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00:00Italy, 1943, the Allied invasion of Europe has begun, and tanks of the Canadian Armored
00:11Corps experience their baptism of fire.
00:14We thought we were invincible, but we weren't.
00:18The rookie Canadian tankers face a battle-hardened enemy, intent on holding every inch of ground.
00:26Our boys were up against the best German soldiers in the German army.
00:31Yet to kill those guys, they weren't giving up very easily.
00:36The Germans throw everything they have into the fight, including scores of their infamous
00:41Panther tank.
00:42The Sherman didn't have a chance against the Panther.
00:47Canadian and German armor go head to head, slugging it out in some of the most ferocious
00:52tank battles of the Second World War.
00:55This is when you suddenly become aware of just how bloody war could be.
01:25Central Italy, south of Rome.
01:33Armies have fought for control of these hills for thousands of years.
01:38But no battles have been more ferocious or intense than the fighting that erupted here between
01:43the Allies and the Germans during the Second World War.
01:47The Germans used to shoot from here to down the other side.
01:51You yell from there, boom, boom, you pass here.
01:58And then you yell from the side, boom, boom, over there.
02:04Every day, night, day, act like this.
02:13July 10th, 1943.
02:16The Allies storm the beaches of Sicily, beginning the invasion of occupied Europe.
02:23After six weeks of bitter fighting, the Allies overwhelm the Italian and German defenders and
02:29make plans for their conquest of the Italian mainland.
02:34Their goal, quickly seize Rome by launching a two-pronged attack with the US 5th Army on the left flank and
02:41the British-led 8th Army on the right.
02:46And advancing with the 8th Army are the untested Canadians.
02:51A mobile unit of 18,000 men, 300 heavy guns, and over 200 tanks.
03:02And as this impressive force heads northward, it quickly discovers that its first enemy is
03:07the rough Italian terrain.
03:09Italy was nothing but a series of ravines and ridges, all the way from the boot, right straight
03:19up to the Alps.
03:25There were a lot of areas where there were very steep hills and high points and so on.
03:34We were not well prepared.
03:36We were being trained to fight in North Africa, which had no bearing at all for Italy.
03:46As the Canadians struggle northward, they encounter little opposition.
03:51The Italian government has surrendered, leading many to believe that Rome will be liberated in
03:55months.
04:00But Hitler knows that stopping the Allies here is vital to protecting Germany itself.
04:05And he orders his forces to dig in.
04:10For the defense of southern Italy, the Germans have amassed six divisions, totaling 95,000 troops,
04:18389 heavy guns, and almost 400 tanks.
04:26In the south of Rome, the Germans establish their Winter Line, a network of pillboxes, barbed wire,
04:34and tanks, forming a defensive barrier across the Italian peninsula.
04:41But the British, unaware of the extent of the Germans' new fortifications, land troops near the coastal town of Termoli and stumble right into the enemy's lines.
04:54The area that the brigade landed happened to be the rest area for the German 16th Panzer Division.
05:08And the British were very quickly assaulted by the Germans.
05:18And they cried for help, and we happened to be the closest armored regiment.
05:24So we broke through and made a quick dash to Termoli.
05:29Rushing to the aid of the beleaguered British are 36 Canadian Sherman tanks.
05:38The Sherman 5 is primarily used as an infantry support weapon.
05:43Armed with only 51 millimeters of light frontal armor and a low-velocity 75-millimeter main cannon,
05:49the Sherman sacrifices protection and firepower for increased speed and mobility.
05:57We ran from about 4 o'clock in the morning to 4 o'clock at night,
06:01crossed the roads, crossed fields.
06:07I remember doing radio watch and hearing the German tanks were collecting at a certain point.
06:19We said, boy, somebody's in for hell for the morning.
06:23When Captain Yellen came back with the maps, we looked.
06:27We found that we were the ones that were getting massed against.
06:38And they were seasoned troops. It was not a walk over with them.
06:45We pulled up on the high ground just as the Germans were launching another counterattack.
06:59We were a fair distance away from B Squadron.
07:05They were much closer to this wooded area where the Germans emerged from.
07:10Once they started moving, then B Squadron tangled with them very quickly.
07:16Well, they were firing back and forth.
07:20And, um, we lost some tanks.
