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This year (2007) we will be commemorating the Battle of Ortona on Sunday December 16 at the 9:15 am service. Battle of Ortona remembered at All Saints Cathedral. |
Every December, members of All Saints Cathedral come together with members of the Canadian Armed Forces to commemorate the Battle of Ortona and to honour the soldiers who fought in that conflict. In 2005, on Sunday December 18th, members of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, one of the Canadian army units fighting with the Allied forces in Ortona in December 1943, came to the Cathedral to honour their former comrades. At the start of the service, soldiers and officer marched in with their colours and drums, which were placed at the front of the Cathedral in the tradional "drum-head altar", an improvised altar that was often used in the field.
The sermon that Sunday was delivered by the Priest Assistant at All Saints, Major (retired) The Reverend Mathew Oliver, CD. Here is the text of that sermon, followed by an account of the Battle of
Ortona, prespared by The Reverent Oliver for the congregation. The sermon is
based on the readings for that day. the 4th Sunday of Advent: We gather today as a community to worship and to welcome to our midst the men and women of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment. This is the unit that the historian of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment said, reporting on the arrival of reinforcements in Italy in December 1944, “that most welcome sight – the marching infantry of the Loyal Edmontons – the only outfit in the Army that we ever considered might be as good, or better than ourselves.” As we work through this last Sunday in the season of Advent, our last time together to prepare ourselves as a community for Christmas, to recall the birth of Christ, we gather for another reason…. to commemorate with these men and women of the Queen’s Canadian Forces a short-lived battle that took place just before Christmas 1943. This battle, the Battle for Ortona, was an event that took place over a short period, about 21 days all told of which seven were in the town proper, but it was to be a battle that rivalled almost all others of the Second World War in terms of intensity and ferocity. Ortona became known as a “ miniature Stalingrad” as it seemed to be a similar engagement to the battle for Stalingrad. Matthew Halton, a war correspondent for the CBC, reported this impression of Ortona, "For seven days and seven nights the Canadians have been trying to clear the town and the action is as fierce as perhaps modern man has ever fought …Canadian and German seem to be both beyond exhaustion and beyond fear. The battle has the quality of a nightmare. It has a special quality of its own, like…the fight at Stalingrad…the same apocalyptic pall of smoke and fire and maniacal determination…For seven days and seven nights the Canadians have been attacking in Ortona, yard by yard, building by building, window by window…It wasn't hell. It was the courtyard of hell. It was a maelstrom of noise and hot, splitting steel...the rattling of machine guns never stops ... wounded men refuse to leave, and the men don't want to be relieved after seven days and seven nights... the battlefield is still an appalling thing to see, in its mud, ruin, dead, and its blight and desolation." So we again find ourselves in a place of some tension. On this
Sunday our readings recall the role of Mary in bringing Christ to earth…
a role that has resulted in her receiving the title “theotokos”
or “God-bearer”. At the same time we’re bringing
back into the forefront of our memories a horrible battle that cost the lives
of many Canadian soldiers. This day brings a very real challenge to each
of us as we sit here in our comfortable lives, in our reasonably comfortable
pews: Mary embarked on a completely unknown path with only faith in God as her
guide; 93,000 Canadians entered a similar path to the unknown as they fought in
the Italian campaign, standing for their friends in defence of things that they
felt strongly enough about that they were willing to die for. So today we
are each faced with a challenging question: what is there in our lives, in our
beliefs, that we follow so strongly that we would willing to give up everything
in order to follow it, to hold it, to maintain it? First World War British soldier and poet, Rupert Brooke, wrote these words spoken by a dead British soldier,
Brooke passes on a timeless truth about those who die in war. Those who make the supreme sacrifice in a distant land consecrate the ground where they lie so that it is forever a piece of their homeland, and you can hear in Brooke’s words easily the western Canadian equivalent with wheat fields and the lakes and rivers of the north. So Ortona, that place of great conflict, is forever linked to Canada by the blood of our war dead that was spilled there. This is the reason why, after Ortona was won, the Loyal Edmonton’s and the Seaforth Highlander’s placed a sign at the entrance to Ortona: This is Ortona, A West Canadian Town. You can see those soldiers, some of whom had not slept properly in weeks, blood, sweat and mud staining their dishevelled uniforms, exhaustion like a cloud hanging over them, their joy at accomplishing a hard-won mission tempered by the too-present knowledge of all those friends who had died. And their action was to recognize this blood-purchase of Ortona with that small wooden sign, a sign that had huge worth and importance as it proclaimed the place bought with Canadian blood and sweat: “This is Ortona. A West Canadian Town”. There is a link here between these young soldiers and the mother of our Lord, Mary. As the ground upon which they died is forever consecrated to Canada, so God, by entering our world through Mary, forever consecrated all of