If you’re an avid reader of my blog then you know we’ve been focusing on World War Two for quite some time, taking an in depth look at some of the significant battles, but specifically Canada’s contributions towards the war effort in Europe. Lately, we’ve been learning about the end of the war and key events, such as the Italian Campaign, D-Day, and the Liberation of Europe, that ultimately led the allies to victory. Each of these events are significant in their own way, but right off the bat I took a particular interest in the Italian campaign, specifically the battle of Ortona.
Known as: “the soft underbelly of Europe,” Italy served as the first stepping stone for the allies in their quest to free Europe of nazi control. After failing to establish along the western front on numerous occasions, The Italian Campaign was a plan devised by Winston Churchill to split up the enemy and attack up through Italy.
The Campaign began in Sicily with Operation Husky, and moved northward through the mountainous peninsula. Sicily was taken, almost uncontested, in a mere 39 days. However, when the Allies crossed to Italy, they were met by a fierce German resistance, determined to hold the mainland after their embarrassing defeat. To slow the allied advance, the Germans took advantage of the rural, mountainous landscape and turned the Italian peninsula into a series of well equip defensive positions. These defensive lines were protected with barbed wire, land mines, machine gun nests, and artillery. Canadians joined other allied forces in what amounted to be a painstaking crawl up the Italian mainland, driving back the Germans from town to town.
Canadian troops played an important role in the Italian Campaign and they’re most well renowned for the fierce battles they waged in the small coastal town of Ortona. The town was heavily defended by the elite 1st Parachute Division, with direct orders from hitler to defend it at all costs. The Germans troops booby trapped houses, fortified buildings, concealed machine guns, and clutter barricaded the narrow streets with rubble to halt the allied advance.
Parachute Engineers in Combat, Ortona 1943: A German Perspective
Using our engineers’ explosives, we blew up entire lines of houses to hold up the advance of enemy tanks. In the mountains of rubble thus created, booby traps were emplaced. The plan was to funnel the enemy in a specific direction by means of systematic demolitions. The market square was the intended destination. Around it the houses were transformed into small fortresses studded with machine guns. The enemy would have been severely mangled here, and handed an annihilating defeat. But instead he recognized our trap and avoided it.
Originally, this is what stemmed my interest towards the Italian campaign. After hearing about some of the elaborate booby traps, such as an explosive piano key, I was left deeply intrigued and wanting to know more. I’ve always been creative and I’ve always loved building things so it got me thinking, how would someone even design and build something like that? So with that in mind I originally came up with: How were the Canadian soldiers able to recognize and disarm the different booby traps throughout the Italian campaign? However, after surfing the interwebs and coming up dry, I took a different approach and devised the question: What types of strategies and tactics did the Canadians use to take the heavily fortified town of Ortona?
A lot of the time, the Italian campaign is often referred to as an engineers war. Both the rugged terrain and the enemy created tough obstacles for the allies to move through. The landscape was mountainous and the weather was often cold and rainy. At the same time the German military was destroying bridges, railway tracks, cratering roads and planting mine fields. Further more, defended towns were reinforced with demolitions, mines, and booby traps. The Canadian engineers had to work hard and be fully committed to restoring the routes by building bridges, clearing minefields, and moving minor obstacles.
However, when the Canadian First Division entered Ortona, much of the battle involved intense house to house fighting. Fighting from building to building is time consuming, but especially dangerous. The Canadian soldiers were not only exposed to brutal close combat fighting within the buildings, but they were subject to enemy fire from down the street when they exited to go to the next house. So the Canadian engineers developed a new tactic called “mouse-holing.” Mouse holing, in concept, is when a hole is prepared in the common wall between two houses and used by the allies to gain entry from within. The breach was either accomplished by pickaxes or explosives, and the strategy proved to be highly effective. They went in through the ground floor of a house and fought their way up three or four floors then blew a hole in the wall into the next building and worked their way down. Canadian infantrymen moved from house to house without ever showing up in the streets, and mouse holing was largely responsible for the allied victory at Ortona.
Loyal Edmonton Regiment diary entry on December 22, 1943:
Street and house to house fighting continues. The enemy is showing a desperate resistance. Our 6 Pdr guns are engaging barricades and strong points to clear a passage for tanks. Since the Hun has blown down buildings to block off all the streets, it has been decided to concentrate on the clearing of the main axis through the city to enable our tanks to advance. ‘D’ Coy, flanked by ‘B’ Coy on the right and ‘A’ Coy on the left, clear the main street to the second city square where concentrated MMG fire and strong opposition is encountered. Clearing of the large buildings adjacent to this street, particularly towards the Esplanade, necessitates continuous fighting by these three Coys.
