The attack on CONVENTELLO began at 0500 hrs on the 2nd January.
The fireplan consisting mainly of targets on call was the most
complicated in the history of the Regiment and found favour with
neither Infantry nor Gunners.
Jerry put in a counter-attack of brigade strength on the 3rd January but he was
thrown back with very heavy losses.
SAN ALBERTO was captured and the Regiment moved forward to its last gun area
in Italy at the Sugar Factory near MEZZANO.
Once the COMMACCHIO area was clear defensive works were constructed
in preparation for sitting down for the winter.
40.
The Regiment remained in this position throughout January
and managed to make itself very comfortable.
RHQ
as usual had the plum, having a richly furnished house with running water,
steam heat and electric light.
There was considerable enemy shelling of the area and one troop per week
moved to a harassing fire position and did all the firing except
DFs.
Liberty trucks were run to RAVENNA and there was even the occasional picture
show in a wrecked factory on the position.
Exercise SWAP got underway and new vehicles began to roll in.
41.
Around the 13th January the Italian CREMONA GRUPPE relieved
11 Cdn Infantry Brigade but the artillery remained since
the Italian gunners were not well-enough trained.
This was the beginning of a long series of headaches.
On the change-over the traffic on the roads was hopeless with several Italian
convoys wandering around lost with full headlights.
Trouble soon arose at Battalion Headquarters owing to language
difficulties but they were eventually deployed though the
FOOs
and Reps were anything but a happy lot.
For the next two weeks they were kept very busy with
Shelreps
and Moreps
and providing support for small scale patrol clashes.
Outposts changed hands as often as three times daily and
fire-plan after fire-plan was fired on TOSCHE and RICCIBITTI.