1st Armoured Regiment ( Royal Canadian Dragoons )
What was the official name of The Royal Canadian Dragoons from Oct 1946 to Mar 1949?
The Royal Canadian Dragoons The Royal Canadian Dragoons ( RCD ) is the senior armoured regiment of the Canadian Army . It is one of three armoured regiments in the Regular Force and forms part of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps . The colonel-in-chief of The RCD is Charles , Prince of Wales . The colonel of the regiment is Brigadier-General Peter Atkinson ( Retired ) . The commanding officer is Lieutenant-Colonel E.A . Kerckhoff , and the regimental sergeant major is Chief Warrant Officer J . Leamon , CD . The regiment is composed of Regimental Headquarters , A , B , C , D and Headquarters Squadrons . A , B and D Squadrons , based at CFB Petawawa , are reconnaissance squadrons in the process of adopting the Textron-produced Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle to replace the Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle . C Squadron , based at CFB Gagetown , is equipped with 21 Leopard 2 tanks ( models A4 , A4M and A6M ) and the squadron consists of both Dragoons and members of 12 Régiment blindé du Canada . Headquarters Squadron , based in Petawawa , provides first-line combat service support to the regiment . Lineage . The Royal Canadian Dragoons . - Originated 21 December 1883 in Quebec City , Quebec as the Cavalry School Corps - Redesignated 14 May 1892 as the Canadian Dragoons - Amalgamated 27 June 1892 with the Canadian Mounted Rifle Corps in Winnipeg , Manitoba ( lineage below ) : retaining its designation - Redesignated 24 May 1893 as The Royal Canadian Dragoons - Redesignated 16 October 1946 as the 1st Armoured Regiment ( Royal Canadian Dragoons ) , RCAC - Redesignated 2 March 1949 as the Royal Canadian Dragoons ( 1st Armoured Regiment ) - Redesignated 19 May 1958 as Royal Canadian Dragoons - Redesignated 12 January 1959 as The Royal Canadian Dragoons The Canadian Mounted Rifle Corps . - Originated 20 July 1885 in Winnipeg , Manitoba as the School of Mounted Infantry - Redesignated 7 August 1891 as the Canadian Mounted Rifle Corps - Amalgamated 27 June 1892 with the Canadian Dragoons History . Formation . Formed on December 21 , 1883 as the Cavalry School Corps , The Royal Canadian Dragoons is the senior cavalry regiment in the Canadian Army and was Canadas first professional , full-time cavalry unit . It was originally organized as a troop ( the then-company-sized British Army cavalry maneuver sub-unit , today regarded as a squadron ) and was commanded by Captain ( Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel ) J.F . Turnbull of Quebec Citys Queens Own Canadian Hussars . The first Regimental Sergeant-Major was Sergeant-Major George Baxter , recruited by Lt.-Col . Turnbull from the British Armys 4th Dragoon Guards at Aldershot along with two other British Army Sergeant-Instructors from the 7th Dragoon Guards and the 15th The Kings Hussars . The North-West Rebellion . The Cavalry School Corps mobilized A Troop on 10 April 1885 for active service during the North-West Rebellion . It served with the Alberta Column of the North-West Field Force until it was removed from active service on 18 September 1885 . A Troop patrolled the Touchwood Hills in Saskatchewan to secure lines of communication and saw no active combat . South African War . The regiment was mobilized for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War as the 1st Battalion , Canadian Mounted Rifles , and composed of 19 officers and 371 men and their horses , organized into two squadrons . The battalion embarked for South Africa on 21 February 1900 , where it fought as part of the 1st Brigade , 1st Mounted Infantry Corps and as part of Maj.-Gen . Smith-Dorriens column until its departure from the theatre of operations on 13 December 1900 . The nucleus of each squadron was provided by the experienced regular officers , non-commissioned officers and men from The Royal Canadian Dragoons . For this reason on 1 August 1900 , at the units own request , the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles were renamed the Royal Canadian Dragoons . By 12 November 1900 the regiments strength was down to three officers and 83 other ranks . Two famous Dragoon casualties of South Africa were Lieutenant Harold Lothrop Borden , son of the then-Minister for Militia and Defence Frederick William Borden and Maj . A.L . Gat Howard , formerly the regiments Machine Gun Officer , who remained behind in South Africa to command Howards Canadian Scouts . Gat Howard and was captured and murdered while a prisoner . During the regiments service in South Africa every junior officer , except for one , was killed in action , died of disease or was wounded , the regiment marched more than 2700 kilometers ( 1700 miles ) and had been in action on 41 separate days . Three Dragoons were awarded the Victoria Cross for the gallant stand at Leliefontein on 7 November 1900 , a feat of arms never surpassed by Canadians . The Great War . The regiment was placed on active service on 6 August 1914 for instructional and camp administration duties . On 14 September 1914 the regiment mobilized The Royal Canadian Dragoons , CEF , which embarked for England on 3 October 1914 . On 5 May 1915 it disembarked in France , where it fought dismounted in an infantry role as part of Seelys Detachment ( really the Canadian Cavalry Brigade ) , 1st Canadian Division . On 24 January 1916 , it remounted and resumed its cavalry role as part of the 1st Canadian Cavalry Brigade with whom it continued to fight in France and Flanders until the end of the war . The overseas regiment disbanded on 6 November 1920 . Second World War . At the start of the Second World War , The Royal Canadian Dragoons were still horse cavalry and would remain so until the regiment finally dismounted in August , 1940 . On 24 May 1940 , the regimental headquarters and one squadron mobilized together with the headquarters and one squadron of Lord Strathconas Horse ( Royal Canadians ) to form the short-lived 1st Canadian Motorcycle Regiment , CASF ( RCD/LSH ( RC ) ) . On 21 September 1940 , this regiment was redesignated as Lord Strathconas Horse ( Royal Canadians ) CASF and the Dragoons returned to the regiment . The regiment subsequently mobilized as an armoured car regiment , The Royal Canadian Dragoons ( Armoured Car Regiment ) , CASF , on 21 September 1940 . It was initially earmarked to serve in the 5th Canadian Armoured Division and embarked for Britain on 13 November 1941 . The RCD landed in Sicily on 8 November 1943 and moved to mainland Italy on 5 January 1944 . There it fought as the armoured car regiment for I Canadian Corps until being transferred to the 1st Canadian Infantry Division as the divisional armoured car regiment on 14 July 1944 . Due to the mountainous terrain of Italy , the regiment fought much of its time there in a dismounted role as infantry . In March 1945 the regiment moved with the I Canadian Corps to North-West Europe as part of OPERATION GOLDFLAKE , and the regiment resumed its role as the I Canadian Corps armoured car regiment . The regiment was heavily engaged in operations in the Netherlands and Germany until the end of the war . The RCD was the first Allied unit to advance through Holland to the North Sea , famously liberated the city of Leeuwarden and fought off an attempted German amphibious assault . The fighting was so intense and chaotic that two of the squadron sergeants-major , WOII Deeming and WOII Forgrave , were separately awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal ( second in precedence to the Victoria Cross ) for dismounting the members of their supply convoys and fighting through enemy infantry positions to get fuel , ammunition , water and rations forward to their squadrons . On 1 September 1945 a second Active Force component of the regiment mobilized for service in the Pacific theatre of operations designated as the 2nd-1st Armoured Car Regiment ( The Royal Canadian Dragoons ) , RCAC , CASF . It was redesignated as the 2nd-1st Armoured Regiment ( The Royal Canadian Dragoons ) , RCAC , CASF , on 15 November 1945 ; and as the 1st Armoured Regiment ( The Royal Canadian Dragoons ) , RCAC , CASF , on 1 March 1946 . On 27 June 1946 the regiment was embodied in the Permanent Force . Korea . D Squadron , equipped with M4A3E8 Sherman tanks rented from the U.S . Army , served in Korea following the armistice in 1954 . Lieut Frank Sidney Stilwell died in a vehicle accident while deployed to Korea on 25 January 1954 . “Dog Squadron” , so-called because Dog was the word for the letter D in the old phonetic alphabet , were the last Canadians to operationally employ Sherman tanks . The UN and NATO . The Royal Canadian Dragoons , along with Lord Strathconas Horse ( Royal Canadians ) , contributed troops to 56 Reconnaissance Squadron for duty with the United Nations Emergency Force ( UNEF ) from March 1957 to January 1959 , equipped with Ferret scout cars . The Officer Commanding , Maj . R . Barry Tackaberry , the Second-in-Command , Capt . J.A . Beament , the 2nd Troop Leader , Lt J.G.H . Ferguson , and the 4th Troop Leader , Lt J.B . Long , as well as half of the NCOs and soldiers , were Dragoons . Other squadrons of the regiment served there and in Cyprus . Two members of 56 Recce Squadron died : Lt Charles C . Van Straubenzee on 10 May 1957 and Tpr George E . McDavid on 29 November 1957 . The regiment contributed several other recce squadrons to UNEF until its demise in 1967 . Tpr Ronald H . Allan was killed by Egyptian machine gun fire on 28 