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The Italian Campaign
A full year before the D-Day landings in Normandy, there were the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy. Canada played a major role in the Allies' first breach of Hitler's "Fortress Europe" in 1943 and 1944. Canadian soldiers defeated entrenched German forces but paid a terrible price. Seaside towns and mountain passes became places of horror: Ortona, Cassino, Rimini. But with the events of D-Day and the Allied push across Europe, the Italian Campaign became a forgotten front, a deadly sideshow that cost nearly 6,000 Canadian lives. Sixty years later, their bravery is remembered.
Last updated: August 22, 2012
Page consulted on May 8, 2013
All Clips from this Topic
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Prime Minister King declares war against Italy, and annouces the death...
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After three years of waiting, Canadian troops land unopposed.
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Canadian troops land on the southern tip of Italy, breaching Hitler's ...
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Under a barrage of shells, Matthew Halton reports on Canadian troops s...
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Hand to hand fighting on Christmas Eve in "the courtyard of hell."
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As Allied troops approach the Italian capital, CBC Radio looks at the ...
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Canadians fight a grim mountainside battle against German paratroopers...
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From a farmhouse attic, Peter Stursberg describes a Canadian tank and ...
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Ernest Alvia Smith tells how he held off German soldiers and Panther t...
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Matthew Halton on the memorable sight of modern combat in ancient Ital...
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The horrors of a mental breakdown on the Italian front.
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One soldier's plea for Canadians to remember their men in Italy.
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On a rare respite, our soldiers "play the same way they fight — h...
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Casa Berardi: the Royal 22nd are pinned down and almost wiped out. But...
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Lt.-Gen. Guy G. Symonds, commander in Italy, describes his troops for ...
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Soldiers recall the fighting in Ortona, Italy.
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Triquet and Jean-Victor Allard recall the actions that earned Triquet ...
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A look back at the fiercest battle of the Italian Campaign.
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In 2004, Canada's last living VC recipient visits the site of glory an...
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A full year before the D-Day landings in Normandy, there were the Alli...