Topic: Canadian Army
Airborne Brigade Group (1948)
… the only immediate danger on the defence horizon—the possibility of a diversionary attack.
Ottawa Citizen, 15 July 1948
By Douglas How, Canadian Press Staff Writer
The Airborne Brigade Group, slated to be the ever-ready 7,000 strong fighting segment of the permanent Canadian army, will start training as a unit next year, the chief of defence staff disclosed today.
It would then be ready, Lt.-Gen. Charles Foulkes said in an interview, to meet what Defence Minister Claxton recently pictured as the only immediate danger on the defence horizon—the possibility of a diversionary attack.
Gen. Foulkes said the group, to be a self-contained, all-arms body, now is in component unit concentrations, training at company and squadron levels in various camps across the country.
Set Up In Fall
Its infantry, armored, artillery and other regiments would step up their training to battalion or regimental levels this fall as a final prelude to schooling of the brigade as a brigade next year. A commander would probably be named then.
Its two-fold purpose was to act as a training ground for instructors, soldiers and commanders and to be ready to meet any emergency. Gen Foulkes said one of its three infantry battalions—The Royal Canadian Regiment, now at Petawawa; the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, now at Calgary, of the Royal 22e Regiment, at Valcartier—would start airportable training at Rivers [Manitoba] this autumn. The unit has not yet been picked.
More to Follow
It would be followed by the various other outfits until they were ready to take to the air to meet any emergency. As a further step, platoons from some of the units would do northern training this winter.
The group was estimated at better than 70 per cent of its target strength and would be recruited up to the total, possibly by next April. Its strength will be more than 25 per cent of the full army.
Its regiments are now scattered this way:
- Petawawa—Royal Canadian Dragoons and Royal Canadian Regiment.
- Wainwright., Alta.—Lord Strathcona's Horse and, in September, the P.P.C.L.I.
- Valcartier—Royal 22e.
- Shilo—Field Regiment of Artillery.
Mr. Claxton, when he recently announced that present recruiting targets would be ignored, visualized the possibility of an additional combat force if it "is considered necessary" to deal with the danger of any diversionary attack.
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