1950 Yukon Nuggets

Operation Sweetbriar, 1950

The skies over Whitehorse were filled with planes and parachutes.The streets were swarming with combat-ready soldiers.The Alaska Highway was a battle-ground.

The frigid winter showed no sign of abating, but the heat was on around the world. Thousands of Canadian troops were fighting the communists in Korea. And everyone truly believed that the Russian army would soon appear from the north and change North American life forever. The Cold War was hot in 1950. So much so, that one of the largest military exercises in the Canadian north descended on Whitehorse. It was called Operation Sweetbriar.

The objective was to develop techniques for the employment of combined Canadian and U.S. forces operating in the sub-Arctic, and to test the latest developments in clothing, food, aircraft, vehicles, weapons, and other equipment and material.

The exercise began on February 13th with more than 5,000 personnel of the U.S. and Canadian Armies and Air Forces. The assumption was that the Soviet military had captured the airfield at Northway in Alaska, and moved, blitzkrieg style, down the Alaska Highway to the outskirts of Whitehorse. The task of the Allied Force was to drive the cursed Russkies back, and recapture Northway.

The exercise lasted for eleven days, and was huge by any standards. 1000 motorized vehicles and 100 aircraft took part. The troops of the PPCLI (Princess Pats) had driven 1500 miles from Wainwright to Whitehorse, followed by ten days of stiff fighting up the 350 miles of highway from Whitehorse to Northway. They had slept and eaten in tents, or in the open. The twin Mustangs of the Aggressor Air Force, based in Fairbanks, made low-level attacks on the infantry.

The airfield at Snag was used as a major staging area for the final assault by Canadian troops on the Russian aggressor, played by the American military who had taken over the airfield at Northway. This airborne attack was combined with artillery fire and infantry attacks in the final assault on the airfield at Northway.

One observer wrote: “It was a thrilling sight to see the Dakota transports of the RCAF approach in perfect formation and to watch the troops pile out in neat, close-packed sticks. Soon after landing, the paratroops assembled and began their advance toward the hangar and the Aggressor camp on the edge of the airfield. Quite a few of the less experienced observers commented very unfavourably on the slackness of some of the men who just lay about on the ice and made no effort to join the attack. It was a little embarrassing, but reassuring, to discover that these unfortunates had been declared dead by the umpires, and were merely awaiting “burial”.

The troops of the joint U.S. Combat Team and of the PPCLI attacked the outer defenses of the Northway airfield and at noon, on February 23rd, 1950, the Exercise was over.

Many of the Canadian infantry personnel who took part were then sent to Korea where the only exercise was the real life challenge of staying alive while driving communist forces out of the south, using the lessons they had learned in 1950 under the clear cold Yukon skies.

 

A CKRW Yukon Nugget by Les McLaughlin.