In Italy, the 1st Canadian Division (Major-General Christopher Vokes) is preparing to cross the Moro River in force and make a firm bridgehead. Zero hour is 3:30 p.m., late afternoon at this time of year. At 1st Brigade Headquarters, war artists Charles Comfort, Will Ogilvie and Ken Cottam take a jeep and drive toward the river, cutting through an olive grove until they find a hedgerow where they can hide their vehicle. They demobilize it carefully, and then set out along the hedge, crawling and creeping to the forward edge of the ridge overlooking the river from the south. The ground is too hard for digging, so they lie as flat as they can in the coarse grass. To their right is the mouth of the river, held by the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment since the morning of December 7. Below lies the Moro River, a muddy stream meandering through shrubs and clumps of willow at the bottom of a valley 200 feet deep and 1 000 yards across. The road to San Leonardo used to cross the river on a concrete bridge, but nothing remains of that but rubble. At the river’s edge, two Calgary Regiment tanks lie harboured among the willows, and in the distance the artists can see farm buildings, prosperous-looking fields and, far away, the roofs of Ortona clustered around the dome of the cathedral of San Tomasso.

At five minutes to Zero Hour, a single artillery round whines across the valley. Then, at Zero Hour precisely, the divisional artillery opens up, and the three artists claw at the earth as the gigantic, preposterous sound of the barrage batters them into stunned fear. Suddenly, two soldiers creep into their view, each wearing ammunition belts like a massive brass necklace. Machine-gunners from the Saskatchewan Light Infantry, they set up in a little grove and wait for their cue—what it might be, the artists cannot tell in the continuing thunder of shellfire. Although the barrage envelops the ridge in a black pall of cordite smoke, the artists can see the machine-gun section start spraying German positions on the other side of the river with bursts that pierce the artillery roar with a jack-hammer noise, bringing return fire from Schmeisser machine-pistols that produce a rattling falsetto sound.

At 4:45 p.m., the artists observe the beginning of a German artillery program while shaken, desperate men on the valley floor hunt for effective cover. They are the soldiers of the Royal Canadian Regiment, who crossed the river at the Hastings bridgehead only moments before a German counter-attack designed to obliterate it. Meanwhile, the 48th Highlanders, who crossed upstream of the artists’ position, are making a frontal assault up the road to San Leonardo. Having spent several days studying the reverse slope, they make brisk progress despite a German barrage that catches one company on the river bottom.

On the valley floor, at the edge of the stream, the sappers of the 3rd Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers, are building a crossing point for armoured fighting vehicles on the site of the original bridge. Through the terrific racket of the accelerating battle, the artists can hear a bulldozer grinding and growling as they head back to Brigade in the gathering dusk—prudence having finally overcome curiosity. The sappers keep working all night, under heavy harassing fire from the reverse slope as they cut away the river banks. The bulldozer driver, Sapper M.C. McNaughton, is the hero of this project, and the crossing is ready by morning. Canadian tanks start rolling across the Moro at 7 a.m. on December 9, and Spr McNaughton eventually receives the Military Medal for his night’s work.

"Fourth Dimension" is a regular feature written for the Canadian Forces
newspaper The Maple Leaf, published by the Department of National Defence.