Ortona (70 page)

CIB
Canadian Infantry Brigade.

CO
Any commanding officer, regardless of unit size.

COTC
Canadian Officers Training Corps.

C
OY
Abbreviation for company.

DUKW
Abbreviation for the two-and-a-half-ton amphibious truck. American-made, six-wheeled truck, capable of six knots in water.

E
DDIES
Loyal Edmonton Regiment.

F
ORMING
-U
P
P
OINT
(FUP)
A geographical point where a unit of any size gathers in preparation for an attack or other form of movement.

F
ORWARD
A
ID
P
OST
(FAP)
Most advanced aid post to which casualties could be withdrawn for treatment.

F
ORWARD
O
BSERVATION
O
FFICER
(FOO)
Artillery batteries had two officers, usually captains. During a battle, one officer remained with the guns to oversee their operation. The other, the FOO, accompanied the infantry regiment being supported. He usually was part of a three-man team that included the FOO, a radio signaller, and a Bren carrier driver. The FOO was in charge of calling for artillery support and directing the fire toward enemy targets that were threatening or holding up the infantry.

G
ERRY
Common term for Germans. Also spelled Jerry. Canadians seldom if ever used the harsher term Kraut, which was favoured by American soldiers.
Tedeschi
, the Italian word for German, was also popular. As an alternative to Gerry, Canadians occasionally used Hun or Boche.

G
LAMOUR
B
OYS
Nickname for 48th Highlanders of Canada.

G
UNNER
The artillery regiment equivalent to a private.

H
ASTY
P'
S
Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

HE
High explosive.

HMG
Heavy machine gun.

HQ
Any headquarters.

L
EE
E
NFIELD
R
IFLE
, NO. 4, M
ARK
1
Standard rifle of Commonwealth forces. The Mark 1 was made in Canada for Canadian personnel. It fired .303 ammunition contained in five-round clips. Effective range was 900 yards, but most accurate when fired at ranges under 600 yards. A highly reliable, rugged weapon. Capable of being mounted with an 8-inch spike bayonet.

LMG
Light machine gun.

L
OYAL
E
DDIES
Loyal Edmonton Regiment.

MG
Machine gun.

MO
Medical Officer.

M
ORTARS
The Canadians at Ortona had three weights of mortars: 2-inch, 3-inch, and 4.2-inch. The latter was a heavy mortar and operated by the Saskatoon Light Infantry in support of the infantry regiments. The three-inch was operated by a mortar platoon attached to each battalion, while two-inch mortars were carried directly into battle by a section attached to each company. A mortar effectively lobs a bomb on what is usually a high trajectory toward a target. The bombs can be high-explosive, shrapnel, or phosphorous (smoke). Range and firepower varied according to the size of the gun. The bigger the mortar, the greater its range and firepower. The three-inch, for example, could engage targets as close as 125 yards and as far away as 2,800 yards. Its bomb weighed ten pounds. The 4.2-inch fired bombs of twenty pounds and had a much greater range. The small two-inch put out only a 2.5-pound bomb, but was extremely useful for laying smoke screens.

NCO
Non-Commissioned Officer. All warrant officers, sergeants, and corporals are considered non-commissioned officers. NCOs provide the leadership backbone of infantry platoons and armoured troops.

O
RDERS
G
ROUP
(O G
ROUP
)
An Orders Group is a session at which the orders setting out the tactics to be

used in a forthcoming action are given to the participating commanders. Most actions entail multiple O Groups starting at the highest level and descending downward. A brigade planning an attack, for example, will have its first O Group called by the Brigadier. He and brigade HQ staff will brief battalion commanders and the commanders of included supporting arms (artillery, heavy mortars, etc.). Battalion commanders then brief the company commanders, who in turn brief platoon commanders, who pass the information down to the individual sections. What will start as a broad-stroke tactical plan at the brigade level will, by the time it hits platoon and section stages, become a set of intensely specified tasks that must be accomplished for the overall attack to succeed. A process of filtering out non-essential detail occurs all down the line until the section leader will have little idea of the purpose of his assigned tasks.

PIAT
Projector Infantry Anti-tank. The hand-held antitank weapon of Commonwealth forces, weighing thirty-two pounds and firing two-and-a-half-pound hollow-charge explosive bomb. Difficult to load, prone to mechanical failure, and complicated to operate, the PIAT was an unpopular weapon. Effective against German tanks only if fired against thinner side and rear armour plate, or against the tracks.

P
IONEERS
Engineering personnel who were members of an infantry battalion's pioneer company. Pioneers had a higher level of expertise with regard to handling explosive, laying charges, carrying out demolitions, and defusing enemy mines and booby traps than the average soldier.

P
LOUGH
J
OCKEYS
Nickname for Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

PPCLI
Acronym for Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, also known as Patricias.

RAP
Regimental Aid Post. This first aid post was usually located near the forward regimental HQ.

RCE
Royal Canadian Engineers.

RCHA
Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. This regiment was also designated the 1st Field Regiment.

RCR
Royal Canadian Regiment.

SAPPER
A term used to describe explosive and engineering personnel in the Royal Canadian Engineers, equivalent to private in the infantry.

SHERMAN
T
ANK
The standard tank used by Canadian forces at Ortona was the Sherman M-4A2, usually called the M-4. It weighed just under thirty-five tons. The Sherman had a five-man crew, consisting of commander, gunner, loader, driver, and assistant driver. Its main armament was a 75-millimetre gun. Fixed into the front of the tank was also a .30-calibre machine gun and a .50-calibre machine gun that could quickly be mounted on top of the turret for use as an anti-aircraft weapon. The Sherman had a top speed of about twenty-nine miles per hour and a maximum range without refuelling of 150 miles. Although the Sherman would undergo only slight modifications over the course of the war, it was generally considered inferior to most German tanks in terms of both firepower and armour. It also had a higher profile, which made it harder to get into a hull-down (protected) stance than German tanks.

