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History Canada

Ortona

Canada's Epic World War II Battle

by (author) Mark Zuehlke

Publisher
Douglas & McIntyre
Initial publish date
Jul 2009
Category
Canada, Italy
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781550545579
    Publish Date
    Nov 2003
    List Price
    $36.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781926706023
    Publish Date
    Jul 2009
    List Price
    $19.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781771622660
    Publish Date
    Jun 2020
    List Price
    $27.95

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Description

In one blood-soaked, furious week fo fighting, from December 20 to December 27, 1943, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division took Ortona, Italy, from elite German paratroopers ordered to hold the medieval port town at all costs. Infantrymen serving in the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders, supported by tankers of the Three Rivers Regiment, moved from house to house in hand-to-hand combat amid heavy shelling and wrested the town from the grip of the fierce German defenders. When the vicious battle was over, 2339 Canadians were dead or wounded. But the town that had become known as "Little Stalingrad" was now in Allied hands.

Ortona, the first book in the Canadian Battle Series, brings Canada's first major triumph of the war to life in a dramatic, suspenseful narrative, weaving reminiscences of the Canadians, Germans, and Italians who were there together with a blow-by-blow account of the fighting that raged in December 1943 from the Moro River Valley through the infamous Gully and finallly into the streets of Ortona itself. It is masterful work, a story told from the soldier's-eye view.

About the author

Hailed by Jack Granatstein as Canadas leading popular military historian and short-listed for both the 2007 and 2013 Pierre Berton Award for popularizing Canadian history, Mark Zuehlke is the author of 26 books, including 14 devoted to military history. Tragedy at Dieppe is the latest in his bestselling Canadian Battle Series, which includes Ortona, The Liri Valley, The Gothic Line, Juno Beach Operation Husky, Holding Juno, Breakout from Juno, Terrible Victory, and On to Victory. He is also the co-author of The Canadian Military Atlas.

Zuehlke first began writing about the role Canadians played in World War II after discussing the Battle of Ortona with several veterans following a Remembrance Day ceremony in Kelowna, B.C. Discovering no book had been written on this pivotal battle, he decided to fill that gap, which resulted in the publication of Ortona: Canadas Epic Worl

Mark Zuehlke's profile page

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