Day 19 - Sept 15, 2017: To Ortona

Day 19 - Sept 15, 2017:  To Ortona

We headed towards Ortona on the east side of Italy on the Adriatic coast. In the vicinity of Bari there were six Commonwealth hospitals in the area. For that reason many of those who died under care were buried at a cemetery just outside of town.

Bari War Cemetery


The Bari War Cemetery ontains 2230 graves, 171 unidentified soldiers and 210 Canadians. It is a well groomed, well looked after CWGC cemetery. What strikes me odd as with all cemeteries are the ages for some of these pilots. Some are 22 years old and they're bomber pilots with a crew of six or seven men!



The Battle of Italy
The Canadians were involved in several major battles along the way in the fall of 1943. The German Army used a technique called the "fighting withdrawal". Once across a river the Germans would blow up the bridges and would establish their defences on the ridge opposite the direction of advance for the Allies.
Our boys were in clear view as they came down into the valley, as the Engineers tried to install Bailey Bridges for our tanks and troops to cross, during river crossings and attacks up the valley side the Germans were located. The Allies fought one river valley after another after another and another.



The Sangro River Cemetery
We stopped at the Sangro River War Cemetery. This was a stunning cemetery that overlooked Italian farmland and the Adriatic Ocean. It contains 2619 Commonwealth graves, 171 unidentified soldiers and two Canadians. 


It also holds the graves of 385 soldiers form the Indian army and lists 517 Indians that were cremated.



There was also another sign in the cemetery we were not expecting.... 




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