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