The Italian Campaign

 Suspended above the path here is one of the planes that won the air war- the Spitfire.

This display case includes a Mosquito at bottom, and the German Messerschmitt bf 109, another superb plane.

I've always liked this portrait. Sergeant M.E. Boreham, The British Empire Medal depicts Myrtle Boreham, who served with the RCAF from 1941-45.

Canadians would take part in the Allied drive into Sicily and Italy. It would prove to be a tough campaign to win.

Here we have Entry Into Assoro, Sicily, by William Ogilvie.

Some of the weaponry available to the Germans and Italians posted in this theatre of the war.

While the Italians would give up, the Germans would dig in on the mainland. It fell to Allied forces to keep driving them back. For Canadian soldiers, one of the hardest fights was at the town of Ortona- a street to street, house to house, room to room battle.

You can walk through a recreation, with a Canadian soldier on one side.

And a German on the far side.

Here we have Canadian Armour Passing Through Ortona, by Charles Comfort.

Slowly but steadily, the Allied push against the Germans kept going in Italy.

Canadian and American soldiers served in a special operations unit that history remembers as the Devil's Brigade, fighting in Italy and France and establishing a record that became legendary.

This is a captured Sturmgeschutz III, a German assault gun on a half track, taken during the Italian campaign.