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In memory of:

Corporal Joseph Brytan

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Military service

Service number: E/4658
Age: 22
Rank: Corporal
Force: Army
Unit/Regiment: Royal 22nd Regiment, R.C.I.C.
Birth: January 1, 1921 Montreal
Enlistment: November 16, 1939
Death: December 26, 1943 La Torre River, Chieti, Italy

Burial/memorial information

MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY
Grave reference: XI. F. 10.
Additional information
Son of Antoni Brytan and Maria Switluk first from Ukraine, then Montréal, Québec.

Enlisted in the Royal 22e Régiment, he embarked for England on 8 June 1940 and arrived in Liverpool on the 20th. Assigned to the Mediterranean theatre of operations, he left for Sicily, where he landed on 10 July 1943. He landed in Italy on 3 September. He was killed in action on 26 December in the La Torre river sector, province of Chieti. He was buried on the 26th beside the road leading to the church, before being exhumed and reburied in the Moro River cemetery in Ortona, Italy.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 141 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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