07:32We were, uh, in a position to give them supporting fire.
07:38As soon as I saw any German tank, I just gave a quick order to my gunner.
07:48And I swung the turret around and, uh, anyway, gave him a fire order and he fired.
07:58B Squadron, uh, they bore the brunt of the battle.
08:01And I think they lost two or three.
08:05But they, uh, they destroyed eight German troops.
08:14As A and B Squadrons watch the enemy withdraw from their sectors, C Squadron continues their advance.
08:21The British had fored us that there was no, no, uh, enemy tanks in that area.
08:28In going across, we noticed a haystack.
08:33Having known that the Germans would hide things behind things like that, buildings, and...
08:42I saw this haystack and wondered what the hell it was doing there, so I fired at it.
08:47I hit it with an HE, a high, high explosive.
08:52When I did, the haystack blew up and, uh, this tank appeared.
08:58And it was a Mark IV.
09:03The Panzer IV is armed with a high-velocity 75-millimeter main cannon
09:09that can destroy a Sherman at ranges of up to two kilometers.
09:12It is protected with 80 millimeters of frontal armor.
09:17But at close range, it can be vulnerable even to the Sherman's underpowered main gun.
09:23We usually had an HE in the breach, but if it was a tank, we'd put in an armor-piercing shell.
09:30And we fired an AP.
09:35It burst into flames, and that was it for that.
09:39So we continued down the hill, up the other side, and held our position where we were supposed to be.
09:55By day's end, the Canadians prevail at Termoli, destroying at least eight German panzers.
10:01But the Canadians have lost a third of a squadron in their first major tank-on-tank battle in Italy.
10:15A harsh and bloody taste of what is still to come.
10:18September 1943.
10:29After invading the Italian mainland, Canadian and Allied forces advance northward, intent on seizing Rome.
10:36But German forces have prepared for the Allies and engaged the tanks of the Canadian Armored Corps in a fierce battle near the town of Termoli.
10:50Termoli was our first battle.
10:52It was the first time we had a tank-versus-tank encounter.
10:55Although the Canadian tankers take heavy casualties, they force the enemy to fall back.
11:06But in the wake of the battle, the Germans bring in reinforcements,
11:12and now field 18 army divisions dedicated to halting the Allies.
11:16Now before the Canadians can continue their advance towards Rome,
11:22they must secure the heavily reinforced village of San Leonardo.
11:27Charged with the task of clearing the village is the infantry of the Seaforth Highlanders,
11:33supported by a handful of tanks from the Calgary Regiment.
11:37We moved into position on the ridge overlooking San Leonardo,
11:43and we were all ready to go.
11:44The brigadier comes up and says,
11:48They haven't taken the bridgehead.
11:50You take it now.
11:54I couldn't do anything except,
11:56Yes, sir.
12:03This is a pretty dicey way to start going into a battle.
12:07No reconnaissance, no idea what the ground looked like.
12:14We went over the ridge for the first time saw it.
12:19San Leonardo was there looking at us coming down.
12:22As soon as we got over the, the brown, all hell broke loose.
12:31And the road was just a winding and steep.
12:35On the way down, two of my tanks that were behind me went over the bank.
12:42Going over the bank.
12:4740 feet.
12:49One on, one tank on top of the other.
12:52When I got into San Leonardo, there were only about four of us.
13:06Four tanks.
13:07We were just supporting the Seaforce, and the Seaforce were clearing the houses.
13:20If the infantry were going to go into a house,
13:27you could put a round in the window 10 feet from the door,
13:31without blowing everybody to hell.
13:37You could have a tremendous rate of fire.
13:40It almost sounded like a machine gun,
13:47because the loader was just bang, bang, bang.
13:55It just kept banging away in that whole area.
14:01Slowly and methodically, the Canadians begin to clear the German infantry from San Leonardo.
14:05But just as it seems the battle is over,
14:10a dozen German tanks charged towards the village,
14:13intent on repelling the Allied attack.
14:20I think that the Germans had many more tanks in San Leonardo.
14:2510 tanks, or 12 tanks, or whatever it was.
14:32There was a chap by the name of Ern Charbonneau,
14:34and he was one of my troop commanders.
14:38And he was positioned covering this road that went out towards the coast.
14:45And a German tank went by.
