More From the Wainwright Warrior
NEW TROOPS FOR SUMMER: Three new battalions form the nucleus of the group for summer training, 1953. They include 2 Cdn Highland Bn, 2 Cdn Rifle Bn, 2 Cdn Infantry Bn. There will also be a Light Battery of Artillery, Airborne Troop RCE and Armoured element represented by the Straths from Calgary. PPCLI will also continue with Junior NCO School.
CENTURIONS ARRIVE: Five Centurion tanks arrived at Camp Wainwright via CNR flatcar in February 1953.
CEREMONIAL PARADE: The coronation of the Queen on June 2, 1953 was celebrated by a colorful parade, the largest of its kind ever to take place in Camp Wainwright. Entertaining a crowd of 4000, the entire garrison, the Legion and the Sea Cadets showed their colors. Music was supplied by the Pipe Band of 2 Cdn Highland Bn and the newly formed town band led by Lorne McLeod.
Afterward, sight seers sauntered through an exhibition area displaying equipment of the training fields and thrilled to rides in personnel carriers. The camp canteen on the sports field supplied hot dogs, ice cream, popsicles and cracker jack.
RESERVE IN WAINWRIGHT: The 1953 summer training groups welcomed the Reserve Force training wing under command of Major A.C. Beckingham of Western Command’s Instructional and Administration Cadre in July and August.
BUFFALO IV: The final summer training exercise involving 15,000 troops, combined both active and Reserve units in a composite division designed to provide training for all elements of a full division from forward infantry patrol to the Medical Assistants in the casualty clearing station.
Approximately 150 Royal Cdn Cadets from Alberta and BC joined Reserve and CIBRG troops as Signals personnel and transport drivers in the Divisional HQ area. Elements of RCAF took part in the exercise as the enemy. Dust plagued the beginning and rain brought the exercise to a soggy finish.
This editorial appeared in the Wainwright Warrior in July, just prior to the ceasefire in Korea: “We, in Camp Wainwright, have a big stake in Korea. For the first time since Canadian troops joined the United Nations forces there, all of the fighting units with the 25th CIBRG are Wainwright trained.
Every move in Korea is of interest to the Wainwright Garrison, and particularly to that part of the Garrison which is permanently stationed here. The Canadian troops in action are men who marched and trained on the rolling prairie of the Camp training area. The names in the casualty lists and in the lists of honours and awards are the names of men we knew as friends last year. The men, whose wounds and injuries are reported in our daily newspapers, are the men who last year hitched rides into Wainwright, attended the Camp Theatre, and marched with us on Brigade inspections on No. 2 Parade Square. If nothing else this testifies to the part Camp Wainwright has played in the training of these men, such proof is provided by the fequent reference to the Camp in Newsletters received from the Far East.”
CATTALO BRIDGE: In July 1952, 57 Field Squadron RCE, convoyed to Wainwright from Fort Lewis, Washington to atttend BUFFALO IV, their first mission being Exercise Cattalo. With persistence and determination the 57th proudly constructed the wooden bridge crossing over Ribstone Creek, christening it Cattalo Bridge. The new crossing replaced a temporary Bailey bridge built the previous year by 59 Field Squadron, RCE. Within two weeks Cattalo Bridge was complete and to prove its permanent nature, the first official vehicle to pass over it, was a 50-ton Centurion tank.
This ends the era of immediate need for Canadian troops in the Far East, with the ceasefire being honoured and United Nations peace keeping forces being stationed in Korea until 1955. The Wainwright Warrior included many personal and comical articles which were testiments and memories of the three years of intense training of the 25th CIBRG. Many, many names were mentioned within its pages, making it impossible to relate the numbers in this account. It recorded history in the making and will always remain a part of Camp Wainwright’s past.