Ortona (46 page)

At dawn, under a grey, overcast sky, the Edmontons went into the attack. They advanced on a two-company wide front, with ‘D' Company on the left and ‘B' on the right. ‘B' Company made good progress, quickly cutting through a cluster of small vineyards, olive groves, and vegetable gardens to establish a position inside some buildings on Ortona's edge.

‘D' Company had no such luck. Stone's men advanced in a line across an open field. Seventy-five to one hundred yards away stood the houses of Ortona. The company was immediately taken under fire by machine gun–armed paratroopers hidden in slit trenches fronting the buildings. Snipers, firing out of upper-storey windows and from the roofs, added to what Stone later described as “murderous fire.”
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Men fell in droves, killed or badly wounded. ‘D' Company was forced to withdraw, leaving many of the wounded on the field. They tried again a few minutes later with the same result. The company had gone into the first attack about one hundred strong. After the second failed attempt, only seventeen riflemen were still on their feet.
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Besides Stone, only one officer remained — Lieutenant John Dougan. Stone divided the company into three groups. He commanded one, Dougan another, and the third fell to Company Sergeant Major Ron Bowen. Stone was in a quandary. Attempting another attack seemed suicidal. But Edmonton commander Lieutenant Colonel Jim Jefferson was on the radio urging him to get his men forward. ‘B' Company was on its objective. Jefferson told Stone, “You must push on.”

Stone snapped back, “Reinforce success.”
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He wanted Jefferson to change the line of advance so that everyone followed ‘B' Company's route into Ortona. Jefferson insisted Stone had to establish a position
on the left side of the Corso. He needed part of the battalion on both sides of the street. Otherwise it would be unsafe for the tanks.

Stone, Dougan, and Bowen held a huddled conference. It was starting to drizzle lightly, but they were so used to the cold, wet weather that they paid no mind to their rapidly dampening clothes. Stone explained ‘D' Company's task. He wanted one platoon to take the point. If it got through, the others would follow. The three men drew lots. Dougan, who considered himself little blessed with gambler's luck, predictably lost. “Can you lay down some smoke to cover us?” he asked Stone.
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The major told Private Elwyn Springsteel, the company's two-inch mortarman, and his helper to lay on the smoke bombs.
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Springsteel could see the German machine-gun positions on the edge of the town, so putting smoke where it was needed posed no problem.

Dougan considered his options. For six men to try striding across the machine gun–swept open ground was simple suicide. There was, however, a small ditch running directly from the Edmontons' forming-up position to where a large house stood on Ortona's edge. The building looked to be a
pensione
, or small apartment house. The ditch was narrow, and about three feet deep. It occurred to Dougan that if they hunched over and ran up the ditch in a single-file line, they might remain unnoticed by the German machine-gunners. Of course, a wise German officer would have set a machine gun right smack at the end of the ditch to prevent precisely this kind of infiltration.

In fighting the Germans, Dougan had previously found that often the tactic that seemed most unexpected because of its hazard was the one to take. The Germans tended to dismiss the possibility of their enemy taking bold, aggressive action. The proper way to mount an attack was to advance by sections over the open ground on a wide front. This was what the Canadians had already done. This was precisely what the Germans would again be expecting. Bunching up in a ditch was madness. “Hell, we're all going to die anyway,” Dougan thought, “might as well give it a go.”
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With Springsteel firing off smoke as quickly as his loader could drop bombs into the firing tube, Dougan and his men bolted down the ditch. As they neared the end, Dougan expected to hear the horrible ripping sound of a German MG42 machine gun. He kept expecting to die. But not a shot was fired. The ditch was unguarded. Dougan and
his men piled out of it and up against the cover offered by the wall of the
pensione
.
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He turned to look back, planning to wave Stone and the rest of the company over. They were already through. Stone came out of the ditch first, grinning fiercely. “Nobody but a bunch of madmen would have attempted that dash,” Stone said.
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Behind them, still manning their slit trench positions in front of the
pensione
and other buildings, the paratroopers awaited the next Canadian attack. They appeared to have no inkling that the remaining fragment of ‘D' Company was now to their rear. Dougan opened the door to the
pensione
and the men quickly secured the house. Stone led Dougan and several infantrymen up the stairs to the top storey. They found the rooms there empty. From the upstairs windows, they looked right down into the German slit trenches. Rifles, Bren guns, and Thompson submachine guns poked out of the windows and opened fire as one. The Germans died in place.
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With the paratroopers now alerted to the Edmontons' presence, the battle was on. Stone led his section out of the
pensione
and they proceeded to clear the buildings standing between it and ‘B' Company's position to the right. Some prisoners were taken and held at the
pensione
, which Stone turned into his company headquarters. Shortly after the two companies linked up, Lieutenant Alon Johnson, the commander of the scout platoon, met Stone at the building. Johnson had been sent by Jefferson to confirm the precise location of Stone's company.

