Street Fight: The Battle for Ortona: Canadian Troops had to Learn the Tricks of Urban Warfare on the Deadly Streets of Ortona Against a Most Formidable Foe (Reprint‪)‬

DECEMBER 22, 1943 Stone and the other Canadian officers in Ortona lost control of the fighting within minutes. The men became too scattered through the buildings and side streets. Sergeants, corporals, even privates took charge. The Canadians had no real experience in street fighting. Nor had they been trained for the task. To stay alive, they had to learn the job on the fly. Three German machine guns fired from a building next to the rubble pile. Private Charles Gordon Rattray and two other men set their sights on knocking them out. They crawled over the rubble pile on their stomachs. Machine-gun slugs and rifle bullets fired by snipers on the rooftops struck all around the men. Somehow they reached the building unharmed.