Battle re-enactments, tank displays at Oshawa tank museum’s showcase event this weekend

The biggest historical military show in North America is happening this weekend at the newly re-branded Canadian Tank Museum in Oshawa.

Aquino Tank Weekend – commemorating a 1944 battle in Italy in which Oshawa’s Ontario Regiment played a pivotal role – is the museum’s showcase event, with tanks and other military vehicles on display from the largest collection in North America. It is also Canada’s largest military show – where you can experience tanks and other military vehicles up close in battle re-enactments and even take rides in tanks and other military vehicles.

Spanning three busy days from Friday, July 26 to Sunday, Aquino Weekend is an event with action packed excitement and for both families and military history enthusiasts, there is nothing else like it in the world.

Museum organizers and volunteers will roll out in demonstrations, one-on-one tank battles and battle re-enactments which will create an intensive experience where artillery, infantry, and vehicles encounter each other on the Tank Arena battlefield. These scenarios are narrated and supported by explosions and gunfire (with blanks, of course).

There will be more than 100 tanks and other military vehicles to get up and personal with, displays from Canadian Armed Forces units, partner museums from all over Ontario, loads of other of historical re-enactors, supporting organizations from pipe and drum bands to radio-controlled tanks, food trucks, a beer garden, and the popular Kids Zone.

Organizers will also have some help this year from veterans and tank mechanics from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, making it an international effort.

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the event and museum Executive Director Jeremy Neal Blowers said it has grown from a local one-day event to an three day internationally recognized event, with participants and visitors coming to Oshawa from all over the globe.

“This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Aquino in 1944, the namesake battle of our event, in which the Ontario Regiment was engaged with Axis powers during the Italian campaign of the Second World War,” he said, adding a special commemorative re-enactment will be happening this weekend.

Aquino 2023 – the second event since the pandemic pause – broke every attendance record in the books and was viewed by more than 250,000 people via livestream.

Friday is Media and VIP day with a tank-on-tank demonstration at 2 p.m. and tank and armoured vehicle rides all day. The event opens to the rest of the public Saturday, with the Battle Royale in the Tank Arena each day at 2:30 p.m.

The Ontario Regiment RCAC Museum, which houses North America’s largest collection of operational historical military vehicles (including a battalion of tanks), underwent a re-brand last month as part of a $30 million expansion and will now be known as the Canadian Tank Museum.

Blowers said the expansion and rebrand came as the museum moves from its regional identity to a more national focus “that is more inclusive of the stories these vehicle artifacts tell, well beyond that of our local regiment.”

The vision for the new complex will include a new building on the north side of the museum campus that will house the current collection in a way that will be “more accessible” to visitors, he added.

The new museum grounds will encompass the existing structures and Oshawa’s Heritage Conservation District, which contains the last Second World War buildings at the Oshawa Executive Airport, into a larger curated heritage complex.

The Ontario Regiment Museum will remain a component of the larger overall museum and continue to house and protect the artifacts and heritage of the Ontario Regiment RCAC. The regimental museum will be an integral part of the enlarged museum facility but will be alongside other galleries and displays including the extensive collection of military vehicles and tanks.

“We aim to break ground in three to five years,” he promised.

The Battle of Aquino, for those interested, was a four-day battle (May 19-23, 1944) where British and Canadian forces wrested control of the Hitler Line, a German defensive line in Italy which blocked the advance on Rome.

The Ontario Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col Bob Purves, were tasked with supporting the British 26th Armoured Brigade during the first attack then to directly support the British 30th Infantry Brigade in exploiting the gap created by the 26th’s attack.

Four days later the Hitler Line was taken by the first and second Canadian Infantry Brigade at a cost of 162 killed, 306 wounded and 75 taken prisoner. The 90th Panzer Grenadier Battalion and the reinforcements the 1st Parachute Division were practically wiped out.

In all, the Ontario Regiment lost 13 tanks (nearly one third of their total strength) and every tank in the unit was hit at least once by anti tank fire. The regiment suffered five wounded and one missing in action. The regiment destroyed one German tank, one self-propelled gun, and several AT guns.

As well, Ontario Regiment Chaplain Waldo Smith and his driver (Trooper Westover) used their jeep to transport more than 180 British wounded to the Regimental Aid Post.

For tickets and to watch a video of the event, check out https://www.ontrmuseum.ca/tankmuseum/aquino-weekend/