Topic: Perpetuation
In August 1943, the 13th Canadian Infantry Brigade, of the 6th Canadian Division, participated in the combined US-Canadian force that assaulted the Island of Kiska in the Aleutians.
Taking place three months after the US forces assaulted the island of Attu, where casualties totalled 25% of the attacking force, Kiska was not expected to be any easier to defeat. The attack on Kiska, as it happened, met empty shores and vacant barracks and gun emplacements. The Japanese had managed to evacuate the island only two weeks before the assault, slipping through the picketing warships amidst in heavy for and rough seas.
But for the Japanese forces' luck in escaping the closing trap, Canadians might know of Kiska with the same sense of tragedy that we remember of the battles at Hong Kong and Dieppe.
The Kiska Regiments, then and now
The Canadian Army at Kiska; August 1943 | The Kiska Regiments Today |
9th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment | Nil |
19th Field Regiment | Nil |
20th Field Regiment (shared with the 7th Canadian Infantry Division) | 20th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA |
21st Field Regiment | 21st Field Artillery Regiment, RCA |
24th Field Regiment (shared with the 7th Canadian Infantry Division) | 24th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA |
25th Field Regiment | 56th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA |
13th Canadian Infantry Brigade | |
The Canadian Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) | The Royal Canadian Regiment |
The Winnipeg Grenadiers | The Winnipeg Grenadiers (Reduced to nil strength and transferred to the Supplementary Order of Battle on 28 February 1965.) |
The Rocky Mountain Rangers | The Rocky Mountain Rangers |
Le Régiment de Hull | Le Régiment de Hull |
24th Field Regiment, RCA | 24th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA |
46th Light AA Battery, RCA | Nil |
24th Field Company, RCE | Nil |
1 Company, St. John Fusiliers (M.G.) | The Royal New Brunswick Regiment |