudden uh one of your friends is no longer there he's been killed the germans stopped us cold it takes the canadians ten days to advance just three kilometers but on december 19th they finally capture the cider crossroads the fighting has been fierce but it pales in comparison to what they'll face next a battle so deadly it will become one of the most infamous in canadian military history december 1943 for the last three months canadian tanks have been engaged in fierce fighting throughout southern italy and by december 20th they have battled to within 250 kilometers of their final objective the italian capital of rome but the allies advance has left them with long and very vulnerable supply lines allied command knows they must capture a deep water port to keep their advance from stalling and they order the canadians to seize the coastal town of ortona the canadians anticipated that we would take ortona in one day with a squadron of tanks and a company of infantry well it turned out that the the germans had a different [Music] view defending ortona is the elite first parachute division ordered to stop the canadians at any cost our boys were up against the best german soldiers in the german army you had to kill those guys they weren't they weren't given up very easy in order to capture the town the canadians will have to fight their way through a maze of narrow roads and rubble strewn laneways and to protect the vulnerable infantry the attack is supported by tanks at just 2.6 meters wide and equipped with a short barreled cannon the sherman five can maneuver through ortona's narrow streets providing protection and powerful fire support for advancing infantry [Music] this was our first encounter in a in an urban area you were always looking around do you because we just didn't know what the hell we were getting into from the outskirts we had literally to fight street by street and house by house there was a tremendous expenditure of ammunition whether or not you saw anyone you you still fired you know the constant firing was incredible basically our job was in support of internet the infantry were quite vulnerable to uh machine guns i'd say the sherman was the best killing infantry gun in the in they were by far the sherman tank was a great tank as far as that part is concerned the problem was always trying to identify where they were because the germans were very adept at camouflaging their machine guns our job was to knock these things out which we did we destroyed houses our high explosive rounds had a screw on the on the head of the round and by twisting this screw it delayed the impact for .05 seconds so when you fired that round [Music] the round would penetrate the wall and then explode inside after only a few days the vicious street to street fighting reduces much of ortona to ruins and the ferocity of the battle leads many to refer to the devastated town as little stalingrad puentos we were looking for our house in that area over there climbing over heaps it was just one of the hips of rubble every street was filled with rubble hips of rubble [Music] the cathedral of santa monica i remember that i was really scared really scared because you could be killed from one moment to the next by december 22nd the germans have lost two-thirds of ortona but they are not finished with the canadians yet and in the north end of the town they prepare to make their final stand versus audrey foyer because of the artillery fire coming from both sides the buildings collapsed and the tanks were only able to drive on very narrow paths and that way it was easier to bring them down we couldn't move on this street therefore we would have to go down that street and that would be the area they defined as their killing ground [Music] the germans for the first time brought up what they called their panzerfaust weapon the german 80 tank weapon plus the fact the germans had what we call the sticky bomb it was a shaped charge that had three magnets on the bottom of it and they would just drop this thing onto the top of a tank turret as the tank went by and it would latch onto the tank and then blow and blow all the way through the tank and destroy it as the battle for ortona intensifies the germans make it clear they will fight to the last man determined to stop the canadians whatever the cost team 43 after four days of bloody street to street fighting the allies have been unable to dislodge the stubborn german defenders from the town of ortona and it's the tanks of the three rivers regiment that are ordered to support the advance through the ruined town and finally finish the job tanks are at a disadvantage in the city because they don't know what's happening in the debris we couldn't move on this street therefore we would have to go down that street and that would be the area they defined as their killing ground this was our biggest problem was the damn sticky bombs and the panzerfunks the panzer coast was designed as a tank destroyer it was a very formidable weapon this was the first time that it was encountered by the canadians the hand-held panzerfaust is one of the deadliest anti-tank weapons on the battlefield it fires a shaped charge at ranges of up to 30 meters and can penetrate almost 200 millimeters of armor unleashing a devastating explosion inside the tanks drove over all the debris and the stones and there was one of our anti-tank guns standing in one of the side streets also taking down a few tanks they had been zeroing in on those streets so they knew exactly where they were going to fire and then we were told fire oh yeah the only time that a squadron uh got into the open was up on the northern end of town we broke into this uh piazza on the left flank is the old 15th century church with the huge doors were open and the germans had a machine gun set up by the altar and as the seaforths went across the square the machine gun cut them in the flank i ordered the gunner to start firing and we blew in the front of the church the infantry then went in and took out any germans that were still left in them and this was on christmas morning by the way first thing i had to do on christmas morning on december 28th the surviving german paratroopers finally pull out leaving ortona to the canadians the battle of ortona is the deadliest so far in the italian campaign leading many to call the last month of 1943 bloody december we lost more men in artona by far than what we lost on the beaches normandy probably twice as many or three times as many the fact that there are nearly fourteen hundred canadians buried just outside orton tells you exactly how difficult the battle was the canadian victory at artona is bittersweet as allied command decides the best way to seize rome lies further west the new route of their advance is straight through the leary valley one of the most heavily defended positions on the german's infamous hitler line allied intelligence reports an undefended gap in the line near an abandoned airport outside the village