9.  With the coming of winter it became too cold to do gun drill and with too much snow for foot­drill it became neces­sary to find some­thing to diver­sify the train­ing rather than have the whole day taken up with lec­tures.  Skiis were ob­tained, instruc­tors trained and in spite of a con­sider­able num­ber of bro­ken skiis, much exer­cise and enter­tain­ment was derived during the after­noons in this man­ner.  A regi­men­tal hoc­key team was organ­ized which did very well for itself and in addi­tion con­tri­bu­ted a num­ber of players to the camp team.  Among them were Mutch­eson, Allin, Rim­stad, Pyker­man, Ing­lis and Goodie.  For Christ­mas half of the men were al­lowed a “48” at home, the other half having theirs at the New Years.  Spe­cial feasts were laid on for those remain­ing in camp and on New Year's Day the offi­cers dined with the men.

10.  On the 1st February the first CO, Lt-Col. W.C. Thack­ray, arrived, and the two bat­ter­ies were formed into the pre­sent three bat­ter­ies, 60, 37 and 76, of the 17 Cana­dian Field Regi­ment, Royal Cana­dian Artil­lery, 5 Cana­dian (Ar­moured) Divi­sion, C.A. (A) with effect from the 1st Feb­ru­ary 1941.  Major G.T.A. McNeill was appoin­ted 2 i/c, Capt. S.H. Blake, Adju­tant, Capt. W.E. Green­lay, 60 Bat­tery BC, Capt. H.E. Brown, 37 Bat­tery BC, Major A.W. Boul­ter, 76 Bat­tery BC and WO. 1. I.A. McLeod, RSM.

11.  With the arrival of the CO, who soon became known unof­fi­cially as Colo­nel Blanco, began the first of many “smar­ten­ing up” blit­zes both on the par­ade ground and the ranges.