SLI
Saskatoon Light Infantry Regiment. The more official, but less commonly used, abbreviation was Sask LI.

S
TART
P
OINT
(SP)
Also called the Start Line (SL) or Jumping Off Point. This was where a unit of any size formed up immediately before going into an attack.

T
HOMPSON
S
UBMACHINE
GUN
Fondly referred to as the Tommy gun by those who carried it, the Thompson was a .45-calibre submachine gun. The favoured submachine gun of Canadian forces and the only American weapon they respected. The Thompson could fit either a box or drum-shaped magazine. The use of .45-calibre ammunition gave the gun tremendous stopping power.

TNT
Trinitrotoluene (explosive).

T
ROOPER
The armoured corps equivalent to a private. Trooper harkens back to the armour's cavalry heritage.

T
WENTY
-F
IVE
P
OUNDER
The workhorse artillery gun of Commonwealth forces. Incredibly durable
and reliable, the twenty-five pounder was manned by a crew of six. It was generally used as a howitzer — firing high-explosive shells at a high angle — but could also fire armour-piercing shot at flat trajectories. Effective range of 12,500 yards. Weighed four tons.

T
YPE
36 G
RENADE
The standard grenade of Commonwealth forces. Metal case was ribbed, leading to its being called the “pineapple.” Each of the eighty ribs broke into a separate shrapnel piece upon exploding. This type of grenade was usually thrown overhand in a lobbing manner. In Ortona, the grenade proved excellent for house fighting because it could be bounced down stairwells or rolled like a bowling ball down the length of hallways.

V
AN
D
OOS
Semi-official nickname for Royal 22e Regiment. Derived from
vingt-deux
.

V
ICKERS
.303 M
ACHINE
G
UN
, M
ARK
1
Remarkably, the medium machine gun that the Canadians used throughout World War II was virtually the same gun Canadian forces had used in World War I. With a simple gas-assisted recoil system, the gun was water-cooled and fired belts of .303 ammunition. Its accurate range was 1,100 yards, but it could fling bursts much farther. At full automatic, the Vickers put out bursts of ten to twenty rounds. Rate of fire varied from 60 rounds a minute to 250 rounds, depending on whether the gunner was using slow or rapid fire. The Vickers weighed in at forty pounds. It had amazing endurance, seldom failing to operate in even the most adverse conditions. In 1st Canadian Infantry Division, the Vickers were manned by members of the Saskatoon Light Infantry Regiment.

Although an adequate weapon, the Vickers was outclassed in performance by its German counterpart. The MG42 was rated the best gun of its type in the world for years after the war. Introduced in 1942, it had a remarkable firing rate of 1,200 rounds a minute. The MG42 had another advantage over the Vickers. It was actually a light machine gun, weighing only 25.35 pounds. When fired using a bipod, the gun had a light-machine gun range of about 600 yards. On a tripod, the range more than doubled and the weapon proved effective as an anti-aircraft gun.

W
EST
N
OVAS
West Nova Scotia Regiment.

1
. Dr. Jerry Richards, interview by author, Victoria, B.C., 6 Nov. 1998.

2
. Appendix 46 to War Diary, General Staff, Headquarters, 1st Canadian Infantry Division, Nov. 1943, National Archives of Canada.

3
. Richards's replacement was killed at Ortona while acting as liaison officer for the PPCLI at 2 CIB HQ. Richards felt terrible when he heard the news, sure that he was responsible for his friend's death after convincing him to switch roles.

4
. Eric Morris,
Circles of Hell: The War in Italy, 1943–1945
(New York: Crown Publishers, 1993), 222.

5
. Nigel Hamilton,
Master of the Battlefield
(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983), 449.

6
. Morris,
Circles of Hell
, 223.

7
. G.R. Stevens,
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry: 1919–1957
(Griesbach, Alta: Historical Committee of the Regiment, n.d.), 121.

8
. Bert Hoffmeister, interview by author, West Vancouver, B.C., 23 Nov. 1998.

9
. Bert Hoffmeister, interview by B. Greenhous and W. McAndrew, Directorate of History, Department of National Defence, n.d.

10
. Thomas de Faye, interview by author, Victoria, B.C., 3 Nov. 1998.

11
. Ibid.

12
. Elwyn R. Springsteel, correspondence with author, Sept. 1998.

13
. Don Smith, correspondence with author, Aug. 1998.

14
. John Alpine Dougan, interview by author, Victoria, B.C., 23 Oct. 1998.

15
. Chris Vokes,
Vokes: My Story
(Ottawa: Gallery, 1985), 140.

16
. Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry War Diary, 1 Dec. 1943, sheet 1, National Archives of Canada.

17
. Basil Smith, “Memoirs of a Quarterbloke” (Ottawa: Directorate of History, Department of National Defence, n.d.), 34.

1
.
The Tools of War: 1939/45, and a chronology of important events
(Montreal: Reader's Digest Association (Canada), 1969), 26.

2
. Ian V. Hogg and John Weeks,
Military Small Arms of the 20th Century
, 6th ed. (Northbrook, Ill: DBI Books, Inc., n.d.), 104.

3
. Ibid., 288–89.

4
. Ibid., 243.

5
. Harry Rankin, interview by author, Vancouver, B.C., 15 Oct. 1998.

6
. Alon Johnson, interview by author, Victoria, B.C., 25 Sept. 1998.