German Troops Laughed At Canadian Bren Gun, Until Its .303 Fire Cut Their Ambush to Pieces

December nineteen forty-four, Ortona, Italy. The sound of German machine gun fire ripped through the cold morning air like a thousand angry hornets. Forty-seven Canadian soldiers pressed their bodies flat against the frozen rubble of what used to be a bakery. The MG42 machine guns kept firing, their bullets chewing up the stone walls above the Canadians' heads. Dust and broken brick rained down on them with each burst of fire.