[klambie]

Hi Jim,

A variety of ways your uncle could have ended up with the Reginas, here's my understanding of how the regular operation of the reinforcement system could have led to that. Some of this I've just figured out myself recently (and I'm a layman), so any corrections to my impressions appreciated. Bear in mind that while there were rules to much of how this worked, they were continually being changed and reorganized, and occasionally worked around as circumstances required. This is just a typical outline, though each man's experience could be a little bit unique. I've named these phases just to make it a little easier to follow.

Phase 1 - When an infantryman you went into the reinforcement stream in England, he was typically assigned to one of the CIRUs (Cdn Infantry Reinforcement Unit). These were typically organized to provide reinforcements to the Cdn Division with the same number, so 1 CIRU reinforced 1 Cdn Div, 2 CIRU to 2 Cdn Div, etc. 3 Cdn Div assaulted on D-Day, so 3 CIRU provided the large majority of the earliest reinforcements.

Phase 2 - Within a CIRU, men were oraganized into Companies that reflected the Battalion (or Regiment) to which they would nominally be assigned. So within 3 CIRU, there was a ReginaRif Coy, a WinnipegRif Coy, a NorthShore Coy, etc. As much as possible, your geographic origin was honoured in this process. So whenever they could, Sask. men were assigned to the ReginaRif Coy, Manitobans to the WinnipegRif Coy and so on. The divisions (very roughly) tended to be organized to include a Regiment from most of the provinces so that most soldiers could be assigned with others from their province. With smaller provincial bases of manpower to draw from and fewer corresponding units to be assigned to, men from the East Coast probably tended to be more difficult to accomodate this way, so tended to be lumped in with those from other provinces more often.

While in these units, you trained and waited as your name moved up the top of the list for an assigment to a Division.

Phase 3 - When you hit the top of the list, you were typically transferred to the Division you would fight with, assigned to a reinforcement list for the Regiment you would go to. So guys from the the ReginaRif Coy in 3 CIRU went to the ReginaRif X-4 list in 3 Cdn Division, the guys from the North Shore Coy in 3 CIRU went to the NorthShore X-4 list in 3 Cdn Division and so on. It's important to note that in spite of all of this 'organization', all of this stuff was largely an administrative/accounting exercise. It allowed them to keep track of the number of men in each category and ensure no one unit was getting too many or too few in their reinforcement queue. As you'll see below, that all could go out the window when it came time to go into action.

Phase 4 - Once on an X-4 list, if all went according to the rules, you would again work your way up this list until your were one day assigned to fill the spot of a casualty in the corresponding battalion. So someone on the ReginaRif X-4 list replaced a Regina casualty and one on the NorthShore X-4 list replaced a North Shore. From there, you went into action.

Phase 3 is where your uncle first broke the usual pattern, when he jumped from 4 CIRU (where you'd expect him to end up in 4 Cdn Amd Div) to the X-4 list of a 3 Cdn Div unit, the North Shores. The most likely reason for this was 3 Cdn Div's role in the invasion and the casualties they were expected to take. Getting their numbers right up to strength took priority over divisions like 4 Cdn Amd who weren't to go into action for a number of weeks. They probably grabbed guys from lots of different reinforcement units to accomplish this.

Your uncle also broke the pattern in Phase 4, which is where the 'rules' were most commonly broken. Since this was happening just a week or so after the invasion, you went where you were needed most and the idea of letting you serve with others from your home province was largely forgotten. In your uncle's case, when he and the group of 25 North Shore reinforcements came to the front of the reinforcement line in France on 15 June, the North Shores didn't need any extra bodies and there was a nice officer from the Reginas standing there looking for some. Without a blink, they were assigned to the Reginas and became honourary Saskatchewanians (?). This was all done on an extremely immediate basis. In the days after the invasion, it would not at all be surprising to see in the course of one day a bunch of guys on the NorthShore X-4 list be assigned to the Reginas, and then see (a few hours later perhaps) a bunch of guys on the Regina X-4 list be assigned to the NorthShores. No time was spent trying to guess who the next batch of reinforcements were supposed to go to, or who the next request for reinforcements might come from.

As a note of interest, you can see in the records in July and August (once everyone has settled into at least a bit of a 'routine') some effort to swap some of these guys back to where they had been intended to go. It was potentially problematic to pull guys out of a unit after they'd been integrated, but you can see those kinds of transfers.

Hope this helps a bit and isn't too difficult to track.