Two-day cloth-model battle exercise
at HMCS Queen, May 1965.
During the 1950s, the militia in Saskatchewan was formed into two Groups: 20th Militia Group was located in the south of the province, and 21st Militia Group was headquartered in the north. 20th Militia Group consisted of two artillery regiments: one in Regina (10th Medium Regiment) and the other in Yorkton (53rd Field Regiment). The Yorkton regiment had batteries in Moosomin and Indian Head. There was also an armoured regiment in Moose Jaw (Royal Canadian Dragoons) and reconnaissance regiments in Swift Current and Maple Creek (14th Canadian Hussars). The two infantry regiments of the Militia Group were the South Saskatchewan Regiment and the Regina Rifle Regiment. There was a medical unit, a recruiting unit, an engineer company, a provost corps unit, an ordinance corps unit, and a service corps unit. At summer concentrations in Dundurn Military Camp, 20th Militia Group fielded up to 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers of all ranks; some units came from as far 300 miles away to train for the two weeks. In the years that followed, military budgets were greatly reduced and the militia group system was abandoned.
Orris Keehr