14:49And I guess he couldn't have been any more than about 50 yards from Charbonneau's tank.
14:57He was coming down behind the buildings.
14:59And the infantry, the C-Force, were on both sides of the buildings.
15:05And this one little soldier from the C-Force,
15:10this German tank was coming right towards him.
15:14Charbonneau hit it, and it brewed.
15:17A little, little C-Force soldier came out from behind those buildings.
15:29He came over and he tapped the tank and he says,
15:32you big cast iron son of a bitch, I could kiss you.
15:36At the end of the day, we felt pretty good.
15:42We were in San Leonardo.
15:44It was in our hands and we took it.
15:47Having secured the village, the Canadians press on,
15:53advancing towards their next objective, the coastal town of Ortona.
15:57But to get there, they must first seize a road junction, codenamed Cider Crossroads.
16:04Now defended by one of the toughest units in the German army.
16:09The first parachute division, they were the best troops.
16:14They were first class.
16:15We had anti-tank warfare and we had sappers who were setting up mines in buildings.
16:27They fought extremely hard and they made us pay for every bloody house we took.
16:37I never encountered better soldiers, never.
16:41I remember my squadron commander's tank hit a mine.
16:56He came up on the air and said to the second in command,
17:01come alongside and take off my crew.
17:07The second in command said, are there any mines there?
17:10And the squadron leader said, no, I hit the only one.
17:14And bang, he hits another one.
17:19As more and more allied armor arrives at the crossroads,
17:23the German paratroopers begin to withdraw to Ortona,
17:27leaving only small rearguard units to slow the advancing Canadians.
17:32We were the lead tank.
17:33We had one troop on one side and one troop on the other side.
17:42Melville asked permission from our left to use our path to get around the railroad tracks.
17:47So he went ahead of us and he moved up about 25 yards.
17:55The Germans had packed the culvert with 200 pounds of gun cotton.
18:01gun cotton.
18:06And when the tank got on it, they just pushed the trigger.
18:12The turret weighed about seven tons and it was thrown about 25 yards.
18:17And the rest of the crew were blown up and the tanks just split into pieces.
18:28If Melville hadn't asked permission to leave his position, it would have been our tanks.
18:37It would have been our tanks.
18:42The whole crew was lost.
18:45So I remember going back later on and having to bury them, scrape the bodies together,
18:53and then bury the, bury the duo temporary grave.
18:58This is when you first become aware of how bloody war can be.
19:09When all of a sudden one of your friends is no longer there.
19:15He's been killed.
19:19The Germans stopped us cold.
19:21It takes the Canadians 10 days to advance just three kilometers.
19:28But on December 19th, they finally capture the Cider Crossroads.
19:34The fighting has been fierce, but it pales in comparison to what they'll face next.
19:40A battle so deadly, it will become one of the most infamous in Canadian military history.
19:45December 1943.
20:01For the last three months, Canadian tanks have been engaged in fierce fighting throughout southern Italy.
20:10And by December 20th, they have battled to within 250 kilometers of their final objective.
20:15The Italian capital of Rome.
20:20But the Allies' advance has left them with long and very vulnerable supply lines.
20:25Allied command note they must capture a deep water port to keep their advance from stalling.
20:31And they order the Canadians to seize the coastal town of Ortona.
20:35The Canadians anticipated that we would take Ortona in one day with a squadron of tanks.
20:45They would not stand a company of infantry.
20:48Well, it turned out that the Germans had a different view.
20:57Defending Ortona is the elite 1st Parachute Division, ordered to stop the Canadians at any cost.
21:03Our boys were up against the best German soldiers in the German army.
21:13You had to kill those guys. They weren't giving up very easy.
21:16In order to capture the town, the Canadians will have to fight their way through a maze of narrow roads and rubble-strewn laneways.
21:26And to protect the vulnerable infantry, the attack is supported by tanks.
21:31At just 2.6 meters wide and equipped with a short-barreled cannon, the Sherman 5 can maneuver through Ortona's narrow streets, providing protection and powerful fire support for advancing infantry.
21:44Everything was already burning. The houses and then the tanks arrived. We used to call tanks up ahead.
22:00This was our first encounter in an urban area.
22:11You were always looking around, do you? Because we just didn't know what the hell we were getting into.
