Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

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Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

Cap badge of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
Active 10 August 1914- Present
Country Canada
Branch Land Command
Type Line Infantry
Role Mechanized Infantry (two battalions)
Light Infantry (one battalion)
Size 3 Battalions
Part of Royal Canadian Infantry Corps
Garrison/HQ RHQ - CFB Edmonton
1st Battalion - CFB Edmonton
2nd Battalion - CFB Shilo
3rd Battalion - CFB Edmonton
Nickname The Pats, The Patricias, The Picklies (Impolite) or Princess Pat's
Colours 2nd Battalion entitled to wear US PUC streamer on Regimental Colour
March Quick - Has Anyone Seen the Colonel/Tipperary/Mademoiselle from Armentières (medley)
Slow - Lili Marlene
Commanders
Colonel in Chief The Rt Hon Adrienne Clarkson PC, CC, CMM, COM, CD
Colonel of
the Regiment		 Brigadier-General (Ret'd) J.E.L. Gollner, OMM, CD
Abbreviation PPCLI

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) is an infantry regiment in the Canadian Forces (CF), belonging to 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (1 CMBG). It is one of the most decorated regiments in the CF. It currently consists of four battalions, three in the Regular Force and one in the Reserve Force (militia). The PPCLI is ranked second in the order of precedence for the regular infantry, and 38th in the infantry militia. The regiment's RHQ is located in Edmonton, Alberta, with its three regular battalions located in Alberta and Manitoba. The regiment acts as the "local" infantry regiment for western Canada.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] History 1914-1938

[edit] A new regiment

At the outbreak of World War I the regular military forces in Canada were small. To help rectify this situation the Patricias, the brain child of Captain Andrew Hamilton Gault, were created almost overnight. Hamilton Gault personally offered $100,000 (approximately two million dollars c. 2006) to finance and equip a battalion as a contribution to Canada's war effort. The government provisionally accepted his offer on August 6, 1914. Official authorization was granted on August 10. The Canadian Department of Militia and Defence undertook the ongoing upkeep and maintenance of the regiment.

[edit] Farquhar and Gault

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Farquhar was instrumental in assisting Hamilton Gault in founding the regiment. Colonel Farquhar, Military Secretary to Canada's Governor General, the Duke of Connaught, asked the Duke of Connaught for permission to name the regiment after his daughter, Princess Patricia of Connaught. She was pleased to accept this honour and thus the Princess Patricia’s were established.

[edit] Princess Patricia

Princess Patricia, the Colonel-in-Chief, designed and made by hand the regimental colours to be presented on that occasion. It is a crimson flag with a circular blue centre. In the circle are gold initials V P which stand for Victoria Patricia. The regimental colours became known as the "Ric-A-Dam-Doo". This colour was carried in every regimental action during World War I.

[edit] Mobilization

Farquhar and Gault moved expeditiously to mobilize the unit. The day after authority was granted, August 11, 1914, they began an aggressive recruitment campaign. Due to the patriotic outpouring following the August 4 declaration of war, 3000 applicants were recruited within eight days. By August 19 a full complement of 1098 had been selected and the Regiment's first formal parade was conducted on August 23 in Ottawa during which Princess Patricia presented the regimental colours. The Regiment left Ottawa on August 28 and after being delayed due to enemy action in the Atlantic it eventually sailed from Quebec on September 27.[1]

Upon arrival in England in October, the Regiment was first stationed at Bustard Camp on Salisbury Plain near Stonehenge and on November 16 moved to Winchester in order to join the 80th Brigade Expeditionary Force.[2] On December 20, the Regiment departed for the port of Southampton with the rest of the brigade and embarked for France arriving the next day.[3]

[edit] Action

The Patricias first took their place in the trenches on January 6, 1915 at a location known to the English-speaking soldiers of the British army as "Dickiebush".[4] On January 8, Lance Corporal Norman Fry [5] and Lance Corporal Henry George Bellinger[6] of PPCLI became the first Canadian soldiers to be killed in action in World War I.[7]

The last of the Patricias killed in action was likely Corporal Percy Wainwright Carleton on November 10, 1918.[8] The 4th Company of PPCLI entered Mons with other Canadian troops early the next day before the armistice took effect at 1100 hours.[9]

In total 1321 officers and enlisted men of the Patricias were killed and 81 officers and enlisted men were captured during the war.[10]

[edit] History 1939-1945

World War 2 began in Europe on 1 September 1939. The Patricias were mobilized for active service on the 1st of September, 1939. The Regiment sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 21st of December, 1939 arriving in Scotland, the Regiment moved to Aldershot Command and spent New Year's Eve in Cove [maybe Hove, near Brighton?], England. The Regiment spent three years and a half in the United Kingdom, most of which was spent in coastal defence and training in various parts of the country.[citation needed]

On 10 July, 1943 the PPCLI, forming part of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division and the 8th Army, landed in Sicily. After the short Sicilian campaign, the Regiment landed and fought in Italy from September, 1943 to March, 1945.

