Training in the Interim
1946 at Camp Wainwright
After the closing of Internment Camp 135, it was undetermined as to the future of this cluster of huts surrounded by a vast open range. A small ordnance storage had remained at the camp in hopes of making use of supplies at a later date. The establishment was cared for under the watchful eye of a conscientious civilian employee. Ken Burmingham had first come to Wainwright Camp in 1944 as a Lance Sergeant with 13 Engineer Service and Works Company, R.C.E. As a veteran of World War I he had joined the Veteran’s Guard of Canada when war broke out and transferred to the Engineers in 1943. In 1946 Burmingham was discharged from the Army, but accepted a Civil Service appointment and remained in Wainwright Camp in charge of Maintenance. Mrs. Burningham and her daughter Daisy Sheffield of Wainwright remember how secluded it was living on the camp with so very little activity around them. Daisy often travelled to and from school with anyone who happened to be going in or out of the camp at the right time. Mrs. Burmingham recalls weeks went by without her seeing another woman but she kept busy. Being an accomplished homemaker, she enjoyed the opportunity to cook for some of the camp workers during this time. With the Cattalo operation still within its enclosures and the skeleton staff tending to general maintenance, Camp Wainwright seemed almost ghostly. It had shifted from the bustle of its wartime necessity to a place without purpose. So it was, as 1946 drew to a close, Camp Wainwright’s future continued to face a darkened tunnel, suspended in “temporary” indecision.
Reserve Winter Training 1947
In February 1947, a number of the reserve Forces of Western Command received winter training through an exercise aptly named HUSKY 1. This was to introduce those not within the regular Army to winter conditions on the battleground. The operation of communication equipment such as that shown below and on the opposite page, was but one aspect of the training involved. _________image_________ Army photographers captured some of the training procedures. It’s no day at the beach but a similar technique to water skiing, except for the amount of snow you hove to eat as a forerunner.