The situation looked very grim for a force of Canadian infantrymen fighting, with tank support, in Ortona, Italy, on the morning of December 27, 1943. The town was partly cleared, but the Germans were fighting doggedly for every street and every house. It was a matter of touch and go.

A troop of tanks was inching its way along one of the streets. With them was a soldier carrying a movie camera and tripod. Suddenly they came under point-blank fire from a German anti-tank gun position. As the tanks ducked for cover behind nearby buildings the man on foot proceeded ahead of them, seeking a suitable vantage point for pictures. He found a spot to his liking, then calmly set up the camera, adjusted the lens.

From their cover the tank men watched his unhurried, deliberate movements, which suggested that he might have been preparing to "shoot" nothing more alarming than a giant panda at the zoo, or a honeymooning couple at Niagara Falls. Amazed, the tank commander opened his hatch and, with his own camera, took a picture of the movie cameraman in action.

In another moment the issue at that particular spot was no longer in doubt. The anti-tank gun was silenced, the enemy position overrun. The Canadians pushed on to clear the rest of Ortona.

The young man with the tripod was the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit's Sgt. Jack Stollery, 27, of St. Thomas, Ontario. For coolness under fire at Ortona, and on similar occasions, he was awarded the Military Medal.

Stollery's citation reads, in part: "His appearance with the forward troops in moments of great danger...was in no small way responsible for bolstering their morale."

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