Fighting Canadians: Our Regimental History from New France to Afghanistan

352 Pages·2008·3.44 MB·English

by  David J. Bercuson

The Fighting Canadians
David J. Bercuson
OUR REGIMENTAL HISTORY FROM NEW FRANCE TO AFGHANISTAN
For F.P.M.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION BATTLE HONOURS AND MESS DINNERS: THE
REGIMENTAL TRADITION
PART ONE THE BIRTH AND EARLY HISTORY OF CANADA’S
REGIMENTS
CHAPTER ONE FIRST REGIMENTS: THE FRENCH IN EARLY
CANADA
CHAPTER TWO THE REDCOATS: BRITISH REGIMENTS OF FOOT
AND CANADIAN MILITIA
CHAPTER THREE THE WAR OF 1812: SAVING CANADA
CHAPTER FOUR BRITANNIA DEPARTS: CANADA’S NEW
REGIMENTS EMERGE
CHAPTER FIVE REBELLION AND WAR: CANADA’S REGIMENTS
IN SASKATCHEWAN AND SOUTH AFRICA
PART TWO THE FIRST WORLD WAR
CHAPTER SIX YPRES: THE PATRICIAS AND THE 10TH BATTALION
CHAPTER SEVEN ST-ELOI AND THE SOMME: THE 28TH
BATTALION AND THE NEWFOUNDLAND REGIMENT
CHAPTER EIGHT REDEMPTION: THE VAN DOOS AT
COURCELETTE AND THE 85TH BATTALION AT VIMY RIDGE
CHAPTER NINE VICTORY: THE 58TH BATTALION AT
PASSCHENDAELE AND THE ROYAL CANADIAN REGIMENT AT
CAMBRAI
PART THREE THE SECOND WORLD WAR
CHAPTER TEN DISASTER: THE WINNIPEG GRENADIERS AT
HONG KONG AND THE FUSILIERS MONT-ROYAL AT DIEPPE
CHAPTER ELEVEN THE FORGOTTEN CAMPAIGN: THE HASTY PS
IN SICILY AND THE LOYAL EDDIES AT ORTONA
CHAPTER TWELVE
BLOODY FIGHTING: THE GEE-GEES IN THE LIRI VALLEY AND
THE SHERBROOKES IN NORMANDY
CHAPTER THIRTEEN HARD VICTORY: THE BLACK WATCH AT
VERRIÈRES RIDGE AND THE ESSEX SCOTTISH IN THE
RHINELAND
PART FOUR FROM KOREA TO AFGHANISTAN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN KAP’YONG: THE PATRICIAS IN KOREA
CHAPTER FIFTEEN STALEMATE: THE VAN DOOS AND THE RCR
ON THE JAMESTOWN LINE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN SOLDIERS AND PEACEKEEPERS: THE COLD
WAR
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN THE LATEST WAR: THE ARMY IN
AFGHANISTAN
CONCLUSION REGIMENTS FOREVER
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
APPENDIX A ACTIVE REGIMENTS
APPENDIX B HISTORICAL REGIMENTS
CHAPTER SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Copyright
About the Publisher
PREFACE
THERE IS NOTHING more difficult to explain to those who have little knowledge of
military history or traditions than what a regiment is. Yet the very concept of the
regiment, as well as the nurturing of both individual regimental lore and the
broader regimental tradition, is one of the main attributes of soldiering. Thus my
immediate reaction to Jim Gifford’s suggestion that I write a book on Canada’s
regimental tradition was to leap at the chance. My second reaction was to
wonder exactly how I would explain so complicated a concept. Because I am a
historian, I decided to do it through a review of the role that regiments have
played in Canadian history from the very beginning to now.
Regiments are first and foremost agglomerations of soldiers that have been
created to keep the soldiers steady, focused, and firm in the lead-up to the chaos
and bloodletting of battle. Battle lies at the heart of a regiment’s history and its
traditions. Regiments that are newly minted and have never participated in battle
borrow from the regimental lore of allied regiments, which they fashion
themselves after and may seek affiliation with. Regiments that have experienced
battles place those battles at the core of their identity. The Canadian army
inherited its particular regimental tradition from the British army that conquered
New France in the Seven Years’ War and stayed behind to protect Canada from
its enemies. The French army that preceded the British had a regimental tradition
of its own, but that line of tradition was broken by the conquest. The First
Nations of the St. Lawrence Valley had no regiments as such but, like all
societies since the dawn of time, fought wars and established special rituals and
traditions to guide warrior conduct. In that, they were not unlike the regiments of
the Europeans.
