Ortona remembered

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Read Ortona remembered and let me know what you think of it.

I'll be back later with a question for you.

Thanks,
Hanno

Ortona remembered

By PETER WORTHINGTON
Though no one knew it at the time, this story began at Christmas 1943, in Italy, with soldiers of the 1st
Canadian Infantry Division fighting to dislodge Germany’s crack 1st Parachute Division from Ortona, in what
was the toughest battle Canadians fought in Italy, if not WWII, and which is remembered as the “Stalingrad of
the West.”
Jump ahead to 1998. A former corporal and tank commander with the Three Rivers Regiment (now the 12th
Armoured Regiment) in that battle, was Ted Griffiths (universally known as “Tojo”), later a regular force major,
and after that executive assistant to then-Finance Minister John Turner, and now retired. He ran with the idea
of a Christmas reunion in Ortona.
Originally, the late Joe Wilhelm, for 17 years the Catholic Archbishop of Kingston, Ont., felt a “Banquet of
Reconciliation” with veterans of that fight — not only Canadians but also their erstwhile enemies — would be
an appropriate gesture to put the bitterness of war behind them.
Especially over Christmas, when that merciless battle was fought. Wilhelm was the chaplain for Canadians in
Italy and won the Military Cross, Tojo Griffiths began organizing, but who’d provide funding?
“Ortona was probably the toughest street fighting of the war,” Tojo recalled. “It wasn’t just house-to-house, but
floor-by-floor.” The Canadians developed “mouse-holing” — entering a building by blowing a hole in the wall to
avoid booby-trapped doorways.
Tojo approached Veterans Affairs for support, but its minister, Fred Mifflin, a retired Admiral, gave it the cold
shoulder: Sorry, who cares about the Italian campaign.
As a longtime friend, Tojo persuaded me to write a couple of articles about the proposed reunion.
The Ottawa Sun’s Earl McRae and broadcaster Lowell Green of Ottawa’s CFRA reacted and appealed to
readers for funds.
Peter Goldring, then Reform MP for Edmonton East and the party’s Veterans Affairs critic pounced and both
raised funds and administered them for the Ortona visit. Private donations came in.
Lo, the madcap scheme of Tojo Griffiths became a resounding success, as aging warriors of that long-ago
battle gathered in Ortona, made their peace, bonded and shared memories.
Thirty Canadians from four regiments who fought that battle (B.C.’s Seaforth Highlanders, the Loyal Edmonton
Regiment, the Three Rivers Regiment and the Van Doos), reunited with their aging German counterparts
(There was a tense moment when a Canadian vet offered to show a German vet the finger of a dead
paratrooper he’d amputated as a souvenir).
Every Christmas since, the city of Ortona marks the occasion with a ceremony at the Canadian cemetery.
Veterans from both sides make a pilgrimage to what in WWII was an insignificant fishing village at the end of
Germany’s WWII Gustav line at the Moro River. They remember and reconcile — new friends, new allies, new
respect.
Former German paratrooper Joe Klein spoke for all when he recalled: “We weren’t enemies, we were
opponents.”
Jump ahead to 2006. Tojo, a robust 80-something, says the reunion idea was so successful, there was money
left over to commission a statue honouring the battle — the first such memorial for Canadians in Italy (a dozen
or so are in France and Belgium) which now stands in Ortona’s Piazza Publiscito.
Named the Price of Peace, it depicts a mortally wounded soldier being soothed by a comrade kneeling at his
side.
Tojo says the statue moves many to tears. Every day, two elderly ladies, Francesca and Maria LaSorda who,
as teenagers did laundry for Canadian soldiers after the battle, bring fresh flowers to the statue.
“How they manage it is beyond me,” says Tojo. “They’re as poor as church mice but they never fail with the
flowers.”
So impressed was Canadian Ambassador to Italy, Robert Fowler, that when then-Governor General Adrienne
Clarkson visited Ortona in 2004, she presented the sisters with an engraved silver tray.
Ortona’s city fathers, have since designated a restored 15th century convent as a “Museum of Remembrance”
of the battle — filled mostly with what citizens of the area scrounged from the battlefield, supplemented with
items the Canadians who fought there have donated.
The Seaforth Highlanders were the most generous, providing a uniformed mannequin, but other regiments of 1
Division have been reluctant to part with items.
“One would never know that the Loyal Eddies were there,” says Tojo.
The Princess Pats, in Calgary, parted with nothing, though the RCR chipped in with a corporal’s tunic.
Members of the West Nova Scotia Regiment donated $5,000 to the museum.
What city fathers really wanted was a Sherman tank, with its 75mm gun, as a monument.
“Too bad they didn’t ask for it 60 years ago,” quips Tojo. “A lot of them were lying around after the battle.”
As it turned out, Canadian military attaches scoured Europe and found that the Dutch War and Resistance
Museum in Overloon had a Sherman which they’d sell for $90,000.
“We didn’t have a dime,” recalls Tojo, but the Honorary Colonel of the Three Rivers Regiment, Lt.Gen. Jim
Gervais (retired), and Harry Steele of Nova Scotia and Seymour Schulich, Michael Wekerie and John Cleghorn
of Toronto, combined to raise the money to buy the Sherman — which Ambassador Fowler presented to
Ortona.
Fowler was then made an honorary citizen of the city.
Today, the Price of Peace statue and the Sherman tank at Ortona are the only WWII monuments marking what
Canadian soldiers did in Italy, all done through private donations.
The other reminders of Canada at Ortona, are 1,375 graves with small, carved maple leaves on headstones in
the meticulously tended Moro River Canadian War Cemetery.
Some 25% of 5,900 Canadians killed in Italy in WWII, died freeing Ortona.
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan today, are proving worthy carriers of the torch of their comrades at Ortona, so
long ago — this time, allied with the Germans.

November 12, 2006