Transcript

(Shelley Van Hoof) This years’ Veterans’ Week poster featured the 75th anniversary of the Second World War’s Italian Campaign.

(Lt(N) Jeff Lura) To honour this important Canadian military effort, an official delegation traveled to Italy as part of Operation DISTINCTION to participate in a number of ceremonies throughout the country.

(Maj David Andrews) We’re here in Agira at the Canadian War Cemetery where there are 490 Commonwealth soldiers buried. 484 of those are Canadian. The significance of Agira for the Canadians is this is where one of our first major battles were fought as part of Op HUSKY when the allied forces came ashore on 10 July 1943. Certainly it was a very diverse force that came here. There were seven regiments fighting through these areas in order to essentially weaken the north for the Germans in order to draw them here to the south to set the conditions for future operations.

I’d like to basically talk about the soldiers that are here as part of the Guard and the fantastic job they’re doing representing their individual units. If you look through the cemetery here you’ll see that there are members buried here that represent units from across Canada at that time. Much like the guard represents people from across Canada as well.