Happy Pachino Day to all my RCR brethren.
For those pers not familiar with Pachino Day here is a quick synopsis of it:
On 10 July 1943 soldiers of The RCR part of 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade (along with The 48th Higlanders and The Hasty Ps) landed on the southern tip of Sicily as part of OPERATION HUSKY with objectives to take the town of Pachino along with its airfield.
0100 hrs - 10 July, 1943 loading commenced into a landing craft.
0530 hrs - 10 July, 1942 The Canadians landed on the Costa dell'Ambra, the sandy shore of a bay on the southeast corner of the island. Their first objective was the airfield at Pachino, about 5 km inland, which had been bombed and shelled for days. The local Italian garrison was small but, if the soldiers located there decided to put up a fight they could inflict heavy casualties. As well as 15 pillboxes and 20 machine gun posts, they had a coastal battery of four 147-mm guns and at Pachino an airfield battery of four six inch howitzers.
When The Royal Canadian Regiment, commanded by LCol Ralf Crowe, finally waded ashore, it was in broad daylight. The Royals encounted very little resistance on the beach and briskly located and destroyed the coastal battery, capturing 38 gunners. They then headed inland to Pachino, which they took with equal dispatch.
1300 - A Coy had the worst fight of the day, under constant shellfire, it advanced across the airfield in extended order. 5 members of the RCR struck terror into the enemy as they forced their way over the wire and destroyed two heavily defended machine gun posts. Despite the constant shelling and the enemies superior strength, A Coy successfully neutralized the enemy, seizing the Coastal defence battery, 130 prisoners and four 6 inch guns. For bravery during this action, Private J.W. Gardner received the Military Medal and Private J. Grigas received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
1400 - While the battalion was reorganizing, D Coy moved to the high ground covering enemy approaches, but to get there they had to run the fiercest machine gun fire of the day and despite suffering casualties they took their objective and 40 prisoners.
1700 - The troops brewed up and the RCR were the first allied unit to capture an airfield in Sicily.
To honour this historic event they have Pachino Day, in which traditionally a meal of spaghetti and red wine is served. This sounds a lot more fun that trying to kill each other by chasing a ball across a sports field (but what do I know).