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In memory of:

Lieutenant George Frédéric Chicoine

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Military service

Age: 34
Rank: Lieutenant
Force: Army
Unit/Regiment: Royal 22nd Regiment, R.C.I.C.
Birth: May 31, 1909 Quebec
Enlistment: July 18, 1940
Death: December 15, 1943 Casa Berardi, Italy

Burial/memorial information

MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY
Grave reference: II. A. 8.
Additional information
Baptized Georges Charles Frédéric Chicoine. Son of Jean Arthur Chicoine and Angélina Daoust of Montreal, Quebec. Brother of Captain Jean Hubert Chicoine, who fought with the British North African Forces, 3rd Anti-Tank Company, in the Second World War. He survived the conflict.

‘About two hours before daybreak on 15 December [1943], the Battalion received orders from the Brigade to extend its bridgehead and seize the crossroads to the north-east of Casa Berardi... At 7.30 am, the companies set off... Captain Triquet's C Company, reinforced by a platoon from A Company under Lieutenant Chicoine, moved to the left of the road and at the same time protected the left flank. A‘ Company remained in reserve... The fight became even more intense at around 3 p.m. when the Germans launched a counter-attack... Their attack failed as a result of the tenacity of the infantrymen of the Vingt-Deuxième and the excellent support they received from the armoured vehicles and artillery’. Histoire du Royal 22e Régiment, pages 204-206.

He was killed in action by an 88 mm shell that hit the corner of a house where he was hiding during an assault to seize the crossroads north-east of La Casa Berardi (Italy). He was temporarily buried on the 21st about 2 miles (3 km) away in San Leonardo cemetery, not far from La Casa Berardi, Province of Chieti, on the left-hand side of the road leading north to Ortona.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 145 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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