The Italian campaign: 60 years later, Smokey returns to Italy
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.
Program: The National
Broadcast Date: Oct. 29, 2004
Guest: Ernest Smith
Host: Peter Mansbridge
Reporter: Paul Workman
Duration: 2:52
Photo Credit: Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-145490
Last updated: October 2, 2013
Page consulted on January 19, 2015
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