Size of Army in 1960s?

[-dikweed-]

  Im looking for info on the size of the army in the late 50s/60s/even early 70s- im having an extremely difficult time tracking down info.  Like the number of brigades, armored regiments, infantry battalions, etc. I thought we even had a couple of divisional HQs back in the day?  I'm just an interested civvie, and any help you can give me would greatly appreciated.  I tried to use the search function to see if its been discussed before, but no luck.

Thanks.

 

[geo]

just so we know what kind of fella we're dealing with, Would you mind providing some basic info about yoruself in your profile ?

 

[1feral1]

+1 Geo!

As much as one can pretty much call himself what he wants on here, aside from being offensive, his name tells me a lot already.

The question is does he really know what it represents, and how many Coalition soldiers have been murdered, killed and wounded, plus the innocent civlians tortured and murdered in cold blood by people believing in that J word.

Personally I hate it.

Cold beers,

Wes

 

[-dikweed-]

better fellas?

I never considered if my dumb name was offensive- and yes it was.

But I dont think my profile has anything to do with it?

 

[Edward Campbell]

OK, very quickly and from memory, so take it for what it’s worth ‘cause I’m old enough to have Alzheimers:

Canadian Forces circa 1960 –

Royal Canadian Navy: 20,000 regulars 1 X aircraft carrier, 25+ destroyers and frigates, 10± minesweepers, three submarines

Canadian Army (Regular): 49,000 personnel – 95% male

Organized in Geographic commands (Western (HQ: Edmonton), Central, (HQ: London), Eastern (HQ: Québec City) and Atlantic (HQ: Fredricton)

1 X (semi-dormant) Div HQ
1 X Signal Regiment
1 X Electronic Warfare Squadron
4 X Infantry Brigade Groups – each 6,500 soldiers

Each CIBG had:

1 X Brigade HQ (Brigadier ( a rank, then, between Col and MGen and 12± staff officers and 50± Intelligence Clerks, Staff Clerks, Drivers, etc and a Counter Intelligence/Field Security Section)
1 X Armoured Regiment (80± main battle tanks)
1 X Field Regiment (Royal Canadian Horse Artillery) (24 X 105mm howitzers and 8 X 155mm howitzers – all towed)
1 X Field Squadron (Royal Canadian Engineers)
1 X Signal Squadron
3 X Infantry Battalions – each of 950± soldiers
1 X Field Ambulance
1 X Ordnance Field Park
1 X Supply & Transport Company (Royal Canadian Army Service Corps)
1 X Field Workshop (Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers)
1 X Platoon (Canadian Provost Corps)

The brigades were centred on: Calgary, Petawawa, Gagetown and Soest (Germany).

The Major Army schools were in Chilliwack (Engineers), Camp Shilo (Artillery) Camp Borden (Armoured, Infantry, Service Corps and Provost Corps), Kingston (Signals and RCEME), and Montreal (Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps).

Royal Canadian Air Force: 51,000 personnel

Organized in functional commands;

Air Training Commnd (Winnipeg)
Air Transport Command (Trenston)
Air Material Command (Ottawa)
Air Defence Command (St Hubert)
Maritime Air Command (Halifax (?))
1 Canadian Air Division (Metz, France)

 

[-dikweed-]

The odd thing was that my guess for 1960 organization and size was pretty damn close!

Thank you sir!

 

[Old Sweat]

Edward was pretty well spot on. All I can add is that there were 13 motorized infantry battalions organized in six regiments - Canadian Guards, The Royal Canadian Regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the Royal 22nd Regiment (I am not sure if the title was 22nd or 22e at the time), the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada. The R22R had three battalions, the others each had two. Three of the battalions, 2 RCR and 2 VP and 1 R22R, had a defence of Canada role and had a 'jump' company. By 1964 3 R22R had been converted to an anti-tank battalion and had its B Company in Germany as part of 4 CIBG. (B Company had four platoons, three each of 4 106mm and 4 Entac ATGMs and one with three sections of SS11B ATGMs).

In the artillery the three Canadian based regiments had five batteries - three 105mm towed, one 155 mm towed and a locating battery, while the regiment in Germany had three 105mm towed batteries. The regiments each also had an Air OP Tp with four L19 aircraft. As well the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment was being converted to the 1st and 2nd Surface to Surface Missile Batteries.

The divisional headquarters had been disbanded but existed in cadre form as the army doctrine and tactics board, or words to that effect. The plan was to re-establish the division in 1964, although the field force all wore the red patch of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division on both sleeves of our battle dress and service dress jackets.

It is an interesting, well it is if you have an odd mind, bit of trivia that in 1960 the army had a study completed on collective training for what was going to be a mechanized, instead of motorized, army
that envisaged the establishment of a national live fire and manouever centre in Suffield.

 

[geo]

By 1971

These 4 Battalions were reduced to Nil strength
1 Bn Canadian Guards,
1 Bn The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and
2 Bn The Royal Highland Regiment of Canada 

And we were left with the following

3 Bn The Royal Canadian Regiment,
3 Bn Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry,
3 Bn the Royal 22nd Regiment  (of which 1 R22R was in West Germany)
1 Bn 3rd Mechanized Comando

 

[1feral1]

better fellas?

I never considered if my dumb name was offensive- and yes it was.

But I dont think my profile has anything to do with it?

Thanks for the name change. Your profile tells others any credentials or experience you might have, but thats up to you to fill out.

Cheers,

Wes

 

[FastEddy]

OK, very quickly and from memory, so take it for what it’s worth ‘cause I’m old enough to have Alzheimers:

Canadian Forces circa 1960 –

Royal Canadian Navy: 20,000 regulars 1 X aircraft carrier, 25+ destroyers and frigates, 10± minesweepers, three submarines

Canadian Army (Regular): 49,000 personnel – 95% male

Organized in Geographic commands (Western (HQ: Edmonton), Central, (HQ: London), Eastern (HQ: Québec City) and Atlantic (HQ: Fredricton)

Addendum.

Pretty spot on, but if I remember correctly, 1950-1960 Quebec Command (Eastern) GHQ was on Atwater St., just above Sherbrooke here in Montreal. I think the GOC was Maj.Gen Morton.

Ahhh! the Good Old Days.

Cheers

 

[Old Sweat]

As I recall it, Eastern Command covered Atlantic Command with its headquarters in Halifax and Quebec Command was responsible for Quebec. Its headquarters was in Montreal. Central Command looked after essentially what is Central Area now from its location in Oakville. There had been two commands looking after Western Canada - Prairie Command (Winnipeg) and Western Command (Edmonton, I believe). These were combined into Western Command (Edmonton) at some in the late-50s or very early-60s.

This freed up a major general to fill the position of Major General Survival in army headquarters. He was responsible for post-nuclear attack operations, which included control of the nuclear warning and reporting system, which was run by the army. The 'bunkers' in places like Carp, Debert and Shilo are relics of this organization.