lead to intense street to street fighting. The battle was so intense that it was nicknamed "little Stalingrad". Amidst the fighting on the night of 25 December the Seaforth's quartermaster arranged a Christmas dinner for the soldiers at the front. One at a time the four companies of the regiment were rotated off the line to the Church of Santa Maria di Constantinopoli. As they sat down to a fresh meal of roast pork and mashed potatoes one soldier, a corporal, played the church's organ over the roar of the battle just a few hundred yards to the north. A few days later on 28 December the Germans pulled out of Ortona during the night, leaving the town to the Allies. Every year the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada commemorate this battle with the Ortona Dinner. This commemorative dinner takes the place of the regiment's annual Christmas dinner. Veterans from the battle along with the unit's serving and former members sit down to a Christmas dinner with the same menu served in the church in 1943. From Ortona the Seaforths continued to move north fighting through the Liri Valley and breaking through the Hitler Line, the Germans' second defensive line. This was the hardest fought battle for the Seaforths of the entire Italian campaign. At one point on the afternoon of 23 May 1944, the Seaforths, having taken the line, repelled a German counterattack, and when the Germans pulled off only eight soldiers remained, commanded by C Company Sergeant Major J.M. Duddle, who was the senior man left on the line. By the end of the day the Seaforths had taken 210 casualties including 52 killed. The regiment continued fighting in Italy through Gothic Line, across the Savio River, where Private E.A. "Smokey" Smith's actions earned him a Victoria Cross and through the Po Valley. On 13 March 1945 the Seaforths boarded ships to begin the trip to Northwest Europe where they were to be used in the liberation of The Netherlands. The Seaforths travelled through Germany and entered The Netherlands on April 7 through the town of 's-Heerenberg. Their first action was the crossing of the IJssel River on 11 April. They then chased the Germans west across the fields south of Apeldoorn until the surrender of the Germans on 8 May 1945. On the 8th the Seaforths were ordered to Amsterdam to take possession from the German occupiers and