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CANADESI

A Touch Of Seasoning

In war it is an axiom that a day in combat is worth weeks of training. No exercise, no course, can replicate the stunning deadliness of the field of battle.

Many of the Canadian soldiers moving towards Ortona had spent long years training in England, where they had been tuned to as fine a pitch as can be reached without actual combat. In Sicily they were blooded. There casualties were real - men died, or took grievous wounds, or broke apart psychologically. Leaders at all levels had to learn quickly to operate in a setting where the course of battle could be dictated by a skilled and determined adversary.

As the army took what was euphemistically termed "wastage," reinforcements arrived. The replacements had to fit in with men who already had the experience edge of surviving actual combat, and who had seen men they had soldiered with for years suddenly cut down.

For the Canadians it was a young man's war. Few in the field were over thirty years of age. A great many were under twenty.

The basis of the Canadian infantry was the battalion, approximately 1,000 soldiers in theory, in practice less as wastage occurred and insufficient reinforcements arrived. Three battalions were grouped into a brigade, and three brigades into a division. The division had artillery, armoured, and other combat support resources, which in combat were allocated in support of the infantry brigades.

The Loyal Edmonton Regiment formed part of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, which in turn was part of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division.