of aquino but their intelligence couldn't be more [Music] wrong we started out across the airport about oh we must have done about 5 30 6 o'clock the fog was dense i mean and so dense i mean you couldn't see 30 feet in front of you i was touching practically touching the tank ahead of me i couldn't even see it it was that dense about halfway this the sun came out and they disintegrated that lovely fog that was covering us and we went right straight across the airport not knowing what they had sitting there waiting for us [Music] then of course all hell broke loose the canadian tanks have just stumbled into an ambush four of germany's deadly accurate new anti-tank weapons the powerful and very lethal panther term may 19 1944 tanks and infantry are now less than 150 kilometers from rome if they can break through german defenses at aquino very little stands in their way but as they cross an abandoned airport outside the village they encounter a deadly surprise and we went right straight across the airport not knowing what they had sitting there waiting for us then of course all hell broke loose the canadians are among the first to encounter the german's newest anti-tank weapon the panther term is a panther turret mounted on a concrete base its low profile and heavy armor make it almost impossible to destroy and its high velocity 75 millimeter gun makes it extremely dangerous their guns were pretty pretty pretty rough is long barrel 75 same turret and everything is a panther tank that was a rude awakening because we didn't even know they were there so we played a game of ducks that day and we were the ducks and the germans had fun being the hunters all these guns were intermingled eats supporting each other so if you got to one you the guy will be shooting at you we got across there in one piece right across in front of those guns and i still had my troop intact i didn't go very far to i found this nice comfortable spot it was kind of a a hole i got the two tanks down into it and i was kind of on the rim had i gone on i went right into that 75 millimeter uh i wouldn't be here today and no dynamite i really had blown my three tanks all i all we lost about 13 tanks that day the only thing we could do is call on smoke to smoke those guns out around eight o'clock we got a good uh stonk of smoke came in and finally we got off there before it got dark and got off the airport unable to get past the panther terms at aquino the canadians finally breach the hitler line further west they cross the melfa river and resume their advance up the main highway towards rome by late may the allies have cracked the german defenses and most of the german defenders retreat north of rome the german defenses really fell apart and they had to withdraw which they hadn't planned to do so we came up to taurus crossroads chasing them and they put up the battle there they knocked out a number of our tanks one in sea squadron and the tank that i had been in uh 15 days before received a direct hit in the turret everybody in the chart was killed which would have been me one of our tanks at taurus crossroad was hit it went right through that outer plate in through across the tank out the other side knocked off the the plate that was welded there which we never did fine and kept on going jimmy bar's tank with sandy scott as gunner came down the hill and as they came down at the crossroads like there which cut across in an angle was this german tank jimmy bar's tank are immediately engaged 15 armor-piercing shells at point-blank range a hundred yards away just bounced off since i scared the dickens out of the gunner the fire 15 armor piercing shots and see them bounce off this thing [Music] with even bigger guns on it [Music] the sherman didn't have a chance against sepanta [Music] the german panther is one of the most feared tanks of the second world war and his sudden appearance on the italian battlefield is a nightmare for the canadian tankers may 1944 eight months after landing in italy canadian tankers have become battle-hardened warriors veterans of head-to-head clashes with the best the germans can feel now as they near rome they encounter the deadliest tank in the german arsenal the infamous panther 15 armor-piercing shells at point-blank range 100 yards away just bounced off that just scared the dickens out of the gunner the fire 15 armor piercing shots and see them bounce off this thing i think this is the first time that the allies had encountered panthers the panther is armed with a high velocity 75 millimeter main gun and its sloping front hull gives it the equivalent of 145 millimeters of armor protection making it almost impervious to head-on attacks but one of these shells had affected the traverse mechanism and evidently damaged that so the turret wouldn't revolve otherwise they'd have been dead all of them and then they hit upon it to put an hc on delay into the bogeys that's the wheels on the side between the tracks so that was that one that that knocked out that tank [Music] we lost i think about 11 men there i was there we took one of the boys out in the shoe box the tank that had brewed you know that's all it was left and uh so uh we buried them there at the um by the church at right at the crossroads as more canadian tanks surge into the leary valley the germans retreat and the road to the eternal city is finally open but when the allies enter rome on june 4th the canadians are not among the liberators the thing that bugged us afterwards after all this heavy fighting and all the people and tanks and personnel we'd lost wounded and killed the american army commander mark clark he pulled the canadians out and let the americans going to take rome the ally fifth army entered the eternal city from the south proclaimed by cheering multitudes they got the joy and a lot wonderful of coming into rome as the heroes and the conquerors we went through rome at three o'clock in the morning we just whistled through there and said hello rome goodbye rome that's the way it was [Music] in all the bloody fighting of the italian campaign costs the canadians hundreds of tanks and 25 000 casualties it is a heavy sacrifice but one that helps to dislodge the tenacious german defenders and finally secure the allied victory in italy practically the war was already lost by zen but we didn't believe it i didn't believe it i'm just very proud of the canadian soldiers where i don't care where the hell it was i think the canadian soldiers were damn good [Applause] who had to break the hitler line first canadian div who did artona first clinton div when i take a look at the 1 375 graves at the morrow river i say no it wasn't worth the cost [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

Views: 297,733

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battle of monte cassino, italian ww2, italy ww2, mussolini, tank battle for rome, rome in ww2, italian war

Id: xtBKXL59MFg

Length: 41min 51sec (2511 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020