In the 20th century, more than 116,000 Canadians lost their lives on fields of battle ranging from Vimy Ridge to the Korean Peninsula.

As Canada celebrates the fourth Remembrance Day of the 21st century, the focus this Nov. 11 is on the Italian campaign.

This year has been picked to mark the 60th anniversary of the role Canadian troops played in liberating Italy from the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and his German Nazi allies.

Their efforts began in Sicily in July 1943. In less than a month Canadian soldiers had liberated the island just south of Italy and Mussolini's government fell as a result.

However, advancing north through the mainland of Italy would prove to be a much more difficult task. While the new Italian government surrendered, Germany seized control of the country. German troops continued to fight on against the Canadian, U.S., British and Polish allies.

The second phase of the Italian campaign started in September 1943 and would last until late February 1945.

Fighting in terrain ranging from mountain peaks to medieval Italian towns, the Canadians battled against elite German troops.

At the peak of the campaign there were 76,000 Canadians in Italy. Casualties were heavy: More than 25,000 Canadians were wounded and about 5,900 killed.

Memorable battles include the taking of Ortona in December 1943, the Liri Valley in the spring of 1944, and the strike against the German's Gothic line in the fall of 1944 and early winter of 1945.

Canadians didn't take part in the final liberation of Italy. The 1st Canadian Corps was moved to northwestern Europe to be reunited with the First Canadian Army.

They would liberate Holland and participate in the final advance on Germany.

Canadian veteran Don Ballantyne recalls the advance towards Rome.

"Our objective was a very high mountain that ... had a gradual side, and had a very steep side," the Port Hope resident told Canada AM.

"We sent out scouts to string ropes from the top of the mountain down the side, and we moved 600 men in driving rain and snow, in pitch-black weather, up the side of this mountain."

A general had given them three days to take their objective. "It was accomplished in six hours."

"The guys who died obviously sacrificed their entire lives to the cause, but for those of us who survived, we took a lot back with us, and it changed our lives completely."

Harry Watts was a dispatch rider. A picture of him looking rather jaunty has the words "somewhere in Italy" on it.

"Nothing prepared me for Italy," he said. "The roads, the weather were just beyond anything we had trained on or expected, and of course, all the training still doesn't prepare you for the violence of war."

Watts wrote a poem for his grandchildren:

I remember the names
But the faces are dim
Of Reg, Stretch, Dusty and Slim
Some didn't come home
To their family and friends
We're glad that we
answered the call when we did
That our sons had
a full happy life
And we think of our grandchildren
So free and so strong
And we pray so loud and so long
Never again

While the focus is on the Italian campaign this year, Remembrance Day is for all who served and sacrificed.

Margaret Haliburton remembered the good times during the Second World War when she was stationed near Moncton, N.B., including dancing with the British troops.

"We taught them the jitterbug and they taught us the quick step, and we had a marvelous time with them," she said.

"For me, Remembrance Day means remembering the dead, and there's an awful lot of dead to remember. I get emotional every time," she said, daubing her nose.

When she's visited the cemeteries of Canada's war dead, Haliburton said she was struck by the fact that besides the sheer numbers, there was almost no one over the age of 25 -- and some were as young as 17.

"And you just think, 'there was the flower of your country. It really was a sacrifice."

Wally Loucks almost didn't serve. The army thought he was too small. But the Air Force did take him. He served in a bomber squadron.

As veterans grow old and die, the Canadian Legions, once a fixture of Canadian life, may also one day disappear from small towns and cities.

Loucks hopes the poppy will be a lasting reminder.

"The legions might go, but the poppy should remain," Loucks said. "That will be the only thing that reminds people in future years what happened."

A brief chronology of the campaign through Italy:

July 10, 1943: Canadian troops go ashore at Pachino in Sicily, part of an armada of nearly 3,000 Allied ships and landing craft.

July 15: Canadians take Grammichele after battle with Germany's Hermann Goering Division.

July 25: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini resigns.

July 28: After multiple attacks and five days of hard fighting, Canadians take Agira.

Aug. 7: Sicily is taken and Canadians are placed in reserve. They had fought through 240 kilometres of mountainous country and took more than half a dozen German-held towns and villages.

Sept. 3: New Italian government collapses; Germans seize control; Allied mainland assault begins across Strait of Messina.

Dec. 28: After days of vicious fighting in what became known as Bloody December, Canadians take the medieval town of Ortona on the Adriatic coast; offensives grind to a halt in winter weather.

May 23, 1944: Canadian troops break through the Hitler Line north of Cassino.

May 31: Canadians occupy Frosinone as their area campaign ends and they are put into reserve.

June 4: Americans take Rome.

June 6: D-Day landings begin in France.

Aug. 30: Two Canadian brigades cross the Foglia River and fight their way through the Gothic Line toward Rimini on the Adriatic coast.

Sep. 21: Canadians enter a deserted Rimini.

Oct. 28: The end of the Italian campaign begins.

February, 1945: Canadian troops were moving through northwest Europe to join the Allied Forces movement into the Netherlands and Germany and force the end of the war.

With a chronology from Canadian Press.