the creation to Him. In fact this image of Rupert Brooke’s poetry, and the meaning behind that sign, that the blood of those slain in pursuit of freedom purchases the land, will also be relevant to we Christians. It was, and it is, through the blood of Jesus that we are all purchased and redeemed from all of our struggles and despair and all of our failures and shattered dreams. I would not be out of line in posting a sign at the entrance to Edmonton…perhaps just above the ‘City of Champions ’ logo that says… “This is Edmonton. A City bought with the Blood of Christ” This is perhaps one of the hardest truths for us to hold on to, that there is simply no place within the creation where one can escape God. Even when we see something that causes us to exclaim, “This place is truly forsaken by God”…be it Ortona some 62 years ago, more recently the Medac Pocket, Bosnia or Rwanda, or a home where a young child has been abused, we must always remember that there is no place, and no person that has been forsaken by God. There is no place and certainly no person that has been forsaken by God. There is a saying that the birth of a baby is proof that God still has plans for the world. A story from the last part of the battle for Ortona offers an interesting perspective of God’s place even there. Captain Vic Soley told the correspondent Matthew Halton a story of the last evening of the battle. Amid a heavy artillery bombardment, a young Italian woman was discovered buried alive in the ruins of one of the buildings. The Loyal Edmontons and the Seaforth worked together to rescue her. As they pulled her from the ruin they discovered she was not only pregnant, but in the midst of labour. A sergeant from Vancouver assisted with the delivery and mother and child were both well. The woman promised the men that her son ’s middle name would be Canadian. From war correspondent Christopher Buckley describing the strange life in forward battle positions in Ortona, “What a strange clutter of humanity it was. There were some five or six Canadian soldiers, there were old women and there were children innumerable….In the half-darkened room the pasta for the mid-day meal was simmering over the fire in the corner. Haggard, prematurely aged women kept emerging shyly, one after the other from some inner chamber where an old man, the grandfather of the children, was dying …Another old man was uttering maledictions against Mussolini. Then his wife surprisingly produced a [bottle] of Marsala and a half-dozen glasses. She moved around the soldiers filling and re-filling their glasses. The children clambered over the Canadian soldiers and clutched them convulsively ever time one of our anti-tank guns, located only a half-dozen paces from the door of the house, fired down the street in the direction of one of the German machine-gun nests. Soon each of us had a squirming, terrified child in our arms. The old lady went on serving Marsala.” As a resident of Ortona searched for his family possessions in the ruins of their house, a young Canadian approached and asked in perfect Italian if the man might know a family that had lived in Ortona. They were neighbours who lived just down the street. He led the soldier to a badly battered structure and banged on the door. After a few minutes the door opened and an old man looked out warily. “Grandpa” the young man said, and embraced his grandfather, whom he had never met. So three short stories from a place of battle and death all of which have that spark of Christ’s presence about them…a baby saved by soldiers and born on the battlefield, children comforted by soldiers in the midst of battle, and a family reunion that might never have happened. These all serve to underline that truth: there is no place, and no one that is excluded from God. Like Mary, who trusted in God in the face of the unknown, let us all too trust in God as we seek to follow His will for each of us. Let us rest secure in the knowledge that where ever we may be and whatever we may have done, or may do, God is with us even in the great uncertainty of this world. Don't be afraid to be in that place of uncertainty, for it is where Christ is. Sometimes this will be the last place you want to be – a place of death and despair, of fearful sounds, smells and images. But even there, you will know, that this is the only place you have ever desired to be for in it you will have found Christ. As we prepare each of ourselves for the coming of Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, in one short week, let us rest secure in the knowledge that God has already redeemed this world, and redeemed each of us fully. All we need to is open our hearts and minds and invite him into our lives. As we recall those selfless individuals who fought through Ortona for freedom, let us be equally selfless as we seek to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. Amen. The Battle of Ortona - historical notes: The Italian Campaign was critical to the eventual success of an invasion into mainland Europe. Establishing three fronts (European, Russian and Italian) was the beginning of the end for the Axis powers. “The idea came from Winston Churchill himself. When he travelled to Moscow in August of '42, he argued with Joseph Stalin, who wanted an immediate invasion of France. Churchill apparently told Stalin that the first attacks should be carried out in the Mediterranean area. Churchill said that it was better to attack the soft belly of the crocodile than its hard snout. The strategy seems to focus on grabbing Sicily and Italy to protect the Mediterranean and make the Germans commit troops to reinforce the Italian front.” (Doc Buckley) At first, the Canadian operations in Italy were front page news. After D-Day, the world focused all its attention to the invasion of France, and Italy became the forgotten front. Almost 93,000 Canadians