1

"CAME THE LOYAL EDMONTONS FROM OVER THE SEA"
From The Loyal Edmonton Regiment Song O'er The Hills Of Sicily
Sung To The Tune Of Waltzing Matilda

For Some Canadians The Trip To Ortona Took Ovcr Four Years

A lot of the men who fought through that bloody Christmas week began their journey to Ortona in September 1939, when The Edmonton Regiment began recruiting after Hitler rolled the steel dice and invaded Poland. The men forming the experienced core of the newly raised active service unit had served in the peacetime militia or were returning to the army after serving in the First World War over two decades earlier, but most of the troops were new to soldiering. At the end of 1939 the unit - a thousand strong - landed in England.

Canada's army remained in Britain for the next three and a half years as the war surged about Europe, North Africa, and the Far East. Operationally the Canadian troops formed part of the force guarding Britain against invasion in 1940. Some soldiers from The Edmonton Regiment went on the brief expedition in August 1941to the Spitzbergen archipelago in Arctic waters north of Norway.

Mostly the Canadians in Britain trained - learning the new infantry battle drill, or participating in military exercises and long route marches. They competed in track and field meets, and at boxing cards. Some met and married British girls. It was a frustrating time, waiting for action while others fought the war, including Canadians at Hong Kong in December 1941, and at Dieppe in August 1942.

Not a few of the original members of The Edmonton Regiment went on to other military tasks, replaced in the unit by newer, younger men.

Finally, in late June 1943, the soldiers of The Edmonton Regiment boarded a ship in Scotland and began the journey to the invasion of Sicily. Technically they hit the beaches under a new name, for while the troops were at sea King George VI approved re-naming them The Loyal Edmonton Regiment, though members of the unit did not learn this for another three months.