22:17From the outskirts, we had literally to fight street by street and house by house.
22:32There was a tremendous expenditure of ammunition.
22:38Whether or not you saw anyone, you still fired them.
22:42You know, the constant firing was incredible.
22:53Basically, our job was in support of infantry.
22:59The infantry were quite vulnerable to machine guns.
23:04I'd say the Sherman was the best killing infantry gun in the war, by far.
23:14The Sherman tank was a great tank, as far as that part is concerned.
23:22The problem was always trying to identify where they were.
23:25Because the Germans were very adept at camouflaging their machine guns.
23:35Our job was to knock these things out, which we did.
23:39We destroyed houses.
23:43Our high-explosive rounds had a screw on the head of the round.
23:47And by twisting this screw, it delayed the impact for 0.05 seconds.
24:01So, when you fired that round,
24:08the round would penetrate the wall and then explode inside.
24:12After only a few days, the vicious street-to-street fighting reduces much of Ortona to ruins.
24:27And the ferocity of the battle leads many to refer to the devastated town as Little Stalingrad.
24:32When we got back to Ortona, on December 20th, 1943,
24:46we were looking for our house in that area over there,
24:51climbing over heaps of rubble.
24:54But then, we realized that our house had been destroyed.
24:57It was just one of the heaps of rubble.
25:03Every street in Ortona was filled with rubble.
25:08Heaps of rubble.
25:12The cathedral of San Tommaso Apostolo was destroyed.
25:17I remember that I was really scared.
25:26Really scared because you could be killed from one moment to the next.
25:31By December 22nd, the Germans have lost two-thirds of Ortona.
25:37But they are not finished with the Canadians yet.
25:40And in the north end of the town, they prepare to make their final stand.
25:44Because of the artillery fire coming from both sides, the buildings collapsed.
26:02And the tanks were only able to drive on very narrow paths.
26:07And that way, it was easier to bring them down.
26:09It's a lot of us.
26:10We couldn't move on this street.
26:12Therefore, we would have to go down that street.
26:14And that would be the area they defined as their killing ground.
26:18The Germans, for the first time, brought up what they call their Panzerfaust weapon,
26:21the German anti-tank weapon.
26:23Plus the fact that the Germans had what we call the sticky bone.
26:24It was a shaped charge that had three magnets on the bottom of it.
26:26The Germans, for the first time, brought up what they call their Panzerfaust weapon,
26:28the German anti-tank weapon.
26:29Plus the fact that the Germans had what we call the sticky bone.
26:33It was a shaped charge that had three magnets on the bottom of it.
26:40And they would just drop this thing onto the top of a tank turret as the tank went by.
26:46And it would latch onto the tank and then blow.
26:49It would blow all the way down.
26:50And they would just drop this thing onto the top of a tank turret as the tank went by.
26:55And it would latch onto the tank and then blow.
27:00It would blow all the way through the tank and destroy it.
27:08As the battle for Ortona intensifies, the Germans make it clear they will fight to the last man,
27:15determined to stop the Canadians, whatever the cost.
27:26December 24th, 1943.
27:31After four days of bloody street-to-street fighting,
27:34the Allies have been unable to dislodge the stubborn German defenders from the town of Ortona.
27:40And it's the tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment that are ordered to support the advance through the ruined town
27:46and finally finish the job.
27:49Tanks are at a disadvantage in the city because they don't know what's happening in the debris.
27:56We couldn't move on this street, therefore we would have to go down that street.
28:00And that would be the area they defined as their killing ground.
28:10This was our biggest problem, was the damn sticky bombs and the Panzerfaust.
28:18The Panzerfaust was designed as a tank destroyer.
28:21It was a very formidable weapon.
28:25This was the first time that it was encountered by the Canadians.
28:34The handheld Panzerfaust is one of the deadliest anti-tank weapons on the battlefield.
28:39It fires a shaped charge at ranges of up to 30 meters and can penetrate almost 200 millimeters of armor,
28:47unleashing a devastating explosion inside.
28:50The tanks drove over all the debris and the stones.
29:00And there was one of our anti-tank guns standing in one of the side streets, also taking down a few tanks.
29:10They had been zeroing in on those streets, so they knew exactly where they were going to fire.