There is considerable controversy among both soldiers and scholars as to
the benefits and drawbacks of the regimental system. I have replayed that debate
in my introduction, but for the most part there is little theory in this book. In my
view, explaining what regiments are means explaining what they did. Since I
could not write about every regiment, or even sketch the complete history of a
number of regiments—there are, after all, many very good regimental histories
on library shelves and in bookstores—I decided to select key events in Canadian
military history and examine what selected regiments did on those occasions.
My objective was to portray regimental cohesion under the very trying
circumstances of war in order to demonstrate why Canada’s soldiers still place
so much value on the regimental tradition. In doing so, of course, I have traced
the history of almost all the regiments of Canada’s regular army and many of its
reserve regiments.
There is also controversy among soldiers and scholars about regimental
antecedents. Regiments have been formed and disbanded throughout Canadian
history. New regiments have often claimed to be the successors of preceding
regiments, especially when the period between the disbanding of the old
formation and the raising of the new one was very short. My own interpretation
comes from the authoritative but now very dated The Regiments and Corps of
the Canadian Army, published under the authority of the Minister of National
Defence in 1964. It contains a strict interpretation of regimental precedent and
lineage. If an early regiment was disbanded in 1805, for example, and a
successor raised in 1807, the guide considers that no official connection can be
considered to exist across the two-year gap, even if the successor contained
many of the same officers and men, was raised in the same basic area, or claimed
to be an official successor.
It is a hard line to draw—and to take—but it is easy to follow, and so I have
done. Others are more than welcome to see things differently. After all, it was
soldiers who created regiments and soldiers of the British and Canadian (and
British Commonwealth) traditions who endowed them with semi-religious
characteristics. If the modern Van Doos wish to identify with some famous
French regiment of old, or if the Royal Newfoundland Regiment of today wishes
to uphold a tradition dating back to the 1803 formation of the Royal
Newfoundland Fencibles, who is to say they are wrong?
It is, after all, the men (and now the women too), whose sacrifice has
endowed the regimental tradition with the hallowed status it now has, who have
made the rules, and they are free to break them or to uphold them as they wish.
David J. Bercuson
Rockyview, Alberta
February 2008
INTRODUCTION
BATTLE HONOURS AND MESS
DINNERS: THE REGIMENTAL
TRADITION
These bridges will be held to the last man against any attempt by the enemy to
seize or destroy the crossings.
—Major J.L. Love, Officer Commanding,
Dog Company, Regina Rifles, June 5, 1944
IN THE EARLY MORNING hours of June 6, 1944, the Regina Rifles entered history
when they were among the first Canadian units to assault the Normandy
beachhead. In the first days of the war, no one would have imagined that the
Reginas would have such an auspicious introduction to combat.
When the Canadian army’s regular and militia units began mobilizing at the
beginning of September 1939, the Regina Rifles were virtually left out. The
regiment was only a hundred or so strong in part-time soldiers; most were farm
boys from the Regina region and southern Saskatchewan. The Reginas were
ordered to provide only local protection in the southern part of the province,
which had been one of the hardest hit provinces during the Great Depression.
Not only had the farm economy been virtually wiped out by the plunge in wheat
prices, but thousands of hectares of prairie topsoil had blown away in the
drought conditions of the “dirty thirties.” Everywhere across the southern
reaches of the province, the wind blew drifting soil over abandoned farms.
Thousands of rural families had simply deserted what little remained and moved
into the cities, west into the Peace River country of Alberta, or to the Pacific
coast. To earn a few extra dollars, some of the young men who stayed joined the
militia—mostly the South Saskatchewan Regiment, created in 1920, or the
Regina Rifles, created in 1924—mixing with older men, some of whom were
veterans of the First World War. They underwent desultory training over the next
decade or so, mostly with First World War equipment and uniforms (most of the
officers were First World War holdouts). Sports, drilling, and target shooting
dominated their preparation.
Then came war, in September 1939, and the mobilization of the 1st and 2nd
Canadian Infantry divisions. It appeared that the war would pass Saskatchewan
by, but on May 24, 1940, just two weeks after the German invasion of France
and the Low Countries, the Regina Rifles were finally mobilized and ordered to
expand to full war strength—about 850 men in total. Nine months later they left
Canada for the U.K. as a battalion of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the
3rd Canadian Infantry Division.
