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In memory of:

Private Pierre Adrien Desrochers

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Military service

Service number: E/4380
Age: 36
Rank: Private
Force: Army
Unit/Regiment: Royal 22e Régiment, R.C.I.C.
Birth: December 4, 1907 Ste-Croix, Lotbinière
Enlistment: October 20, 1939
Death: December 13, 1943 Casa Berardi, Italy

Burial/memorial information

Grave reference: IV. G. 16.
Additional information
Baptized Joseph Pierre Adrien Desrochers. Son of Zéphirin Desrochers and Joséphine Masson.

He previously served from 1925 to 1935 in the 59th Heavy Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery and was discharged with the rank of sergeant. Enlisted in the Royal 22nd Regiment, he embarked from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on December 9, 1939, and arrived in Greenock, Scotland, on the 18th. On October 9, 1940, he accidentally shot himself in the right hand while cleaning the barrel of a Bren machine gun. On October 20, 1941, he was awarded the Good Conduct Badge. After being assigned to Force M on June 15, 1943, he embarked for Sicily as part of Operation Husky, where he landed with the Allied forces on July 10. On September 10, he set foot on the Italian mainland. He was killed in action on December 13, 1943, during the Battle of Casa Berardi. He had served 1,514 days, including 1,463 overseas.

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 153 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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