29:20And then we were told, fire.
29:27Oh, yeah.
29:29The only time that A Squadron got into the open was up on the northern end of town.
29:48We broke into this piazza.
29:55On the left flank is the old 15th century church, where the huge doors were open.
30:06And the Germans had a machine gun set up by the altar.
30:12And as the seaforths went across the square, the machine gun caught them in the flank.
30:23I ordered the gunner to start firing.
30:25And we blew in the front of the church.
30:33The infantry then went in and took out any Germans that were still left.
30:40And this was on Christmas morning, by the way.
30:44The first thing I had to do on Christmas morning.
30:46On December 28th, the surviving German paratroopers finally pull out, leaving Ortona to the Canadians.
31:00The Battle of Ortona is the deadliest so far in the Italian campaign, leading many to call the last month of 1943, Bloody December.
31:10We lost more men in Ortona by far than what we lost on the beaches. Normandy.
31:16Probably twice as many, or three times as many.
31:24The fact that there are nearly 1,400 Canadians buried just outside Ortona, tells you exactly how difficult the battle was.
31:39The Canadian victory at Ortona is bittersweet.
31:42As Allied Command decides the best way to seize Rome lies further west.
31:50The new route of their advance is straight through the Liri Valley, one of the most heavily defended positions on the Germans' infamous Hitler Line.
31:57Allied intelligence reports an undefended gap in the line near an abandoned airport outside the village of Aquino.
32:04But their intelligence couldn't be more wrong.
32:07We started out across the airport, about all we must have done, about 5.30, 6 o'clock.
32:21The fog was dense, I mean, and so dense, I mean, you couldn't see 30 feet in front of you.
32:32I was touching, practically touching the tank ahead of me.
32:35I couldn't even see it, it was that dense.
32:41About halfway, the sun came out and they disintegrated that lovely fog that was covering us.
32:49And we went right straight across the airport, not knowing what they had sitting there waiting for us.
33:03And then, of course, it's all hell broke loose.
33:05The Canadian tanks have just stumbled into an ambush.
33:12Four of Germany's deadly accurate new anti-tank weapons.
33:16The powerful and very lethal Panther Term.
33:25May 19th, 1944.
33:29Canadian tanks and infantry are now less than 150 kilometers from Rome.
33:33If they can break through German defenses at Aquino, very little stands in their way.
33:38But as they cross an abandoned airport outside the village, they encounter a deadly surprise.
33:44And we went right straight across the airport, not knowing what they had sitting there waiting for us.
33:51And then, of course, it's all hell broke loose.
33:54The Canadians are among the first to encounter the Germans' newest anti-tank weapon.
33:59The Panther Term is a Panther turret mounted on a concrete base.
34:06Its low profile and heavy armor make it almost impossible to destroy.
34:11And its high-velocity 75-millimeter gun makes it extremely dangerous.
34:16Their guns were pretty, pretty, pretty rough.
34:25This is a long barrel 75.
34:26Same turret and everything as a Panther tank.
34:28That was a rude awakening because we didn't even know they were there.
34:37So we played a game of ducks that day and we were the ducks and the Germans had fun being the hunters.
34:43All these guns were intermingled, each supporting each other.
34:54So if you got to one, the other guy would be shooting at you.
34:57We got across there in one piece, right across in front of those guns.
35:15And I still had my troop intact.
35:17I didn't go very far, but I found this nice, comfortable spot.
35:25It was kind of a hole.
35:28I got my two tanks down into it and I was kind of on the rim.
35:34Had I gone on, I would run right into that 75-millimeter.
35:43I wouldn't be here today, there's no doubt of mine.
35:45I hate blowing my three tanks all day long.
35:52We lost about 13 tanks that day.
35:56The only thing we could do is call on smoke to smoke those guns out.
36:11Around 8 o'clock we got a good stonk of smoke came in.
36:16And finally we got off there before it got dark and got off the airport.
36:26Unable to get past the Panther terms at Aquino,
36:29the Canadians finally breached the Hitler line further west.
36:37They cross the Melfa River
36:40and resume their advance up the main highway towards Rome.
36:45By late May, the Allies have cracked the German defenses
36:49and most of the German defenders retreat north of Rome.
