H.P.E.R. Strengthens Reputation As Sturdy Fighters, Tough Spots

In the formidable hills to the north of the highway from Lucera to Campobasso, along which the Canadians have had their stiffest fighting, the regiment frequently was on its own, guarding the flanks of stronger forces.

During the attack on Campobasso the hardy soldiers from Trenton, Picton, Tweed and surrounding districts made a night climb that rivalled their already famous cliff-scaling performance at Assoro. They literally carried their jeeps up a 2,000-foot goat trail in Ferrazzano to maintain an important position overlooking the road on which the main assault on Campobasso was launched.

Since then they have won at least two important towns. After occupying the last they were forced to take cover for more than a week while the enemy shelled them almost continuously.

Major Escapes From Nazis

Missing for nearly a month, during part of which he was a German prisoner, Major A. A. Kennedy of Owen Sound was back on duty today with the Hasty Pees.

The 37-year-old officer was captured in the middle of October while on patrol near Campobasso, taken immediately to the headquarters of a Panzer division for questioning and then to a corps headquarters. Offers of cigarettes and warm clothing failed to elicit any information from him and he was started on a journey to a Nazi prison camp.

The circumstances of Kennedy’s dash for freedom amid the spitting rifles of his guards and his subsequent wanderings behind the German lines cannot be disclosed now for reasons of security.

But 25 days after he was listed as missing he drove up to headquarters of the Hastings and Prince Edwards in a borrowed American Army jeep and resumed his job as the battalion’s second in command.