In March 1945, the Regiment was transferred to North West Europe where they participated in the liberation of the Netherlands. On the 7th of May, 1945 the Regiment was the first Allied force to enter Amsterdam.

On the 1st of June, 1945 a new battalion of the Regiment was authorized to form part the Canadian Pacific Force in the campaign against Japan. After the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs and Japan's subsequent surrender on the 15th of August, 1945 the Pacific Force was disbanded. In the meantime, the Regiment's serving battalion in Europe, very much understrength, returned to Winnipeg in October, 1945 and was demobilized.

[edit] History post-1945

[edit] Kapyong

The 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry received the Presidential Unit Citation (Korea)) and the Distinguished Unit Citation (now Presidential Unit Citation (US)) from the President of the United States to recognize its stand at Kapyong during the Korean War in April 1951. The Patricias, together with the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, which received the same honour, held up the Chinese forces for three days while United Nations forces withdrew to a new defensive line. This citation is the American equivalent of a battle honour. The citation is represented by a blue streamer bearing the name of the action. The streamer is attached to the pike of the regimental colour. The use of this streamer was authorized by King George VI. In addition to the streamer, the Presidential Citation is also worn on the uniform. It is a small royal blue bar with gold trim. Although battle honours are awarded on a regimental basis, and the whole of the PPCLI carries Kapyong on its colours, the distinction of bearing this streamer belongs to the 2nd Battalion PPCLI alone and is carried on the battalion's regimental colour.

Following the Korean War, the PPCLI was reduced to two battalions, with the 3rd Battalion being redesignated as 2nd Battalion, Canadian Guards.

In 1970, with the downsizing of the Canadian Armed Forces, the disbanded 1st Battalion, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada was renamed as 3 PPCLI.

[edit] Former Yugoslavia

During the Yugoslav Wars in the early 1990s, soldiers from the PPCLI served in UNPROFOR, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia. 875 members of the 2nd Battalion PPCLI were dispatched to the Medak Pocket in September 1993 to interpose themselves between Serb and Croatian forces. After the Croatians opened fire on the PPCLI troops, they became involved in an intense firefight in which (according to their commander, Colonel Jim Calvin) "27 of [the Croatian Army's] members were killed or wounded during the fire fights with my battle group during the 14 days in Medak." The clash was not much publicised at the time but Calvin and his men were decorated in 2002 for their bravery.

The UNPROFOR French Lieutenant-General Jean Cot who was in charge of the operation has stated that:

“ It was the most important force operation the UN conducted in the former Yugoslavia ... While we could not prevent the slaughter of the Serbs by the Croatians, including elderly people and children, we drove back to its start line a well-equipped Croatian battalion of some thousand men. Together, the Canadians and the French succeeded in breaking the Croatian lines, and with their weapons locked and loaded and ready, firing when necessary. They circled and disarmed an eighteen-soldier commando from the Croatian Special Forces who had penetrated by night into their location. They did everything I expected from them and showed what real soldiers can do ”
 
— UNPROFOR French Lieutenant-General Jean Cot [1]

In 1998, to commemorate the re-opening of Canada House, a detachment from the 3rd Battalion travelled to London, England to mount the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace, becoming the first Canadian soldiers in a generation to do so.

[edit] Afghanistan

In February 2002, the Regiment deployed approximately 700 troops to Afghanistan as part of the Canadian contribution (Operation Apollo) to Operation Enduring Freedom. The Regiment also deployed troops as part of the International Security Assistance Force.

In March 2002 during Operation Anaconda, a five-man sniper team led by MCpl. Graham Ragsdale from Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry registered more than 20 kills and set the new world record for farthest combat kill with a rifle. Cpl. Rob Furlong set the record by firing a shot from a .50 cal McMillan Tac-50 sniper rifle that killed an al-Qaeda soldier at a distance of 2,430 metres (over 1.5 miles). The US Army awarded the team members the Bronze Star for their actions in combat.[2] The shot surpassed the long-standing previous world record of 2,250 metres (over 1.39 miles) set by U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock during the Vietnam War.

On April 18, 2002, soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry were involved in a highly publicized case of friendly-fire. The Canadian soldiers were participating in planned nighttime training exercises near Kandahar when Major Harry Schmidt, an American pilot from the Illinois Air National Guard, flew overhead. Believing he was being fired upon by enemy soldiers, Schmidt dropped one 500-pound laser-guided bomb on the Battalion. Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight were injured.

When the Canadian Forces returned to Kandahar after being deployed to Kabul in 2003, the Taliban began a major offensive and the Canadians were caught in the middle. After a spring in which a record number of attacks against Canadian soldiers had been set, which included six deaths to the CF, the Taliban in Kandahar and Helmand provinces were massing and Operation Mountain Thrust was launched in the beginning of the summer. Canadians were one of the leading combatants and the first fighting in the Battle of Panjwaii took place. Complex mud-walled compounds made the rural Panjwaii district take on an almost urban style of fighting in some places. Daily firefights, artillery bombardments, and allied airstrikes turned the tides of the battle in favour of the Canadians.

