1.
Moro River Campaign
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The Moro River Campaign was an important battle of the Italian Campaign during the Second World War, fought between elements of the British Eighth Army and LXXVI Panzer Corps of the German 10th Army. Lasting from 4–26 December 1943, the campaign occurred primarily in the vicinity of the Moro River in eastern Italy, after being held at the Gully for 10 days, the Canadians succeeded in outflanking German defences, and forcing a German withdrawal to the Ortona–Orsogna Line. On 20 December, the line was attacked by both corps, by 26 December, strong German defences had stalled Canadian forces in Ortona and British and New Zealand forces in Orsogna. Although both Ortona and Villa Grande were captured by the end of December, general exhaustion among the Allied forces prevented the capture of Orsogna and an advance to Pescara. When harsh winter weather set in, it clear to the Allied commanders that no further progress would be made. East of the Apennine Mountain spine was the British Eighth Army, in October, the Eighth Army had crossed the Bifurno river and pushed the German defenders from the Volturno-Viktor Line defences. Delayed by logistical problems, they were not able to attack the line of defences behind the Trigno river until 2 November. However, by 9 November forward elements of the Eighth Army were in contact with the defences of the German Winter Line. After several days of fighting, the Germans withdrew to the defences they had prepared on the high ground to the north of the Moro river. The Moro River runs from the central spine of Italy to the Adriatic coast south of Ortona. The German defences on the Moro were a centerpiece of the Winter Line, Montgomery hoped to punch through the Winter Line, capture Ortona and Pescara and advance to Rome. The 78th Infantry Division was sent into the mountains on the relatively quiet left wing of the army, montgomerys plan was for the 1st Canadian Division to attack across the Moro in the coastal lowlands to take Ortona first and then Pescara. Together, these units formed Traugott Herr′s LXXVI Panzer Corps, the part of Joachim Lemelsens 10th Army responsible for the front line to the east of the Apennines. On 6 December 1943, Canadian forces began a series of assaults on major crossing points along the Moro River with the objective of securing a large bridgehead along the defensive line. Three primary points of attack were chosen, Villa Rogatti, along the edge of the Canadian sector, San Leonardo,5 km south of Ortona, and San Donato. Five primary infantry battalions were selected to assault these positions with the objective of crossing the Moro River, the offensives were scheduled to start on the morning of 6 December. The task of taking Villa Rogatti, the westernmost crossing point, was given to Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry, elements of three German regiments—the 200th and 361st Panzergrenadier, and 26th Panzer—maintained strong defences within the town. At 00,00 on 5 December, two companies of the PPCLI crossed the Moro River, moving towards Villa Rogatti, within an hour, vicious fighting had erupted throughout the town as the two companies of Canadian infantry struggled to break the German defensive lines
2.
Italian Campaign (World War II)
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The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, some 60, 000–70,000 Allied and 60, overall Allied casualties during the campaign totaled about 320,000 and the corresponding German figure was well over 600,000. Fascist Italy, prior to its collapse, suffered about 200,000 casualties, mostly POWs taken in the Allied invasion of Sicily, including more than 40,000 killed or missing. Besides them, over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as did 15,197 anti-Fascist partisans and 13,021 troops of the Italian Social Republic. The campaign ended when Army Group C surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 2,1945, the independent states of San Marino and the Vatican, both surrounded by Italian territory, also suffered damage during the campaign. Even prior to victory in the North African Campaign in May 1943, the British, especially the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, advocated their traditional naval-based peripheral strategy. The United States, with a larger army, favoured a more direct method of fighting the main force of the German Army in Northern Europe. The ability to such a campaign depended on first winning the Battle of the Atlantic. There was even pressure from some Latin American countries to stage an invasion of Spain, the British argued that the presence of large numbers of troops trained for amphibious landings in the Mediterranean made a limited-scale invasion possible and useful. A contributing factor was Franklin D. Roosevelts desire to keep US troops active in the European theatre during 1943 and it was hoped that an invasion might knock Italy out of the conflict, or at least increase the pressure on them and weaken them further. A combined Allied invasion of Sicily began on 10 July 1943 with both amphibious and airborne landings at the Gulf of Gela, the land forces involved were the U. S. Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, the original plan contemplated a strong advance by the British northwards along the east coast to Messina, with the Americans in a supporting role along their left flank. The defending German and Italian forces were unable to prevent the Allied capture of the island, but succeeded in evacuating most of their troops to the mainland, the Allied forces gained experience in opposed amphibious operations, coalition warfare and mass airborne drops. Forces of the British Eighth Army, still under Montgomery, landed in the toe of Italy on 3 September 1943 in Operation Baytown, the armistice was publicly announced on 8 September by two broadcasts, first by General Eisenhower and then by a proclamation by Marshal Badoglio. Although the German forces prepared to defend without Italian assistance, only two of their divisions opposite the Eighth Army and one at Salerno were not tied up disarming the Royal Italian Army, on 9 September, forces of the U. S. Fifth Army, under Lieutenant General Mark W, although none of the northern reserves were made available to the German 10th Army, it nevertheless came close to repelling the Salerno landing, due mainly to the cautious command of Clark. As the Allies advanced, they encountered increasingly difficult terrain, the Apennine Mountains form a spine along the Italian peninsula offset somewhat to the east, the rivers were subject to sudden and unexpected flooding, which constantly thwarted the Allied commanders plans. This would make the most of the natural geography of Central Italy, whilst denying the Allies the easy capture of a succession of airfields
3.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
4.
Charles Comfort
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Charles Fraser Comfort, OC was a Canadian painter, sculptor, teacher, writer and administrator. Born near Edinburgh, Scotland, Comfort moved to Winnipeg in 1912 with his family and his father found work with the treasury department for the city of Winnipeg. Comfort as the eldest child had to work from an age to help support his family. Comfort saved money to attend the Art Students League of New York under Robert Henri, still working part-time for Brigdens commercial studio, he was temporarily transferred to Toronto in 1919. While in Toronto, Comfort joined the Arts and Letters Club, taking life-study classes, Comfort visited the Group’s inaugural 1920 exhibition, which inspired Comfort to work on landscape paintings, a theme he continued throughout his lifetime. Comfort returned to Winnipeg in 1922 for his first exhibition of watercolours at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, during this time, he met LeMoine Fitzgerald and Walter J. Phillips. It was not until 1925 that Comfort painted his first oil painting, when he returned to Toronto where he befriended Will Ogilvie, who may have influenced this switch to oil. In 1928 he painted a watercolour portrait of violinist Alexander Chuhaldin with his Amati violin. In the 1930s, Comfort regularly worked as an illustrator as well as a teacher at the Ontario College of Art. He subsequently held by a position at the University of Toronto. He taught primarily painting techniques, including mural-painting, and other studio courses later in his career at the university and he was commissioned to design a mural for Toronto’s North American Life Building in 1932, the first in many he completed. The following year he met the American Precisionist Charles Sheeler, one of the artist’s most celebrated works, Tadoussac of 1935, suggests the influence of Sheeler due to its clear crisp colours and shapes. In 1936, Comfort rented a studio next to an occupied by A. Y. Jackson, in the Studio Building, a warehouse made famous by the Group of Seven artists, and the following year he designed the exterior frieze and interior murals for the Toronto Stock Exchange. Comfort helped initiate Canada’s World War II War Art program and served as a war artist in World War II. He was one of the organizers of the 1941 Kingston Conference, furthermore, he was a founding member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and contributed to the 1951 Massey Report, which led to the founding of the Canada Council. An organization that Comfort helped establish, each of the murals depicted a different national or provincial park, Comforts was Banff National Park. After the war, Comfort served on the Board of Directors and various committees at the Art Gallery of Toronto and he received an honorary doctorate from Mount Allison University in 1958
5.
