Page 39

THE WINTER LINE

DECEMBER, 1944—APRIL, 1945.

4th December to 11th January - The Regiment was in rest at Riccione.

On the 4th December N.I.H. left 25th Army Tank Brigade, which was broken up as a Tank Brigade and reformed as an Assault Engineer Brigade, and joined the 21st Army Tank Brigade in place of the 145th Regiment R.A.C. which had been disbanded.
21st Tank Brigade was commanded by Brigadier D. Dawnay, D.S.O., and the Brigade Second-in-Command was Colonel R. Hamilton-Russell, D.S.O. The other tank Regiments in it were the 12th Battalion R. Tanks and the 48th Battalion R. Tanks.
After the usual difficulties the Regiment settled down very com­fortably in good billets. Leave parties to Rome soon started. Sports, cinemas and clubs helped to entertain us. The Kings' Dragoon Guards gave us ten horses when they went to Greece.
The Regiment had great Chr1stmas and New Year celebrations.

12th January, 1945 - The Regiment moved up to Ravenna and was put in support of the Italian Cremona Gruppo, and C Squadron took over from the New Brunswick Hussars in support of an Italian Brigade, from Route 16 to the river Reno.

13th January - A Squadron took over from the Governor General's Horse Guards. They had to support an Italian Brigade holding from the sea to the river Senio in what was thought to be a quiet sector. B Squadron, Regimental Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron were in Ravenna.

14th January to 24th January - The first few days were very trying for the Troops in the line. The Italian Infantry were not fully trained and were very excitable. Alarms went on all night, with small arms fire. The Germans re-acted by sending in strong patrols all along the line. These had to be driven out by us next morning.
On the 17th January, Lieut. W. A. L. Reid had a stiff fight, in which he was slightly wounded, to eject the Germans from an Italian position they had captured. He eventually succeeded and restored a very unpleasant position. For this action he won the Military Cross. Italian Infantry were not very reliable so the Squadrons made up protective Troops from their own echelons to help guard the tanks at night and hold the line. It at last became apparent to all that the Italian Cremona Gruppo had not enough men or sufficient experience to hold so much line so the 2nd Canad­ian Infantry Brigade came back and took over from Route 16 to the Canale Bonificio. From then on the situation improved.

25th January - The reconnaissance Squadron took over A Squadron's responsibilities on the coast. The Squadron comprised three 95 mm. Churchills, three Shermans, three Honeys and a Command Churchill. Later on it was increased by another Churchill 6-pdr.Troop made up of the fourth tank of Headquarters and a Troop from the other three Squadrons. This, in fact, gave the Regiment a fourth Squadron for static warfare only.

26th January - C Squadron, with the Canadians, was relieved by B Squadron.

27th January to 3rd February - The Canadians launched a series of small attacks to retake outposts lost by the Italians. B Squadron supported these by fire. On the 3rd February a Canadian Platoon was caught by a booby trapped house which blew up, causing them thirty casualties.
This virtually finished all offensive action on this sector.

Go to next page
or return to the
Index