Members of the ship’s company of HMCS Charlottetown held a small, solemn ceremony at the Agira Canadian War Cemetery recently while alongside in Italy. The initiative was described as a moment of reflection and respect ahead of Veterans’ Week and Remembrance Day.
The Agira cemetery contains the graves of 490 Canadians who died in the Allied invasion of Sicily during the Second World War in the summer of 1943. Agira was one of the Sicilian towns taken by members of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade in late July after days of difficult fighting, contributing to the full Allied capture of Sicily on August 17, 1943.
