The Canadian Success at The Battle Of Ortona

CHC 2D7

May 25, 2018

Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of Sources

This historical investigation focuses on the topic: Account for the success of the

Canadians at the Battle of Ortona. ​Secret War Diaries of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment

by J.C. Jefferson, and ​Ortona: Canada’s Epic World War II Battle ​by ​Mark Zuehlke

provide in depth looks at Canadian soldiers and the entire Canadian army. These

sources provided me with an understanding of the battle of Ortona and Canadian victory

at Ortona.

Secret War Diaries of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment ​by J.C. Jefferson​, is

valuable in relation to the origin because it is written by a Canadian officer who was

present during the battle, and had classified information regarding the operation. It is

valuable in relation to purpose, because it was not intended for public knowledge and

contained secret military knowledge of a high ranking Canadian military official.This is

valuable in relation to content, because it contains a daily look at Canadian plans for the

battle, which provides more precise figures, like the amount of reinforcements daily.

This source is limited in terms of origin, as it is written by a Canadian officer who

only has Canadian military knowledge, also he would be biased towards the Canadians.

This source is limited in terms of purpose because it serves the purpose of informing

Canadian officials about the status of the battle, and not to provide an in depth

description of battle tactics. This source is limited in relation to content as it only

provides brief descriptions of the battle, daily and does not indicate causes for the

Canadian victory.
 ​ y ​Mark Zuehlke is valuable in relation
Ortona: Canada’s epic World War II Battle b

to origin as it is written by a Canadian historian, who has a deep knowledge on this

topic. It is valuable in relation to the purpose as it is written to provide an understanding

of the battle from the eyes of Canadian soldiers. This source is valuable in terms of

content as it shows the steps that were necessary for a Canadian victory.

This source is limited in terms of origin, because it is written by a Canadian who

is most likely biased towards the Canadian side. It is limited in terms of purpose, as it is

written to show the Canadian side of the battle, and how they won it it, but it does not

show how the Germans lost the battle. This source is limited in terms of content,

because it talks only about the Canadian plans and their success, while omitting the

German plan, and its failure.

Word Count: 423

Section 2: Investigation

The Battle of Ortona was Canada’s bloodiest battle of the Italian campaign, and

was called “Little Stalingrad” by the media. Ortona was not seen as an important

objective by either side, but nevertheless a brutal battle would be waged there. Adolf

Hitler personally ordered that the town be defended to the last man. The battle was

fought by the German first parachute division who had been seasoned veterans of the

eastern front. This battle was one of Canada’s finest hours in WW2 as they were,

against the odds, able to defeat the superior German forces. After eight gruelling days

of fighting, accompanied by a short Christmas dinner, the Canadians cleared the city.

How were the Canadians able to defeat an elite German division who had the

advantage of being able to defend the city and establishing a strong defensive line? The

Canadian army was successful at the battle of Ortona, because of their successful use

of innovated infantry tactics such as mouse-holing, effective counter to the German

plan, and the fact that the Canadians were much better equipped to handle the battle of

attrition that Ortona would become, and ultimately be in a better position to then deliver

the final blow.

The Canadians used a multitude of tactics and strategies to secure a victory at

Ortona, but the tactic that was the most crucial was mouse-holing. Mouse-holing first

originated during the Battle of Ortona, and was conceived of by Captain Bill Longhurst.

During the early days of the Battle of Ortona the plan was to advance using the streets.