Ortona
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Ortona is a coastal town and municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italian region of Abruzzo, with some 23,000 inhabitants. Ortona was the site of fighting between the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division and the 1st Canadian Infantry Division during the Italian campaign in World War II. The ferocity of the Battle of Ortona led it to be known as the Little Stalingrad, a patron saint of Ortona is Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose relics are kept here. The origins of Ortona are uncertain, presumably, it was first inhabited by the Frentani, an Italic population. In 2005, during works near the Castle, a Bronze Age settlement was discovered, some sections of paved roads and urban walls, as well as some archaeological findings are the only remains of this period. Ortona remained a part of the Roman Empire for several centuries, in 803 the Franks incorporated Ortona into the county of Chieti. From that date on, the town remained tied to Chieti, in 1258 the relics of the Apostle Thomas were brought to Ortona by the sailor Leone Acciaiuoli. In the first half of the 15th century its walls were built, on June 30,1447, ships from Venice destroyed the port of Ortona, consequently the King of Sicily at that time commissioned the construction of a Castle to dominate the renovated port. In 1582 the town was acquired by Margaret of Parma, daughter of Emperor Charles V, in 1584 Margaret decided to build a great mansion, which was never completed due to her death. After the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860, Ortona became one of the first sea resorts on the Adriatic Sea, on 9 September 1943, the royal family of the House of Savoy left German-occupied Italy from the port of Ortona. The defensive Gustav Line was established by the Germans at Ortona and this led to this battle being known as Little Stalingrad. The Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park is not far either, Ortona is twinned with, Cassino, Italy, since 1991 Volgograd, Russia, since 2013 Metkovic, Croatia, since 2016 The composer Francesco Paolo Tosti was born in Ortona. Pornographic actor and producer Rocco Siffredi was also born in Ortona, christie, N. M. Hard-won Victory, the Canadians at Ortona 1943. Ortona, Canadas epic World War II battle, the Battle of Ortona - The Italian Stalingrad - December 20-28,1943 Inside Abruzzo, Insider Tips Uncovered
6.
Italian Peninsula
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The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is the central and the smallest of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe. It extends 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south, the peninsulas shape gives it the nickname lo Stivale. Three smaller peninsulas contribute to this shape, namely Calabria, Salento. Geographically, the Italian peninsula consists of the south of a line extending from the Magra to the Rubicon rivers. It excludes the Po Valley and the slopes of the Alps. All of the lies within the territory of the Italian Republic except for the microstates of San Marino. Additionally, Sicily, Elba and other islands, such as Palagruža, are usually considered as islands off the peninsula. The peninsula lies between the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west, the Ionian Sea on the south, and the Adriatic Sea on the east, the backbone of the Italian peninsula consists of the Apennine Mountains, from which it takes one of its names. Most of its coast is lined with cliffs, the Italian Peninsulas location between the centre of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea made it the target of many conquests. The peninsula has mainly a Mediterranean climate, though in the parts the climate is much cooler. Its natural vegetation includes macchia along the coasts and deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in the interior. Political divisions of the peninsula sorted by area, Apennine Mountains Roman Republic Roman Italy Insular Italy Media related to Italian Peninsula at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
8.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
9.
