CFB Shilo ready to mark Artillery Day

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This article was published 25/05/2012 (5113 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shilo has big love for its big guns.

This Saturday is the 60th anniversary of Artillery Day in Canada, and the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum is celebrating with free admission and a fireworks show.

“The first people to do fireworks in Europe were the gunners, because they had access to the gunpowder,” said Marc George, RCA Museum director.

“Kings wanted to celebrate great victories and told their gunners, ‘make some big explosions’.”

The RCA museum, located at CFB Shilo, will extend its hours for the event, from 10 am to 10 pm, with the fireworks closing the day. The RCA museum has more than 200 military guns and vehicles and is the largest army museum in Canada.

But not all of the artifacts are on display — some artillery vehicles are used for parade, while others aren’t ready for their debut. Concrete and sod delays have pushed back the reopening of the outdoor gunpark this weekend.

Once complete, the park will display 43 guns and vehicles, but visitors can still see the 28 guns and vehicles already in position tomorrow.

“We want to put out picnic tables and make it more like a park — make it look more polished,” George said, adding the park will be ready Labour Day weekend and free to the public.

Visitors can still relish in the rich Westman artillery history indoors, where 28 guns and vehicles are on permanent display. The oldest artillery batteries in Canada were formed in 1855 and Canadian gunners have been in every conflict in the country’s history, from the Fenian Raids to Afghanistan. Exhibits highlight the role of artillery in each event, showing that behind every gun are gunners — or in this case, mannequins.

The figures, posed in action, are painted with dirt and faint traces of gun residue to look more lifelike.

“We really want the focus to be about the gunners and their service,” George said.

Even the Afghanistan exhibit has a mannequin in tan uniform, despite not having a modern gun or vehicle on permanent display for the next 30 years.

“That’s what the soldiers coming back commented on, they really wanted their own mannequin,” George said.

Real-life gunners have been in Manitoba since the oldest artillery battery in Western Canada formed in Portage la Prairie in 1871, after the Fenian Raid. Today, the battery is part of the 26th Field Regiment, one of Canada’s 25 artillery units, with its headquarters at the Brandon Armouries.

The regiment formed in 1936 and has used the prairie land as its practise ground. Shilo’s training area has been regarded as “the best artillery range in the Commonwealth,” said Edd McArthur, curator of the regiment’s museum.

The 26th Field Regiment museum is not holding a specific event on Saturday, but visitors can enjoy it free every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Women of the War Years luncheon

The fourth annual Women of the War Years Committee luncheon is this Saturday and will highlight women’s invaluable contribution to the workforce during the Second World War. The group will present a showing of "Rosies of the North," a film by the National Film Board, about the non-traditional role women had in the 1940s.

Tickets to the luncheon are $25, with a $10 donation included to benefit a travelling exhibition about women in the war. So far, the committee has three banners that have travelled to other museums, and they hope to produce a video.

Tomorrow’s event takes place at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum at 11:30 a.m. For tickets call the museum at 727-2444.

» dponticelli@brandonsun.com