The problem with this was that the streets of Ortona were completely covered by

snipers, machine gunners, mines, and German infantry. Being exposed in these streets
was practically suicide. To take a house, a soldier would have to enter the house

through the door, clear the house, and then exit and run to the next house. These brief

moments where the soldiers were outside and exposed would be more than enough to

get themselves killed. “He realized that using the streets was a fool’s game. It was

playing according to German rules. Putting themselves right in the enemy’s scopes. So

the thing to do was advance inside the buildings”.1 Mouse-holing enabled the

Canadians to blow up an entrance upstairs, then throw bombs into the hole, and

proceed to spray machine gun fire. Any German soldier in the room would be killed

before they have any time to react, the Canadian soldiers would then throw bombs

downstairs and rushed the remainder of the house. This plan was an incredibly effective

way of clearing houses. It was noticed by Canadian soldiers that when they took one

house on one side of the street, the Germans on the other side would withdraw as well,

this was very useful, as it meant that they could fight on only one side of the street while

simultaneously taking both sides. This tactic was very effective in taking houses quickly

and without an overabundance of casualties. However, even with an improved tactic,

there were still a lot of casualties and fighting was still brutal. The Germans, to counter

the Canadian mouse-holing rigged the houses with explosives, “The Germans placed

demolition charges beneath the houses in the line of advance, firing them as the

Canadians moved in. A platoon of Edmonton's was wiped out this way”.2 Compared to

the previous method of advancement this tactic was much more effective, and

1
​Zuehlke, Mark. ​Ortona Street Fight​. Victoria, B.C: Orca Book Publishers., 2011.
2
​Twatio, Bill. "World War II: Christmas at Ortona." Galegroup. December 2002.
eventually led to the Canadians being able to take up ground fast, and eventually push

out the Germans to win the battle.

The German plan was never to defend the city to the last man, they originally

planned to operate a defensive line on the Arielli river. This was the logical thing to do,

because neither side wanted to engage in urban warfare which would surely bring about

a lot of casualties. Shockingly the Germans did not retreat all the way to the Arielli river,

but instead set up a Stalingrad like defence at the small city of Ortona. At Hitler’s

personal request the German 1st Paratrooper division were to defend Ortona to the last

man. The battle of Ortona was heavily inspired by the media, and was one of the

earliest examples of the press influencing warfare, “Commander-in-Chief South

Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring said "We do not want to defend Ortona

decisively, but the English have made it appear as important as Rome ... You can do

nothing when things develop in this manner” 3. However a battle that was never

necessary would become one of the bloodiest in all of the Italian campaign. The

Germans used the city itself to aid in the defence of the city, by using explosives to blow

as many buildings down and use the rubble to create barricades and make the roads

impassable by the Canadian tanks. This would also enable them to lay mines, and dig

in fighting positions in which they would hide machine gunners and anti tank weapons,

which would prove to cause of heavy casualties to the Canadian divisions. The German

plan was to create defensive lines throughout the city while retreating to slowly bleed

out the Canadian forces in a war of attrition. The Canadian forces were able to counter

3
​Gordon, Bob. "Ortona: A Nasty Street Battle That Came to Be Known as Canada's
'little Stalingrad'." Galegroup. May 2015.
this by concentrating the forces in the middle of the German line and creating a colossal

crack in the defensive line​. ​The next step would be to attempt to encircle the German

division and either trap them in the city or push them out of the city. ​“If he could pierce

the line and get behind the Germans, they would be unable to re-establish a blocking

line in front of his advance. The paratroopers would have to abandon Ortona or be

isolated inside the town and face destruction​.​” 4 This plan had successfully countered

the German plan. ​The German plan to use the rubble to completely stop the Canadians

from advancing had failed, because even though it did inflict heavy damage to the

Canadians, they were able to use mouse-holing to advance throughout the city.

Through the use of a successful Canadian counter plan to the German plan, the

Canadians were able to create a successful strategy to advance through the city, and

they used mouse-holing to achieve this strategy by allowing them to take houses with

high effectiveness.

Throughout the battle it became clear that this battle was going to be a battle of

attrition, and whoever was able to maintain their forces, and keep a surplus of resources

available would have the upper hand. Canada was in a much better strategic position

for proper reinforcements as the allied forces were marching through Italy at a rapid

pace, they had a surplus of equipment and soldiers. This enabled the Canadians to be

able to constantly add in reinforcements, while the Germans still had reinforcements,

the rate at which they came in was less significant than the Canadian reinforcements.

