Military

CFB Trenton: Our humanitarian link to the world

CFB Trenton represents the sharp end of Canada 's foreign policy stick. It is the place where foreign policy determined by the Canadian government is translated into direct action, and it is from there that humanitarian missions are launched to the furthest reaches of the globe.

Now the home of 8 Wing Trenton, the air base was born as RCAF Station Trenton in 1929. The fledgling Royal Canadian Air Force had been looking for a replacement field for Camp Borden, a large training base established by the Royal Air Force during the First World War. Camp Borden was too big for the tiny RCAF, its temporary buildings were deteriorating and the station was becoming costly to maintain.

What was needed, it was decided, was a smaller base on flat land, with a beach for seaplane facilities, somewhere between the industrial centres of Toronto and Montreal and not too far from the air force headquarters in the national capital of Ottawa. About 25 locations, many along the north shore of Lake Ontario, were considered. Finally officials chose a 948-acre (384-hectare) site just east of Trenton, on the sheltered Bay of Quinte. The flat land sloped gently to the water, the area enjoyed a mild climate, and the long narrow bay ran east-west, the direction of the prevailing winds. The site was also located adjacent to two major rail lines, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, and straddled Highway 2, the major Toronto-Montreal road link at the time.

Construction began as the economy Crashed during the Depression, giving the government an opportunity to provide much-needed work. The base was opened in August 1931 by Lord Bessborough, the Governor General.

Within a decade, the base had been converted into a major training centre to meet the demands of the war in Europe. Over 130,000 men from all parts of the Commonwealth were taught to be airmen at the base through the British Commonwealth Air Training Program.

CFB Trenton is still a training base today but it is more renowned as one of the largest and busiest air force bases in Canada. As the hub of air transport operations, it is involved in virtually every Canadian Forces operation. Aid for victims of hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, ice storms and floods flies out of Trenton to distant corners of the globe.

As part of its service on the home front, 424 (Transport & Rescue) Squadron provides search and rescue coverage to a 10-million-square-kilometre area of central Canada, including most of Quebec, all of Ontario, the Prairie provinces and all of the Arctic. It also resupplies Alert, the world's most northerly outpost, and flies government VIPs around the world from Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa.

With international flights flying in and out of the base every day, CFB Trenton is truly Hastings County 's link to the world.

 

 

Hasty Ps: Plow Jockeys in Battle

The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment in the Second World War

Many of the soldiers who enlisted in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment during the Second World War were teenagers and young men from the rural parts of Hastings and Prince Edward counties. The city boys of other regiments nicknamed them "plow jockeys".

Otherwise known as the Hasty Ps, they proved their toughness during the Second World War as the Allies pushed the Germans out of Italy. The Hasty Ps mobilized on September 2, 1939, just after Canada declared war on Germany. On New Year's Day, 1940, a boatload of raw militia disembarked from the troopship Ormonde in Scotland, ready to be whipped into fighting trim.

Training began at Aldershot Barracks near London. Within six months they were briefly in France, disembarking at Brest and travelling inland by train to meet the advancing German armies. When France capitulated, they were withdrawn immediately and returned to England. It would be three years before they saw battle.

In the early morning hours of July 10, 1943, the Hasty Ps landed on the beach near Pachino, on the southern side of Sicily. Along with British, American and other Allied forces, the Canadians began to clear the enemy from Italy.

The regiment was ambushed at Grammichele and encountered guerrilla warfare at Valguarnera, then drove the Germans out of the hilltop fortress of Assoro. Along with other regiments it ran into tough resistance at Nissoria and suffered its first defeat. Seventy men were lost and the commanding officer was severely wounded.

On August 2 the regiment captured the ridge at Regalbuto, its last action in Sicily. On September 3 the regiment crossed the strait and landed in mainland Italy, unopposed. Five days later Italy surrendered and the long campaign north began. Brushes with the enemy ensued at Ferrazano, Campobasso and Montagno. A full-scale attack took San Stefano on October 20 . . . .