Battle of Ortona

Battle of Ortona
	Part of the Moro River Campaign in the Italian Campaign during World War II
	; Canadian Armour Passing Through Ortona, by Charles Comfort. Canadian War Museum (CN 12245).
Date	20–28 December 1943
Location	Ortona, Italy42°21′11″N 14°24′13″E
Result	Canadian victory
Belligerents
Canada	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Christopher Vokes	Richard Heidrich
Strength
1st Infantry Division	1st Parachute Division
Casualties and losses
1,375 killed (including Moro River battles) ; 964 wounded	867 killed, wounded or captured.
	1,314 civilians dead

The Battle of Ortona (20–28 December 1943) was fought between two battalions of elite German Fallschirmjäger (paratroops) from the German 1st Parachute Division under Generalleutnant Richard Heidrich, and assaulting Canadian troops from the 1st Canadian Infantry Division under Major General Christopher Vokes. It was the culmination of the fighting on the Adriatic front in Italy during "Bloody December". The battle was known to those who fought it as the "Italian Stalingrad,"^: 289 and as "Little Stalingrad", for the brutality of its close-quarters combat, which was only worsened by the chaotic rubble of the town and the many booby traps used by both sides. The battle took place in the small Adriatic Sea town of Ortona (Abruzzo), with a peacetime population of 10,000.

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