CBC Archives - Return to Ortona
Broadcast Date: Feb. 1, 1999 The ghosts of Ortona have returned to Italy. Fifty-five years ago, Matthew Halton’s famous reports on the Battle of Ortona detailed the brutal street combat between the Canadian and German soldiers. Listeners at home were riveted to the sounds of the crashing shells and Halton’s descriptions of “the courtyard of hell.” This Christmas, CBC Reporter David Halton, Matthew’s son, writes the final epilogue to his father’s reports. Interviewing the same soldiers his father followed, Halton is there as the Canadian and German veterans reconcile.