Canada in World War II - Part 5: The Invasion of Italy

After the debacle that was Dieppe, Europe was wary of land invasions but nevertheless knew they must be done. The way they planned to do this was not to push through the fortified defences along the French coast (although they'll get there soon!) but through what Churchill famously described as "the soft underbelly" - Italy. How much the Canadians wanted to contribute was a controversial matter; King hoped to stay out of the ground war for as much as possible to avoid further casualties and a conscription crisis if they lost too many soldiers, but General Andrew McNaughton felt that their long-standing infantry were itching to get into a fight. Attacking into Sicily was the time to do so, and while King was hesitant, there wasn't any backing out.

Unloading tanks and soldiers shortly after the initial invasion. An often
forgotten bonus of fighting in Italy was you got to wear shorts.

Knowing far too well the consequences for attacking into the fortified beaches, the Allies came up with a brilliant plan to trick the Nazis into defending the Peloponnese region instead of their true target, Sicily (you can read up on it here). The plan worked beautifully, allowing the massive armada consisting of six battleships, two aircraft carriers, fifteen cruisers, 119 destroyers and more than 2,000 landing craft to sail towards Sicily on July 9th. After the lead assault waves came the 160,000 allied reinforcements backed by over 600 tanks and 14,000 other vehicles. Far from another Dieppe, there was relatively small resistance. In fact, the Italian heat caused many of the allied soldiers (Canadians included, of course) to trade with the Sicilians for parasols and headwear to ward off the sun.

The first while went about as well as it could. The Canadian portion of the army moved from town to town through Assoro, Leonforte, and Agira, with the fighting slow and methodical with forward bombing and deliberate, heavy pushes to clear out the German forces. The Italians, meanwhile, would often surrender without much of a fight as they weren't in it for the long haul the way the Germans were. By the time the Canadians continued their push through Messina and Regalbuto by the end of July and early August, effectively pushing the Germans out of Sicily, Mussolini would be deposed. The Germans got word the Italians had planned to surrender, and for Italy the outlook of the war changed very suddenly. The Nazis became occupiers rather than allies, as they stole their supplies, murdered officers and took prisoners as they believed they had to defend Italy and would do it with or without the help of the Italians.

The "Loyal Eddies" in Ortona. The term
"street fight" held different connotations then.
"Never bring a knife to a gun and tank fight,"
they'd say.

With the allies' initial strikes successful, the Nazis made their stand on the Italian mainland with one of the major battles in World War II for Canada taking place in the port city of Ortona. Founded by the Trojans, the ancient city held some of Germany's best defenders. It would be here they would no longer go through a fighting retreat, but dig in and hold. The hungry and battle-weary Canadian forces assaulted the outskirts of Ortona with a heavy artillery bombardment from across the nearby Moro river, forced into a frontal assault through a five kilometre long trench as large as 200 metres wide which the Germans were defending strongly. Unable to flank due to German counter-attacks and numerous tank mines along the way, they had to fight right through it. Even bombing their defences was difficult as the maps they held were dreadful while the Germans' were up to date and effective. Nevertheless, they got through it with heavy casualties until they reached Ortona.

In the town itself would be brutal, close-quarters urban warfare. The Germans would blow up houses to create strong points, lay booby traps, and lay mines all across the place. The way the Loyal Edmonton Regiment (the "Loyal Eddies") took to attacking it was to cross from balcony to balcony and move top-down to avoid walking into traps placed on bottom floors. They'd come in from above, lob grenades down, and progress through. The battle was finally over by December 28th after an uncomfortable but quiet Christmas.

Running low on weapons and ammunition, some men
were armed with comically over-sized shovels.

The following phases of the Italian invasion came through stalemate battles over massive lines, similar to World War I. First, the Gustav line, the heavily defended landscape that was taken from the 11th of May to the 18th, was eventually overrun by a massed force of French, American, Polish, British and Canadian forces. The advantage the allies held at this point in the battle that was critical in keeping the Germans off-balance and unable to properly reinforce was superior air support. By now the Luftwaffe was in tatters, lacking the numbers to stand against the ever powerful allied power in the air. Reconnaissance was near impossible, and the allies used that to attack where the Germans weren't expecting.

With just the Hitler line left, the combined force of ten national groups and around 500,000 soldiers went to push their objectives on the 23rd. The Canadians were performing Operation Chesterfield, an attack that went against many of the soldiers that they had fought so savagely against in Ortona. In once again a World War I style battle, the Canadians used a creeping barrage before pushing through with their infantry. Taking the Hitler line was a costly affair, with 1,000 casualties for Canada alone on May 23rd. Nevertheless, it was a victory. Italy was shattered, the German lines were falling, and it paved the way for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Unfortunately, they were unable to exploit the retreat, where so often the largest amount of casualties come, because of one major issue not commonly associated with warfare.

Traffic.

A painting of Ortona. Brilliant juxtaposition of scattered
weaponry in the forefront with damaged buildings in the
background, a stunning take on the ravages of war. Plus,
the sky looks pretty.

With thousands of vehicles pushing through only so many Italian roads, the allied forces ground to a halt. Worse yet, the British decided they would join with the Canadian vehicles to avoid a well-defended stretch not far away, adding another 20,000 vehicles to the mix.

While the assault into Italy was a success, there were many lessons to be learned. First, an amphibious assault can be successful with proper planning. Second, the Nazi's lack of air support by this time in the battle was something to be exploited. And third, blame the British for everything, because that's what they were doing to us.