After Operation Mountain Thrust came to an end, Taliban fighters flooded back into the Panjwaii district in numbers that had not been seen yet in a single area in the "post Anaconda" war. The Canadian Forces, which came under NATO command at the end of July, launched Operation Medusa in an attempt to clear the areas of Taliban fighters once and for all. The fighting of Operation Medusa led the way to the second, and more fierce, Battle of Panjwaii.

[edit] New Colonel-in-Chief

In 2007, the regiment's Colonel-in-Chief, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, indicated that she wished to step down from the position. Following this announcement, the PPCLI invited Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor General of Canada, to be the regiment's new Colonel-in-Chief. This is the first time that a person who is not a member of the Canadian Royal Family has been invited to take such a position with the Regiment. The new Colonel-in-Chief took up her appointment at a ceremony on March 17, 2007, at the Regimental Headquarters in Edmonton.[3]

See also: The Canadian Crown and the Canadian Forces

[edit] Battalions

Battalion Home Brigade Notes
1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry CFB Edmonton (Alberta) 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Mechanized infantry
2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry CFB Shilo (Manitoba) 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Mechanized infantry
3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry CFB Edmonton 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Light infantry. Includes a parachute company.
The Loyal Edmonton Regiment (4th Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry) Edmonton, Alberta 41 Canadian Brigade Group Reserve Force. Light Infantry

[edit] Armourial description of badge

The cipher of Princess Patricia of Connaught (VP) enfiling a coronet (gold) within an annulus (crimson) edged and inscribed PRINCESS PATRICIA'S CANADIAN LIGHT INFANTRY (also gold) ensigned by the royal crown proper.

[edit] Regimental names

1914: Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

[edit] Battle honours

1. granted ca. 2000 with perpetuation of 260th Battalion, CSEF.

[edit] Victoria Cross recipients

7th Canadian Machine Gun Company, Canadian Expeditionary Force
Passchendaele, Belgium
October 30, 1917
PPCLI, Canadian Expeditionary Force
Passchendaele, Belgium
October 30, 1917
PPCLI, Canadian Expeditionary Force
Parvillers, France
August 12-13, 1918

† - Awarded posthumously

[edit] Princess Pat and the Ric-A-Dam-Doo

"Ric-A-Dam-Doo" is a nickname for the original Camp Colours of the PPCLI. Various sources claim that "Ric-A-Dam-Doo" is, a presumably phonetic version of, the Gaelic for "cloth of thy mother"[11]; but it is not clear that this claim has been confirmed by an actual living, fluent speaker of Gaelic. The Ric-A-Dam-Doo was hand-sewn by Princess Patricia and presented to the Regiment. The selection of verses here describes some regimental history, and the origin of the unique title of the song refers to the regimental colours. It has been covered by many Canadian children's musicians, including Sharon, Lois, and Bram.

The Princess Pat's Battalion
They sailed across the Herring Pond,
They sailed across the Channel too,
And landed there with the Ric-A-Dam-Doo
Dam-Doo, Dam-Doo.
The Bombers of the Princess Pat's
Are scared of naught, excepting rats,
They're full of pep and dynamite too,
They'd never lose the Ric-A-Dam-Doo,
Dam-Doo, Dam-Doo.
Old Hammy Gault, our first PP,
He led this band across the sea,
He'd lose an arm, or leg or two
Before he'd lose the Ric-A-Dam-Doo,
Dam-Doo, Dam-Doo.
And then we came to Sicily.
We leapt ashore with vim and glee.
The Colonel said the Wops are through
Let's chase the Hun with the Ric-A-Dam-Doo,
Dam-Doo, Dam-Doo.
The Ric-A-Dam-Doo, pray what is that?
'Twas made at home by Princess Pat,
It's Red and Gold and Royal Blue,
That's what we call the Ric-A-Dam-Doo,
Dam-Doo, Dam-Doo.

[edit] Order of precedence

Preceded by:
The Royal Canadian Regiment		 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Succeeded by:
Royal 22e Régiment

[edit] Alliances

[edit] References

  1. ^ French Lieutenant-General Jean Cot (2007). Chances for Peace: Canadian Soldiers in the Balkans 1992-1995 ISBN 1551250535 (HTML). www.seanmmaloney.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-27.
  2. ^ Maclean's Magazine; May 16, 2006: 'We were abandoned'
  3. ^ Clarkson to be given military honour Edmonton Journal 04/02/07
  • (1992) Ducimus, The Regiments of the Canadian Infantry. St. Hubert, Quebec, Canada: Mobile Command Headquarters, Canadian Armed Forces, 248p. ISBN 0-9696421-0-5. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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