November 1959 . The regiment was part of the initial deployment to Cyprus as part of OPERATION SNOW GOOSE , Canadas long contribution to UNFICYP , and conducted other squadron-sized tours as well as a regimental deployment from March to September 1989 . Tpr . Joseph H . Fess Campbell died in Cyprus on 31 July 1964 . The regiment served at Fort Beausejour , Iserlohn , Germany from November 1957 - November 1959 The regiment served at CFB Lahr , West Germany , as part of 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group from 1970 to 1987 equipped with Centurion , rented German Leopard 1 and Leopard C1 tanks and Lynx tracked reconnaissance vehicles . During this time , the Canadian Army ceased conducting regimental rotations to 4 CMBG , going instead to a man-for-man individual rotation system . During the 1990s , the regiment conducted deployments to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the UN as part of UNPROFOR , and with NATO as part of IFOR , SFOR and in Kosovo with KFOR . Cpl James Ogilvie died in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 30 August 1998 . Afghanistan . The Royal Canadian Dragoons contributed both reconnaissance and tank crews to the Canadian task forces that served in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014 . The following Dragoons fell in Afghanistan : - Sgt Craig Paul Gillam , 3 October 2006 - Cpl Robert Thomas Mitchell , 3 October 2006 - Tpr Mark Andrew Wilson , 7 October 2006 - MCpl Allan Stewart , 11 April 2007 - Tpr Patrick James Pentland , 11 April 2007 - Tpr Darryl Caswell , 11 June 2007 - Maj Raymond Ruckpaul , 22 August 2007 - Tpr Brian Richard Good , 7 January 2009 - Tpr Marc Diab , 8 March 2009 - Tpr Jack Bouthillier , 20 March 2009 - Tpr Corey Joseph Hayes , 20 March 2009 - Tpr Larry John Zuidemer Rudd , 24 May 2010 Ukraine . Operation Unifier , also known as Canadian Armed Forces Joint Task Force-Ukraine , is Canadas military mission to provide assistance to the training and professionalization of the Ukrainian Armed Forces . The Royal Canadian Dragoons contributed officers and soldiers to Rotation 4 , and are currently leading and contributing a significant component of Rotation 5 . Recognition . On 10 November 1983 Canada Post issued The Royal Winnipeg Rifles , The Royal Canadian Dragoons as part of the Canadian Forces , Regiments , 1883–1983 series . The stamps were designed by Ralph Tibbles , based on a painting by William Southern . The 32¢ stamps are perforated 13.5 x 13 and were printed by Canadian Bank Note Company , Limited . The springbok cap badge . The cap badge of The Royal Canadian Dragoons since 1913 features a springbok in recognition of the regiments service in South Africa . In the Second Boer War ( 1899–1902 ) during the advance to Pretoria , the RCD set up camp in a field . Regimental legend has it that one of the sentries noticed that some springbok were behaving erratically , and alerted the officers , who ordered a stand-to . This resulted in the defeat of Boer forces that had been trying to sneak up through the fields to attack the Canadian force . However , there is no documentary evidence of this incident . The Commanding Officer at that time , Lt.-Col . Louis Lessard , makes no mention of it in his personal papers or his official reports . The commander of the RCD then put a request to King Edward VII , the reigning monarch , to officially have their cap badge changed to the springbok , which was finally accepted in 1913 . Battle honours . In the list below , battle honours in capitals were awarded for participation in large operations and campaigns , while those in lowercase indicate honours granted for more specific battles . Those battle honours in bold type are emblazoned on the regimental guidon . Victoria Crosses . During the Second Boer War on November 7 , 1900 , The Royal Canadian Dragoons were engaged in the Action at Leliefontein . The regiment , operating in concert with the two 12 Pounder guns of the Left Section of D Battery , Royal Canadian Artillery , was acting as the rear guard for Maj.-Gen . Sir Horace Smith-Dorriens column as it withdrew from the Komati River basin . The Boers had recently captured a quantity of British artillery ammunition and aggressively pressed the rear guard in an attempt to capture the two D Battery guns , even conducting a very rare mounted charge . In the end , the guns and the column were saved . Three Victoria Crosses were awarded to members of The Royal Canadian Dragoons for their actions during the course of the day : - Lieutenant H.Z.C . Cockburn - Lieutenant R.E.W . Turner - Sergeant E.J.G . Holland Regimental alliances . - – The Blues and Royals ( Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons ) - – 3rd Squadron , 71st Cavalry Regiment ( Light Horse ) ( Bond of Friendship )