Italian Social Republic
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The Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Republic of Salò, was a state with limited recognition that was created during the later part of World War II, existing from 1943 until 1945. Mussolini had originally intended to call his new republic the “Italian ‘Socialist’ Republic. ”It was the second and last incarnation of the Fascist Italian state and was led by Duce Benito Mussolini and his reformed Republican Fascist Party. The state declared Rome its capital, but was de facto centered on Salò, a town on Lake Garda, near Brescia, where Mussolini. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern and central Italy, but was dependent on German troops to maintain control. The new government began peace negotiations with the Allied powers. When the Armistice of Cassibile was announced in September, Germany was prepared, Germany seized control of the northern half of Italy, freed Mussolini and brought him to the German-occupied area to establish a satellite regime. The RSI was proclaimed on 23 September 1943, although the RSI claimed most of the lands of Italy as rightfully belonging to it, it held political control over a vastly reduced portion of Italy. The RSI received diplomatic recognition from only Germany, Japan and their puppet states, around 25 April 1945, Mussolinis republic came to an end. In Italy, this day is known as Liberation Day, on this day a general partisan uprising alongside the efforts of Allied forces, during their final offensive in Italy, managed to oust the Germans from Italy almost entirely. At the point of its demise, the Italian Social Republic had existed for more than nineteen months. On 27 April partisans caught Mussolini, his mistress, several RSI ministers, on 28 April the partisans shot Mussolini and most of the other captives. The RSI Minister of Defense, Rodolfo Graziani, surrendered what was left of the RSI on 2 May when the German forces in Italy capitulated, this put a definitive end to the Italian Social Republic. On 24 July 1943, after the Allied landings in Sicily, the next day, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini from office and ordered him arrested. The failed war effort left Mussolini humiliated at home and abroad as a sawdust Caesar, the new government, under Marshal Pietro Badoglio, began secret negotiations with the Allied powers and made preparations for the capitulation of Italy. These surrender talks implied a commitment from Badoglio not only to leave the Axis alliance, while the Germans formally recognised the new status quo in Italian politics, they intervened by sending some of the best units of the Wehrmacht to Italy. This was done both to resist new Allied advances and to face the predictably imminent defection of Italy, on 8 September, Badoglio announced Italys armistice with the Allies. German Führer Adolf Hitler and his staff, long aware of the negotiations, acted immediately by ordering German troops to control of northern. The Germans disarmed the Italian troops and took all of the Italian Armys materials
10.
Christopher Vokes
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Major General Christopher Vokes CB, CBE, DSO, CD was a senior Canadian Army officer who fought in World War II. Born in Armagh, Ireland, the son of a British officer, Major Frederick Patrick Vokes and Elizabeth Vokes, Major Frederick Patrick Vokes was the engineering officer at the Royal Military College of Canada. The family lived in Married Quarters at Ridout Row, Royal Military College of Canada, Christopher Vokes brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Alexander Vokes, took a leading part in the assault on Dieppe in August 1942. In early 1944 he was sent to Italy as commanding officer of the 9th Armoured Regiment, from 1921 to 1925, he attended the Royal Military College of Canada #1633 and was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Engineers. He then attended McGill University from 1926 to 1927 where he received a Bachelor of Science degree and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society, from 1934 to 1935, he attended Staff College, Camberley in England. In Depression-Era Canada, many bases were improved by civilians working in relief camps under supervision of professional military officers. The original engineer drawings for the rifle range butts were signed by Chris Vokes. Barrack Blocks in Dundurn resemble similar buildings constructed at Camp Valcartier in the time frame. In 1942, he was promoted to brigadier and was put in charge of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade where he was part of the Allied invasion of Sicily, in 1943, he became commander of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division and promoted to Major-General. He was the commander of the division during the Battle of Ortona, after which he was criticized for unimaginative tactics, Montgomery ordered the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to attack along the coast towards Ortona early in December. During an attack on a ravine southwest of Ortona, Vokes continued to send battalion after battalion to attack the mine-fortified German defense for nine days, for this he became known as the Butcher among his men. An impatient Montgomery sent messages wondering why the attack took so long, at the same time, the Canadians became aware of the fact that they were fighting not only Panzer-Grenadiers, but also the 1st Parachute Division, whom they recognized by their characteristic helmets. On the 21st December the Canadians broke through, and German forces destroyed the old town, after the battle, a furious Vokes broke out in tears due to his divisions losses –2300 casualties, among them 500 dead, as well as many cases of war neuroses. In 1944, he took command of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division. From June 1945 to May 1946, he was the General Officer Commanding the Canadian Army Occupation Force in Europe, returning to Canada, he commanded the Armys Central Command and then Western Command. He died of cancer in Oakville, Ontario in 1985, sword & Epaulettes of College No.1633. Maj. -Gen Christopher Vokes Tough officer led 1st Division on Sicily beach, Chris Vokes, My Story Major General Chris Vokes, CB, CBE, DSO, CD with John P. Maclean. Gallery Publishing,1985,233 pages Christopher Vokes at The Canadian Encyclopedia
