In this special Christmas episode of The Rum Ration, Colin and Rejoy head to Ortona, December 1943, the “Italian Stalingrad,” where Canadians fought for every doorway. A minor port guarding Highway 16 became a fortress held “at all costs” by the German Fallschirmjäger “Green Devils,” as record rain and the Moro River’s mud turned approach routes into misery. Inside Ortona, the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders improvised “mouse-holing,” blasting through adjoining walls to stay off kill-zone streets. 

The cost was savage: leaders exposed, buildings booby-trapped, civilians trapped in cellars, and over 1,300 Ortonesi killed. Yet on Christmas Day, the Seaforths staged a proper dinner in a ruined church, officers serving troops, while machine guns rattled outside, a moment that even impressed nearby Germans. Days later the enemy slipped away, leaving “Bloody December” and a legacy of resilience, ritual, and hard-earned truth about the famous Ortona Dinner photo, for Canada today.

Shout out to Petula Clark for her musical inspiration!