Graves, Donald E. South Albertas: A Canadian Regiment at War. Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 1998.

ISBN 1-896941-06-0
408 pages

Foreword by MajGen Kitching; Foreword by Honorary Colonel Milner; Introduction; Note to the Reader; Acknowledgements; Prologue; maps; photos; diagrams; color plates; Epilogue; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Appendices: Battle Honours, Awards and Decorations; Roll of Honour; The South Alberta Regiment: A Working Manual; Glossary of Military Terms and Abbreviations; Nominal Rolls, South Alberta Regiment, 1940-1945

On 1 September 1939, even before war was formally declared in Europe, Canada began to mobilize army units and flesh out peacetime cadres with volunteers. Among those units, the peacetime South Alberta Regiment, a militia battalion, dispatched troops to guard local bridges and power stations on the Canadian prairie. More than five years later, the wartime SAR's campaign would finally come to an end deep in Germany.

While the published records of American World War II units tend to be at the divisional level, books about military units of the Commonwealth nations are more often regimental histories. In American terminology, the WWII "regiment", of course, was rather different than in British parlance. South Albertas is the history of a Canadian unit which started the war as a militia battalion, gave its name to an infantry battalion comprised of companies from a total of five Alberta militia units, and eventually was converted into the battalion-sized 29th Armoured Regiment and then the 29th Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment.

Author Donald E. Graves researched the story of the SAR in unit war diaries, operations orders, after action reports, film footage ("the South Albertas purchased an 8mm film camera in 1941 and took footage (much of it in excellent colour) of their activities right through to 1945"), wartime correspondence, personal diaries (kept "in violation of standing orders"), and interviews with over 150 veterans. The result is a book combining the feel of an informal scrapbook shared among old friends and the meticulous report of the combat record of a spearhead formation.

At the beginning of the war, the South Alberta Regiment was a militia battalion based at Medicine Hat. In June of 1940 a new wartime battalion -- comprised of one company each from the Calgary Regiment, South Alberta Regiment, 19th Alberta Dragoons, Edmonton Fusiliers, and 15th Alberta Light Horse -- mobilized with the name South Alberta Regiment and began recruiting for overseas service as part of 10th Infantry Brigade of 4th Infantry Division. (Until later in the war, only volunteers could be sent overseas.) They trained as infantry in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario until moving to Nova Scotia in December 1941 where they were redesignated 29th Canadian Armoured Regiment (and 4th Infantry Division became 4th Armoured Division) and received their first tanks, Ram I's, in May 1942. At the end of August they crossed the Atlantic to England.

There, initially without tanks or equipment, the SAR continued to train. On 29 December 1942 they became, finally, the 29th Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (South Alberta Regiment). On 6 June 1944 the men of the SAR were awakened by the drone of hundreds of airplanes flying overhead and the thunder of guns as the Allies landed in Normandy, but still they remained in drills, athletics, and kitchen duty.

   It was back to route marching, range training, baseball and waiting. On 16 June, there was a strange noise overhead and the men looked up to see a German V-1 missile sputtering by on its way to London. The V-1s were a common sight at night and the South Albertas would watch them going over in the darkness with their tail flames marking their path and tracers from the anti-aircraft guns reaching up for them. During the day, according to Trooper Carson Daley, there were "lots of them" and it "used to be a real sight to see the Spitfires chase them, like dogs chasing a rabbit, to try to turn them round." On 4 July, the little missiles became less funny when one landed in the camp. No one was hurt but the War Diarist, noting that "more injuries occurred by men diving under their tanks, bumping their heads, than by the blast from the bomb," concluded that "a drill is required."

The unit finally landed in France from 25 through 28 July. On the 29th they began moving to the front. Fours years after the wartime SAR was formed, the battle was joined.

Graves describes in detail the critical Battle of the Falaise Gap, the advance into Belgium, supporting the initial thrusts against the Breskens pocket, the push into the Netherlands, winter on the Maas, the bloody slugging match in the Hochwald, and the final sprint across Germany.

The main text is well supported by maps, photos, and appendices. Of special interest is the "Working Manual" which explains the organization of the SAR, its AFVs and equipment, its roles and tactics, and more. Also very nice organigrams at the endpapers.

Handsomely done. A fine history of a fine unit.

Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Robin Brass Studio.

Thanks to Robin Brass Studio for providing this review copy.