36:52The German defenses really fell apart and they had to withdraw,
36:56which they hadn't planned to do.
36:58So we came up to Taurus Crossroads chasing them
37:02and they put up the battle there.
37:04They docked out a number of our tanks, one in C Squadron.
37:09And the tank that I had been in 15 days before received a direct hit in the turret.
37:16Everybody in the turret was killed, which would have been me.
37:23One of our tanks at Taurus Crossroads was hit.
37:30It went right through that outer plate, in through, across the tank.
37:38Out the other side, knocked off the plate that was welded there,
37:41which we never did fine and kept on going.
37:45Jimmy Barr's tank, with Santy Scott's gunner, came down the hill.
37:51And as they came down at the crossroads, like there, which you cut across in an angle,
37:57was this German tank.
38:00Jimmy Barr's tank immediately engaged.
38:04Fifteen armor-piercing shells at point-blank range, a hundred yards away, just bounced off.
38:13They just scared the dickens out of the gunner to fire fifteen armor-piercing shots
38:18and see them bounce off this thing.
38:19When we were in Italy, the Panther came out, it was a new design with even bigger guns on it.
38:37The Sherman didn't have a chance against the Panther.
38:43The German Panther is one of the most feared tanks of the Second World War.
38:51And his sudden appearance on the Italian battlefield is a nightmare for the Canadian tankers.
38:57May 1944.
39:08Eight months after landing in Italy, Canadian tankers have become battle-hardened warriors,
39:14veterans of head-to-head clashes with the best the Germans can feel.
39:18Now, as they near Rome, they encounter the deadliest tank in the German arsenal, the infamous Panther.
39:28Fifteen armor-piercing shells at point-blank range, a hundred yards away, just bounced off.
39:37That just scared the dickens out of the gunner to fire fifteen armor-piercing shots
39:41and see them bounce off this thing.
39:42I think this is the first time that the Allies had encountered Panthers.
39:54The Panther is armed with a high-velocity 75-millimeter main gun.
39:59And its sloping front hull gives it the equivalent of 145 millimeters of armor protection,
40:06making it almost impervious to head-on attacks.
40:09But one of these shells that had affected the traverse mechanism,
40:22and evidently damaged that so the turret wouldn't revolve.
40:28Otherwise, they'd have been dead, all of them.
40:32And then they hit upon us to put an HE on delay into the bogies.
40:36That's the wheels on the side between the tracks.
40:46So, that was that one. That knocked out that tank.
40:54We lost, I think, about eleven men.
40:56I was there. We took one of the boys out in the shoebox, the tank that had proved, you know, that's all that was left.
41:00And so, we buried them there at the, by the church, right at the crossroads.
41:13As more Canadian tanks surge into the Leary Valley, the Germans retreat.
41:18And the road to the Eternal City is finally open.
41:21But when the Allies enter Rome on June 4th, the Canadians are not among the liberators.
41:28The thing that bugged us afterwards, after all this heavy fighting and all the people and tanks and personnel we'd lost, wounded and killed,
41:38The American army commander, Mark Clark, he pulled the Canadians out and let the Americans go in to take Rome.
41:44The Allied Fifth Army entered the Eternal City from the south, acclaimed by cheering multitudes.
41:59They got the joy and the lot wonderful of coming into Rome as the heroes and the conquerors.
42:05We went through Rome at three o'clock in the morning.
42:12We just whistled through there and said, hello Rome, goodbye Rome.
42:18That's the way it was.
42:20In all, the bloody fighting of the Italian campaign cost the Canadians hundreds of tanks and 25,000 casualties.
42:29It is a heavy sacrifice, but one that helps to dislodge the tenacious German defenders and finally secure the Allied victory in Italy.
42:42Practically, the war was already lost by then.
42:47But we didn't believe it.
42:49I didn't believe it.
42:54I'm just very proud of the Canadian soldiers.
42:56Well, I don't care where the hell it was.
43:00I think the Canadian soldiers were damn good.
43:07Who had to break the Hitler line?
43:09First Canadian Div.
43:11Who did our Tawana?
43:13First Canadian Div.
43:17When I take a look at the 1,375 graves at the Morro River,
43:23I say no, it wasn't worth the cost.
43:26I don't think the money is worth the cost.
43:27I don't think the money is worth the cost.
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