Military service
Burial/memorial information
Baptized Joseph Roger Fortin. Son of Donat Fortin and Hermininge (aka Armenège) Chartrand of Hull, Québec.
Enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps in Ottawa, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Hull Regiment until July 21, 1943, when he was transferred to the Voltigeurs de Québec. On the 23rd, he sailed for Great Britain and landed at Greenock, Scotland, on the 28th. Assigned to Force M on August 25, 1943, he sailed for the Mediterranean on September 12 and was transferred to the 4th Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment on the 13th. He landed on the Italian coast on the 24th. He was killed in action on March 14, 1944, while sleeping in a stone house in the village of San Nicola. He was buried on the 19th in the Lanciano cemetery at Casa Berardi, near Ortona. Before February 14, 1945, his body was exhumed and reburied in the Moro River cemetery near Ortona. He had served 742 days, including 238 overseas.
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 307 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY Italy
By the winter of 1943, the German armies in Italy were defending a line stretching from the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Naples, to the Adriatic Sea south of Ortona. The Allies prepared to break through this line to capture Rome. For its part, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division was to cross the Moro River and take Ortona. In January 1944 the Canadian Corps selected this site, intending that it would contain the graves of those who died during the Ortona battle and in the fighting in the weeks before and after it. Today, there are 1,615 graves in the cemetery, of which over 50 are unidentified and 1,375 are Canadian.
The Moro River Canadian War Cemetery lies in the locality of San Donato in the Commune of Ortona, Province of Chieti, and is sited on high ground near the sea just east of the main Adriatic coast road (SS16). The cemetery can be reached from Rome on the autostrada A25 (Rome-Pescara) by branching on the autostrada A14 and leaving it at Ortona. The approach road to the cemetery from the main road passes under an arch forming part of the little church of San Donato. The cemetery is permanently open and may be visited anytime.
For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
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