The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division was chosen to be Canada’s assault
force for the Normandy landings almost purely by happenstance. The 1st
Division had been sent to fight in the Mediterranean in the spring of 1943, and a
lack of ocean transport made it impossible to return the division to France in
time for the invasion. Besides, in the spring of 1944 the division was completely
tied up in the battle for Rome. Both conditions also applied to the 5th Canadian
Armoured Division, which had been sent to Italy in late 1943. The 2nd Division
had been decimated at Dieppe in August 1942 and was still rebuilding; no one
thought it was in good enough shape to assault another beach so soon, and in fact
it did not enter the Normandy fighting until more than a month after D-Day. The
4th Canadian Armoured Division was not ready to fight until early August 1944,
so the 3rd Division got the nod for the assault.
The 3rd Division’s 7th and 8th brigades were picked to lead the landings on
Juno Beach—the Canadian beach. The 9th Brigade would stay in transports on
the water, in reserve, until the first two brigades were beginning to move inland.
The two other battalions of the 7th Brigade—the Canadian Scottish of Victoria,
B.C., and the Royal Winnipeg Rifles—would accompany the Regina Rifles in
the first wave. The Reginas’ immediate objective was the seaside town of
Courseulles-sur-Mer and a bridge in the hamlet of Reviers, about 3 kilometres
inland from Courseulles. After that, they and the remainder of the brigade were
to try to reach the Caen-Bayeux rail line—about 16 kilometres south of the
beach—by nightfall. Able and Baker companies would hit the beach first and
capture Courseulles; Charlie and Dog companies were to follow but to
immediately drive inland to take the Reviers bridge. Dog Company’s
commander, Major J.L. Love, instructed his men: “These bridges will be held to
the last man against any attempt by the enemy to seize or destroy the crossings.”
In the cold dawn of June 6, 1944, the Royal Navy assault transport Isle of
Thanet pitched and rolled in the rough Channel waters as the Reginas climbed
down cargo nets hung over the side. It was approximately 5:00 AM as they
clambered into the small assault craft that would take them to the beach. Those
who had managed to sleep had been awakened at 4:00 AM for tea and a cold
snack before donning packs, grabbing spare ammunition, and taking up their
weapons and other tools of war. But once they were in the pitching assault boats,
the Rifles couldn’t go straight in.
They had to wait for the DD tanks (canvas-sheathed floating Sherman tanks
with small propellers at the rear) and the other specialized assault vehicles to
lead the way. The floating tanks were especially slow; they seemed always on
the verge of foundering and plummeting to the bottom of the Channel. So the
Reginas and the other Canadian, British, and American assault formations
circled in the heaving sea while heavy bombardment from hundreds of
battleships, cruisers, destroyers, rocket-launching vessels, and heavy-gun
monitors pounded the beach defences. Fighter bombers and medium and heavy
bombers zoomed over, adding to the din. Huge shells rumbled overhead and
exploded with ear-wrenching booms along the line of massive concrete
fortifications spaced every few hundred metres at the head of the beaches.
Finally, at about 7:15 AM, the landing craft broke off their circling and headed
toward shore. Most of the men kept their heads down and tried not to vomit
during the rough run to the beaches. Shot and shell exploded around them as
they came within range of the German gunners. If any of the Reginas had looked
over the gunwales, he would have seen dozens of landing craft fanning out to his
right as the Winnipegs and the Canadian Scottish also advanced to the beach.
Able Company nosed up on the sand at 8:09 AM. The ramps dropped and
the men ran toward the German strongpoint that lay ahead. The tanks that were
supposed to accompany them and provide covering fire were late. Company
commander Major Duncan Grosch was hit almost immediately. Other men were
also cut down by the rapid fire of the German machine guns or by shrapnel from
the German 75mm and 50mm guns ahead of them. Some twenty minutes after
landing, the company radioed battalion HQ that it was pinned down and unable
to move. Lieutenant Bill Grayson had huddled beside one of the seafront houses
and managed to avoid the machine-gun fire. Now he crept to the opening of one
of the German pillboxes. He threw his grenade inside, destroyed the gun, and
flushed out the gun crew (he was later awarded the Military Cross for his
heroism). Able Company was now free to begin pushing forward into the town.
About 400 metres to the left, Baker Company came ashore six minutes after
Able Company. Here the swimming tanks had already arrived, engines idling as