fought their way towards Rome and beyond; almost 6,000 are buried in cemeteries from Sicily to Northern Italy. Ortona, a town of 10,000 on the Adriatic coast of Italy, became the scene of one of the most intense battles of the entire Italian campaign. Ortona is an ancient city that was founded by the Trojans after the fall of Troy. The northern part, called the "Old Town," consists of extremely narrow streets with most buildings constructed of stone connected by common walls. The stone construction of the old town was ideally suited for a sustained defensive action. The weather in December reduced the surrounding fields to an icy and muddy mess that was reminiscent of the First World War. Daniel Dancocks provides a description of the town, “…Ortona was a picturesque community. Nearby was the great dome of the cathedral of San Tommaso, visible for miles around. The older part of town consisted of tall, narrow houses and dark cramped streets. Because of a deep ravine west of town, and the steep cliffs and sea on the other, there was only one way into Ortona; along Route 16, the road which had been protected by Casa Berardi. Side streets had been sealed off with rubble in order to channel the attackers along the main boulevard into the town. The central square had been turned into a killing ground, the surrounding buildings filled with guns and mortars carefully sited to lay down a murderous cross-fire.” This portion of operations began just after December 3rd, 1943 with the assault of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigades, British Army units and support elements across the Moro River, and “The Gulley”. The battle for Ortona ended December 27th with the unexpected withdrawal of the defenders. What happened in those three weeks was a time of great sacrifice and many instances of great courage and initiative. The Battle in Ortona itself started December 20th and involved the infantry of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders, supported by the Saskatoon Light Infantry and the tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment. War correspondent Matthew Halton reported from Ortona that, "we were in a lost world". Ortona has become known by some as the “mini-Stalingrad ”. The Loyal Edmonton Regiment began this operation well below full strength, the result of months of sustained combat operations. They were facing one of the most highly-trained German units, the 1st Parachute Division; highly experienced and well-motivated. Reinforcements would not arrive until December 24th. In the words of the regimental historian, "It is perhaps fortunate that most of them did not arrive until the battle was virtually over, Ortona was no place for new hands or for men who did not know each other." The Loyal Edmontons, whom it was hoped could take the town in one day, found themselves bogged down in the dense urban terrain. Higher headquarters had expected Ortona to be taken undamaged, and plans were already drafted to use it as a rest area for allied troops. The town had been spared the usual pre-attack bombardment as a result Many new approaches to fighting were adopted in the town. "Mouseholing " involved breaching house walls so that troops wouldn't have to move into fire-swept streets. Both sides employed demolitions charges against houses, blowing up entire buildings with frightful consequences. Here the Canadians wrote the book on street-fighting. After the war, former Seaforth ’s commander Colonel S.W. Thomson recalled that the standard training film for British and Commonwealth forces, Fighting In Built-up Areas, was based on interviews with Seaforth and Edmonton veterans. On the 26th of December, the Edmontons finally secured San Tommaso Cathedral; the last day of fighting in the city would be the 27th. That night, the Germans quietly slipped away, leaving 100 of their dead unburied in the streets and rubble of Ortona. The German First Parachute Division as a whole, inside and outside the city, lost 455 men during the period 20 - 28 December 1943. War correspondent Matthew Halton describes the scene that morning, " ...At 8:00 this morning I was bumping over the tank ruts into the outskirts of Ortona. There was a strange silence and I surmised something. Only a few machine guns were clattering. Only an occasional enemy shell was falling and bearded men who hadn't had their boots off for 30 days were laughing. The colonel grinned when I came in. I said, don't tell me. And he replied yes, I think we've got Ortona. Not two minutes later, the radio buzzed and Corporal Bill Polville of Edmonton, took the message from the signaller at the Port, not 400 yards away. Then he took off his earphones and turned to the Colonel. Sir, the Jerries have gone, or else they're all dead. Ortona was ours..." The Loyal Edmonton Regiment lost 172 men, 63 of them killed. The Seaforths lost 41 killed and 62 wounded. After the battle was over, the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, and Vancouver's Seaforth Highlanders, erected a sign at the entrance to the city.... This is Ortona Our historical knowledge of the entire Italian Campaign has been lacking up until the last decade when the experiences of these “D-Day Dodgers” have received the attention they were due. This moniker, “D-Day Dodgers”, was originally intended as an insult directed at those who had “avoided” D-Day operations by the Italian Campaign. In a testament to the soldier’s humour, these “D-Day Dodgers” adopted this title with pride, and even wrote a satirical song, two verses of which are printed on the final page and was sung to the tune of "Lili Marlene". The Moro and Ortona were taken in our stride, Look around the mountains in the mud and rain, Sources: G.R. Stevens, A City Goes to War, 1964 Written by Major (ret’d) The Reverend M.B. Oliver, CD
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