Agira Canadian War Cemetery

The 1st Canadian Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade, both part of General Montgomery’s Eighth Army, sailed from the UK in June 1943 and landed in the south of Sicily with the allies from the UK and the US.

Agira was one of Sicilian towns taken by the Canadians. Agira was taken on July 28, three days after the resignation of Mussolini, and represents Canadians’ biggest battle of the Sicilian campaign.

After a total of 38 days of fighting, Sicily fell to the Allies on August 17th.
On August 6, Canadians were withdrawn to rest, and so they did not participate in the last 10 days of battle.

After the Sicilian campaign the decision was made to concentrate all the graves into one cemetery: officers decided the city of Agira. It contains the graves of 490 Canadians, six of whom are still unidentified. It is estimated that 562 Canadians died as a result of the Sicilian campaign.