When Sunnybrook Military Hospital opened in 1948, each treatment block in the main building was identified by a plaque representing military or places of battle where so much was sacrificed. Although the plaques were removed when Sunnybrook transitioned from a Veterans facility to a fully affiliated academic general hospital in 1966, they were rededicated in 2018. Ortona Wing is currently called A Wing.
The mediaeval town of Ortona, with its castle and stone buildings, was situated on a ledge overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Its steep, rubble-filled streets limited the use of tanks and artillery and thus made this an infantryman's struggle. During several days of vicious street fighting, the Canadians smashed their way through walls and buildings—"mouseholing" as they called it. This was Christmas 1943. Meanwhile, a subsidiary attack had been launched to the northwest and the Germans, in danger of being cut off, withdrew from Ortona. The city officially fell on December 28.
