1943::A Christmas Dinner On the Front Line

Amid World War II's heavy battle for Ortona, a Christmas dinner.

"1943::Eight Days and Eight Nights - Canadians Battle for Ortona, Italy in WWII"

Video Clip: British Pathe (1944)

Ortona, Italy. A valuable Adriatic port of Nazi defences on the Pescara-Rome road. For months, Allied forces had been pushing Italy's battle line northward with the objective of taking back Italy and Nazi-occupied Rome. America's Fifth Army pushed in the West, and Britain's Eighth Army pushed in the East. At 11 am on December 20, Canadians fighting for the Eighth Army entered Ortona with a boom, battling against Nazi machine-gun nests and deadly snipers lying hidden among hundreds of strongly fortified posts. Nazi tanks concealed in basements added to the chaos, firing until entire buildings crumbled on top of the soldiers in the streets. War correspondents reporting from the scene claimed it was the most desperate street-fighting yet experienced in the war.

"1943::Italy's Battlefront Pushes Northward"

Clip: The Brattleboro Daily Reformer

Brattleboro, Vermont

But as Nazi forces clung desperately to their Ortona stronghold, the Canadians of the Eighth Army pushed forward, fighting from house to house, door to door, and window to window, slowly chipping away at their defences, often engaging in hand-to-hand combat with nothing more than their fists and bayonets. They pushed back Nazi Germany's best soldiers, men who were sent into action only when other troops had failed. Men who were under orders to fight until death or the last bullet was gone.

"1943::Canadians Find Their Way Through the Heavily Bombed Streets of Ortona, Italy"

Photo Clip: Illustrated London News (1944)

London, England

The Canadians had endured months of fighting as the British Eighth Army pushed North along Italy's Adriatic coast. But after nearly a week of hard battle in Ortona, with their numbers sorely depleted and all the hell of war surrounding them, Allied headquarters was determined to stage a glorious Christmas party for the boys in the fight. With help from Italians in a nearby town, they foraged everything they needed to make their Christmas Day memorable. They scoured the countryside and found turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and chickens, all perfect for fortifying their rations. Red and green peppers substituted for traditional evergreens and were hung in glassless windows to add a little colour to the celebration. Italians posted Merry Christmas signs along the roads where the Canadians travelled, and military jeeps carried chalked messages of Christmas cheer. There was no peace for the Canadians during Christmas of 1943, but there was a celebration of festive spirit that no shells or mortars could destroy.

"1943::The Christmas Dinner in the Old Church"

Source: tbd

It was a cold Christmas Day in Ortona, but military headquarters managed to transport the cooked meal to the battlefront along with 45 litres of wine, a gift from the Italians to the soldiers. It would take a whole day of juggling positions to feed all the men, but it would be a meal worth remembering. With their rifles still hot and their comrades holding the line, a small squad of soldiers snuck away from the action and stepped into the only building still standing in the area, the Santa Maria di Costantinopoli. There, in the 13th-century chapel, amid the din of crashing explosives, the echoing staccato of machine-gun fire and the roar of Nazi flame-throwers, the Canadians celebrated Christmas.

"1943::Soldiers Enjoying a Christmas Dinner on the Front Line in Ortona, Italy"

Library and Archives Canada, PA-163936) Photo Credit: Lieut. F. G. Whitcombe

As the men entered the chapel, a likable Padre greeted them at the door and said grace before seating them for their meal. They sat at cloth-covered boards that served as tables, and in front of them were plates of roast pork, turkey, potatoes, fig pudding and rice sauce spiced with rum for dessert. It was a sight for sore eyes and more food than they had seen in a month. A glass of wine and a bottle of beer were placed in front of each soldier as the Padre told jokes between bites. When their meal was over, the men gathered around the old church organ to sing Christmas carols, trying their best to drown out the sound of the battle still raging around them. When their bellies were full and their hearts filled with cheer, the men thanked the Padre and opened the door to the war outside.

They returned to the front line to trade places with their comrades, allowing them a chance to sneak away for their Christmas dinner in the old church. For some, it was their fifth overseas Christmas since leaving Canada, but for all, it was the most memorable Christmas of their lives.

"1943::Battle Was Won and Comrades Were Buried"

Photo Clip: Times Colonist (1944)

Victoria, British Columbia

On December 28, days after their Christmas dinner, the Canadians buried their fallen comrades in a makeshift cemetery. They had endured eight days and eight nights of fiery hell when the Nazi forces suddenly abandoned their Ortona fortress and headed North toward Pescara. The allied soldiers had battered down one basement citadel after another and had won the battle. Among the victorious were Esquimalt school teachers, Victoria carpenters, Oak Bay civil servants, and even Vancouver Boy Scouts, who had all volunteered to serve in recruiting offices back home in British Columbia. As the Canadians of the Eighth Army left Ortona in continued pursuit of the Nazi forces, the native Italians, who had mostly fled to the mountains when the battle began, returned to find their once beautiful Ortona in rack and ruin.

"1998::The Reconciliation Dinner"

Photo Clip: The Daily Item (1998)

Sunbury, Pennsylvania

Photo Credit: Associated Press

In 1998, funds were raised to send Canadian veteran soldiers back to Ortona for a reconciliation dinner with their German battle-time foes. It was a difficult situation. Both sides had lost so much and so many. Even after the passing of 55 years, there was still a lot of pain. Although the total loss of both sides was never fully determined, Canadian wounded, war prisoners and Missing In Action were estimated to be nearly 3,000, with 500 dead, nearly double the known loss of the Nazi forces. However, things changed a little when the German veterans shared their own bittersweet Christmas story of 1943, back when they had huddled together nearly frozen in an Ortona railway tunnel, honouring the Nativity feast in the dark with nothing but bottles of Schnapps and Aquavit to warm their bones, wondering when the battle would end, and praying they would survive. On Christmas Eve 1998, Ortona's veteran soldiers, who had gathered again in the old church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, shared a healing Christmas meal with the men sitting across from them who were once standing on the other side of the line.