Canadians in Ortona...

Right now I'm preparing a miniseries or -campaign around the battle for Ortona.

The Battle of Ortona (December 20, 1943 to December 28, 1943) was a small, yet extremely fierce, battle fought between German Fallshirmjaeger(paratroops) and assaulting Canadianforces from the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. It was the culmination of the fighting on the Adriatic front in Italy during "Bloody December". The battle dubbed "Little Stalingrad" for the deadliness of its close-quarters combat, took place in the small Adriatic Sea town of Ortona, with its peacetime population of 10,000.

Ortona was of high strategic importance, as it was one of Italy's few usable deep water ports on the east coast, and was needed for docking allied ships and so shorten Eighth Army's lines of supply which at the time stretched back to Bari and Taranto. Allied forces were ordered to maintain the offensive, and going through the built up areas in and around Ortona was the only feasible option. Ortona was part of the Winter Line defence system and the Germans had constructed a series of skilfully designed interlocking defensive positions in the town. This, together with the fact that the Germans had been ordered to "fight for every last house and tree" made the town a formidable obstacle to any attacking force.

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