4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards
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The 4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards is an inactive armoured regiment of the Canadian militia.[1]
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[edit] Lineage
The Regiment's history dates back to Ottawa in the early 1870s and its membership in Canada's militia. Its subsequent battle honours include South Africa in the early 1900s and the First World War.[2]
[edit] History
[edit] Prewar
In 1936 the 4th Hussars and the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards were amalgamated to form the 4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards.
[edit] Second World War
The regiment activated a unit (designated 4th (Active) Princess Louise Dragoon Guards) for service with the Canadian Army (Active) in 1941. This unit was assigned to the newly raised Canadian Armoured Corps in 1942 and redesignated as the 4th Reconnaissance Regiment (4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards). The unit was assigned to the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, which had arrived in the United Kingdom in December of 1939 and was garrisoned at Aldershot Camp.
4th Recce's personnel were a combination of men drawn from existing infantry regiments serving in the United Kingdom and reinforcements from Canada. A reserve unit was also maintained throughout the war.
"A" Squadron of 4th PLDG landed at Pachino, Sicily on July 13, 1943, as part of the follow-up formations participating in Operation Husky. Though all three squadrons were put ashore in Sicily, "A" Squadron was the only one fully equipped with "Fox" and "Otter" armoured cars in time to participate in the fighting.
When 1st Canadian Infantry Division landed on the Italian mainland as part of Operation Baytown in September, 4th PLDG immediately set to providing headquarters with information vital to the planning of the division's advance. Italy, with its mountainous terrain, antiquated roads, and shoddy maps, made aggressive patrol by armoured vehicles imperative. By the time 4th PLDG landed at Calabria the regiment was operating largely at strength. All squadrons were mounting both the light (Otter) and heavy (Fox) reconnaissance vehicles as well as the universal carriers required of a divisional scout element. All were relatively lightly armoured in the intrerest of mobility and only the Fox was equipped with a .50-calibre machine gun. The Otter relied on a .303 Bren Gun for its defence. Committed to battle, the armoured car crew generally provided fire support for the assault element as it dismounted the carriers to fight as infantry.
For the most part, the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards served as scouts. Though casualties were generally low in this role, patrolling could also be dangerous work. Roaring down the dusty, winding roads the squadrons lost men and vehicles to mines. Pitched battles, fought when the squadrons suddenly contacted the enemy also resulted in dead and wounded.
Miglionico was one such occasion, though the enemy's casualties would far exceed those of 4th PLDG. It was there that "A" Squadron managed to work its way undetected into the German rear area via a rail tunnel. Once there,the Dragoon Guards hurled themselves at the startled enemy, driving the Fallschirmjäger from a nearby hill in a furious assault that left the former German positions strewn with the corpses of 50 enemy paratroopers. A number of vehicles were destroyed by the Canadians and prisoners taken. That pluck caused British General Sir Oliver Leese to refer to 4th PLDG as "the best reconnaissance unit in the 8th Army."[citation needed] The regiment was also first to smash through the enemy's Hitler Line at Pontecorvo, fighting a running battle with German Panzergrenadiere and sappers before being halted by a minefield.
The regiment was re-roled as infantry on July 13, 1944, and assigned to the newly raised 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade of 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division. The decision was the result of 8th Army commanders noting that the 5th Armoured Division was hampered by a shortage of infantry personnel and that the existing brigade, the 11th, was over-tasked. Having spent the winter of 1943 serving as dismounted infantry, the regiment had undergone a modicum of related training.[3]
The unit's first battle as infantry was an attack on well-defended heights at Monte Peloso on September 1, 1944. Identified on Canadian Army maps as Point 253, the feature was situated just inside of the enemy's formidable Gothic Line defences. Following a murderous enemy artillery barrage that lasted for half an hour and badly scattered the regiment's squadrons, C-Squadron pushed off for the objective at 13:10 with the remainder of the regiment following. While crossing a farm field at the feature's base, the Princess Louise ran headlong into a battalion of German paratroops forming up for an attack on nearby Point 204. Tearing into the startled Fallschirmjäger as they crouched among the wheat stooks, Lord Strathcona's Shermans raked them with 75 mm cannon fire or the machine guns mounted in their hulls. Flushed by the approaching tanks, the enemy infantrymen were shot down by the soldiers of 4th PLDG. German losses were sufficient to warrant the use of a bulldozer to dispose of the dead. Fighting its way forward in the face of heavy sniper, machine gun, and mortar fire, the regiment cleared a number of houses on the forward slope of Point 253 with the assistance of armour. Though ultimately successful, 4th PLDG's attack was costly; only fifteen troops made it to the top of the feature, later determined to be the site of a German regimental (brigade) headquarters. The day's fighting cost the 4th PLDG 129 casualties, of which 35 were dead. A message penned by 8th Army's commander, General Leese, congratuled the Princess Louise for their victory, made that much more remarkable based on the unit's very brief training as infantry.
On a humorous note, members of the unit were once urged by General Simonds (GOC 1st Canadian Infantry Division) to beat a U.S. Army unit into the Sicilian village of Enna and thus take credit for its capture. A mixed bag of NCO's and troopers mounted their armoured cars and headed for the town only to be halted by a demolished culvert. The soldiers commandeered a mule and continued the race arriving just ahead of the U.S. Army who were entering the village from its western extremity in Jeeps. The regimental history of the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards steadfastly maintains that the capture was theirs.
The regiment was returned to its reconnaissance role on 15 March 1945 and finished the war in The Netherlands after being transferred to the theatre as part of Operation Goldflake. The active unit disbanded in 1945.
[edit] Postwar
The 4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards was moved to the Supplementary Order of Battle of the Canadian Army in 1965.
[edit] Battle honours
- South Africa
- South Africa 1900
- First World War
- Mount Sorrel
- Second World War
- Adrano
- Troina Valley
- Sicily 1943
- Landing at Reggio
- Motta Montecorvino
- Liri Valley
- Hitler Line
- Melfa Crossing
- Gothic Line
- Tomba de Pesaro
- Casale
- Sant' Angelo in Salute
- Capture of Ravenna
- Naviglio Canal
- Italy 1943-1945
- North-West Europe 1945
[edit] Uniform and traditions
The 4th PLDG retained the black beret of the Canadian Armoured Corps and referred to its sub-units as "squadrons" instead of "companies"; the traditional infantry designation. Its motto was "For Our Altars and Our Homes".
[edit] Notable soldiers
"Herbie" the cartoon soldier that appeared in the Canadian Army's newspaper, The Maple Leaf, was the brainchild of Sergeant Bing Coughlin of 4th PLDG.
[edit] Notes
- ^ canadiansoldiers.com armoured regiment listing
- ^ regiments.org article
- ^ Dancocks, Daniel G. The D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy 1939–45
