Assimilating Urban Battle Experiance - The Canadians at Ortona

An enemy is best known by fighting him, for battle reveals his methods and tactics, and it indicates the ways and means of overcoming them. Such hard-won experience gained by a comparative few requires careful evaluation and the assimilation and dissemination of its lessons to ensure it benefits the many, and better prepares those yet untested for a similar challenge. Employing an example from the Italian Campaign of the Second World War, this article will describe how Canadian soldiers provided the Allied armies and their training organizations with valuable data on a form of fighting hitherto lacking in their experience against the Germans: the urban battle. In December 1943, following weeks of severe fighting to clear the Moro River, the British Eighth Army’s 1st Canadian Division captured the port town of Ortona on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Two battalions of the 2nd Infantry Brigade were principally involved, the Loyal Edmontons and the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, along with supporting arms. The battle cost the Canadians 275 casualties, of whom 104 were killed.

Dr. Ian Gooderson of King’s College London is a Senior Lecturer with the Defence Studies Department at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. He specializes in the military history of the Second World War, with an emphasis upon joint operations and the role of air power.