Second World War veterans of what has been called Canada's Stalingrad have returned to Italy remember the 60th anniversary of the battle for Ortona.

"It was hell," recalled Oren Foster, who was 23 during Canada's bloodiest of the war.

In the fall of 1943, the Allies fought their way north along the Italian peninsula.

To stop them, Adolf Hitler, Germany's dictator, ordered a defensive line placed across the width of Italy.

Canadian troops ran into it at Ortona.

It was a vicious house-to-house battle in Ortona's streets and narrow alleys. More than 500 Canadians died. Most were buried in the Moro River War Cemetery on the town's outskirts.

Clarence Thompsett, then 22, was in the cemetery to pay his respects to his fallen comrades.

"After 60 years, I don't know, just to see all these graves. All these buddies here. I happened to be the lucky one who got home," he said.

Reconnecting with the living and the dead brought Clifford Boyles back. "Just for people, you know, to remember them," he said.

Francesca la Sorda, who still places fresh flowers daily at a memorial to Canadian soldiers in the town's centre, told CTV News: "If I could see them again, I'd throw my arms around them. They were good men."

Part of the celebrations included the unveiling of a plaque.

Almost 6,000 Canadians are buried across Italy.

Another event Wednesday was unveiling a plaque in the Piazza del Plebiscito to commemorate the battle for Ortona.

Other events will take place across Italy until Nov. 4.

Veterans of the Ortona battle and the others worry that with time's passage, their sacrifices will be squeezed out by remembrances of D-Day and the other great battles in northern Europe.

For people of Francesca la Sorda's generation, they can never forget it.

With a report from CTV's Tom Kennedy