The most significant reinforcements by the Canadians was on the 27th of December

4
Zuehlke, Mark. ​Ortona : Canada's Epic World War II Battle.​ Douglas & McIntyre, 2004.
when over 100 infantry reinforcements and tanks came to the aid of the divisions at

Ortona. This constant reinforcement enabled the Canadians to keep their forces strong,

and the damage the Germans did to the Canadian forces was able to be partially

repaired enough in order to proceed the battle. In other words even though the

Germans did significant damage to the Canadian forces, the Canadian reinforcements

were able to preserve the Canadian army until the ultimate success at the Battle of

Ortona. The successful use of reinforcements enabled the Canadians to be able to

launch a final blow on the Germans. Towards the end of the battle, the Canadians were

rather frustrated at the continuous German bombing of the buildings which resulted in

many casualties, and decided to bomb buildings in which the Germans had been heard

in, this was immensely successful for the Canadians as it gave them the majority of the

city and the Germans were all but finished after this, “ In retaliation 'A' coy blew up two

buildings in which Germans were heard talking. Since we now control by fire the third

city square, opposite the doomed cathedral, the end of the battle is now in sight. The

Hun has not many remaining buildings from which to manoeuvre or make a major

stand.” 5. The German forces left the following morning.

In conclusion the Canadians were able to achieve success at Ortona against the

stronger German division through the successful strategy of creating a colossal crack in

the German line and pushing them out of the city, they were able to achieve this through

the use of innovated infantry tactics such as mouse-holing which lowered their casualty

rate and enabled the Canadians to be able to take large parts of the city while inside the

5
J.C. "The Secret War Diaries of The Loyal Edmonton Regiment." ​War
​Jefferson,
Diaries,​ December 1943.
houses, and was an essential part in the plan to push the Germans out, the ability to

maintain the Canadian army during the battle, was a crucial part of keeping their forces

in tact enough to deliver the final blow and achieve victory at the Battle of Ortona.

Word Count: 1507

Section 3: Reflection

During my investigation I discovered some challenges facing historians, such as

bias, scarcity of primary documents, and finding differing perspectives. The first

challenge I faced was the almost non existence of German documents about the Battle

of Ortona. Every resource that I found regarding the battle of Ortona was from a

Canadian perspective. Although the German plan is shown from the Canadian side, it

cannot be fully understood unless the entirety of the plan and its intent is revealed.

Another problem with the lack of differing perspectives is bias, because the Canadians

were fighting the Germans they might be inclined to state lies or partial truths about the

german military operation, and since there are no differing perspectives it is impossible

to know for sure. A problem I faced with finding sources was that there were hardly any

primary sources available, especially any that helped answer my focus question. I

believe that some of the challenges facing a historian that would not affect a scientist or

a historian, are the presences of bias, the fact that there is a difference between

historical truth, and scientific truth. The presence of bias does not affect science or math

because they are absolute facts there is right and wrong, while historians have to use

evidence in order to make an educated hypothesis and opinion on a certain topic. An

example of bias in history would be a Turkish historian not wanting to accept the fact

that the Armenian genocide ever occured. Definitive proof in history is almost

impossible to establish in history because of our ever changing knowledge of the past,

and the difficulty for all historians to agree on something. Since our knowledge of the
past is ever changing there is no way to establish a definitive everlasting proof for an

historical event. This does not mean however that all versions are equally acceptable

because some theories have much more evidence than others.

Word Count: 321

Total Word Count: 2251

Bibliography

Gordon, Bob. "Ortona: A Nasty Street Battle That Came to Be Known as Canada's 'little

Stalingrad'." Galegroup. May 2015.

Twatio, Bill. "World War II: Christmas at Ortona." Galegroup. December 2002.

Zuehlke, Mark. ​Ortona : Canada's Epic World War II Battle​. Douglas & McIntyre, 2004.

Zuehlke, Mark. ​Ortona Street Fight​. Victoria, B.C: Orca Book Publishers., 2011.

Jefferson, J.C. "The Secret War Diaries of The Loyal Edmonton Regiment." ​War

Diaries,​ December 1943.