Stone told Johnson to take the prisoners back with him to battalion headquarters. As Johnson left with the prisoners, he heard Stone radio Jefferson. “Johnson's House is now in our hands,” Stone said. “Johnson headed your way. He'll explain.” When Johnson reported to Jefferson, he was able to point out the large building on Ortona's edge. For the rest of the day's fierce battle, the building was referred to by everyone in the Edmonton Regiment as Johnson's House.
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The fighting was chaotic. Germans and Canadians exchanged grenades by the dozens. ‘C' Squadron of the Three Rivers Tanks rolled its Shermans up close to the edge of town and hammered German positions with the 75-millimetre main guns. No. 5 Troop of ‘C' Squadron pushed 200 yards into the town itself, firing up numerous enemy positions as it advanced, but was unable to move
up Corso Vittorio Emanuele due to lack of infantry cover. With ‘D' Company too reduced by casualties to do more than widen its holdings of houses immediately around the
pensione
, the Edmontons' ‘B' Company spearheaded the Canadian advance.
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The tankers engaged two antitank guns, driving off their crews and capturing the guns.
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Forward movement of the tanks was seriously hampered by the many mines buried in the few streets paralleling Corso Vittorio Emanuele that were wide enough for the tanks. These streets were also choked with large piles of rubble the Germans had created by systematically blowing up buildings so their walls collapsed into the street. The tanks found it impossible to get over these mine-laden rubble piles. Even the infantry found moving in the streets difficult and dangerous. The paratroopers had snipers covering virtually every open space. ‘B' Company took heavy casualties, but pressed on.

In ‘D' Company's sector, Dougan was realizing that the German paratroopers were “tough babies.”
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He was in a street near the
pensione
when his section got tangled in a short grenade exchange with some of the enemy. The Canadians drove off the Germans. Dougan saw a wounded sergeant lying in clear view on the cobblestones. He shouted at the man to surrender. Slowly, calmly, the German raised his rifle and fired at Dougan. Dougan's men cut him down.
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On the Edmontons' right flank, ‘C' Company of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada had pushed off at daybreak toward Santa Maria di Costantinopoli. They met with little resistance and soon had occupied the church. Things went so well on his front that Captain Don Harley initially figured the town would be cleared of German troops by nightfall.
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‘C' Company started advancing up Via Costantinopoli, which arced from the eastern part of Ortona toward the southernmost square on Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Via Costantinopoli was bordered along much of its length by low stone walls protecting small gardens and olive groves. Interspersed among the gardens, and growing more numerous as the road advanced deeper into Ortona, were interlinked rows of two- and three-storey houses.

Harley's company got only a short distance up the street before meeting stiff German resistance. Several Three Rivers tanks followed a lane running off the Ortona-Orsogna lateral road east to the
Seaforth front and provided suppressing fire against German strong points. One tank from ‘C' Squadron, named
Cobourg II
, parked square in the middle of the street and fired shell after shell down its length to knock out a number of targets. Soon spent brass cartridges lay in a ragged pile behind the tank, as the loader threw the empty shells out of a hatch.
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With the tanks in support, Harley's men pressed on, making good progress until they reached the more densely built-up area.

It was soon clear that the paratroopers were not going to give Ortona up easily. It was impossible to flank enemy strong points by moving around them on the side streets. Every time Harley sent men off to check the flanking streets, they found them dangerously narrow and blocked by large piles of rubble from demolished buildings. Some of the piles were fifteen feet high, impossible to climb over without being completely exposed to sniper fire.

At 1100 hours, hearing matching reports from the two Edmonton companies in Ortona and from Harley's Seaforths, 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade commander Brigadier Bert Hoffmeister decided that Ortona was going to be a tough nut to crack. He realized the entire brigade would have to be committed. Accordingly, he ordered all companies of the Seaforth and Loyal Edmonton battalions into the battle. The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry would remain in close reserve.
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By evening, the Seaforths were all in Ortona. ‘D' Company was given the task of relieving the remnants of Stone's Edmonton company and protecting the Edmontons' left flank. This would allow the Edmontons, much reduced by casualties, to concentrate their strength on advancing up Corso Vittorio Emanuele.
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The remaining Seaforth companies secured the area around Santa Maria di Costantinopoli. Lieutenant Colonel Syd Thomson moved his battalion HQ into the church.

The Seaforth war diarist noted that battalion HQ staff were shocked by the evidence of the stiff fight Harley's men had faced. He wrote that ‘C' Company was “busy burying their own and enemy dead. The company's casualties being seven killed and many wounded. . . . Battalion strength . . . at that time 524, all ranks.”
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Knowing the Seaforths were protecting their flanks, the Edmontons pressed up the Corso on a two-company front. One company took each side of the main street. Buildings in this sector before the first square were scattered in closely packed little knots, with vegetable gardens between. Three Rivers' ‘C' Squadron was able to provide good support against the paratroopers' sniper and machine-gun positions, which were usually located in second- and third-storey windows. The presence of Teller antitank mines, however, meant that minesweeping teams from the Royal Canadian Engineers often had to precede the tanks. It was a dangerous job, especially as the sniper fire was extremely accurate.

The Edmontons pushed on, reaching the first square, Piazza Vittoria, just before nightfall. Three Rivers' No. 5 Troop, which had been supporting the advance through the day, withdrew at 1400 hours and was replaced by No. 1 Troop. The new tank troop, commanded by Lieutenant F. Simard, had advanced to within one hundred yards of the square when Simard's tank lost its left track to a Teller mine. Working under fire, Simard and his crew managed to rig up a tow chain and hook it to the rear of another Sherman. The other tank then dragged Simard's machine out of the immediate battle zone where it could be safely repaired.
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