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The Price of Peace Monument is a well known sculpture of Canadian soldiers displayed in the Piazza Plebiscito in Ortona. It commemorates the Battle of Ortona when, at Christmas in 1943, soldiers of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division fought to dislodge Germany’s 1st Parachute Division from Ortona. In 1988 a former Canadian corporal and tank commander with the Three Rivers Regiment (now the 12th Armoured Regiment), Ted ‘Tojo’ Griffiths, by then a retired major, organised a Christmas reunion in Ortona of Canadian and German veterans. Every Christmas since the city of Ortona marks the occasion with a ceremony at the Canadian cemetery.
In 2006, with money left over from the reunion fundraising, a statue was commissioned to honour the battle, and named Price of Peace. At about the same time a restored 15th century convent was designated to become the Museo Della Battaglia di Ortona (Battle of Ortona Museum). It is located nearby, on Corso Garibaldi, and it has collected a large number of items and memorabilia related to the battle. What the city fathers wanted, however, was a Sherman tank with 75mm gun as used by the Canadians, as a monument, and a search for one was made.
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Unique ID: |
1137
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Serial Number: |
24871 (source: P.-O. Buan/Shadock).
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Registration: |
3033401: “USA-3033401” originally painted on rear hull sides, but now “T146637” (British/Canadian) painted on rear hull sides.
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Name: |
“COOKIE” originally painted on middle hull sides (now “Athena” painted on forward hull sides).
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Other Identification: |
US star markings originally painted on hull and turret sides. Now Canadian flag painted on transmission cover, middle hull sides and hull rear, plus 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade markings on turret sides, nose and hull rear.
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This tank, ‘Cookie’, was a well known exhibit for many years at the Overloon war museum in the Netherlands, being displayed close to where it was put out of action. It is an early production version of the M4, retrofitted with appliqué armour on its hull and turret. It was manufactured by the American Locomotive Company (source: P.-O. Buan/Shadock), and served with Task Force Brown of Combat Command “A” of the 7th US Tank Division. During the first hour of the attack on the German fortifications near Overloon it turned over in a ditch, where it was left by its crew.
Canadian diplomats contacted the Dutch War and Resistance Museum at Overloon for a suitable tank for the Ortona monument and it offered to sell this tank for ninety thousand dollars. The Honorary Colonel of the Three Rivers Regiment, Lt Gen Jim Gervais, Harry Steele of Nova Scotia, and Seymour Schulich, Michael Wekerle and John Cleghorn of Toronto combined to raise the money and it was purchased. It was presented to Ortona by the Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler and was placed next to the Monument on 31st July 2006. The installation of the tank in the Piazza was intended to be temporary, pending the creation of a suitable site. This was planned to be on a pedestal north of the Piazza, overlooking the beach. In the meantime the tank has been moved to a grassy area nearby.
There is a plaque on the left side of the hull that reads as follows:
This tank honours veterans of the 12th
Canadian Armoured Regiment (TRR)
and Sergeant Rudy Vinet, 27th Anti-Tank
Battery (RCA) and is donated to the
citizens of Ortona through the generosity of
Seymour Schulich, CM, Harry Steel, OC,
Michael Wekerle, and John Cleghorn, OC. |
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