Soldiers from the Royal 22
e Regiment exercising the
Freedom of the City in front of
Quebec City's City Hall, on
July 3,
2006.
The Royal 22e Régiment is an infantry regiment, and the most famous francophone organization of the Canadian Forces. The regiment comprises three Regular Force battalions, two Primary Reserve battalions, and a band, making it the largest regiment in the army. The ceremonial home of the regiment is La Citadelle in Quebec City, where the regimental museum is housed. The regiment is nicknamed the Van Doos, a corruption of vingt-deux, French for "twenty-two." The regiment's RHQ is located in Quebec City, with all three of its regular battalions stationed at various bases in the province of Quebec. The regiment serves as the "local" infantry regiment for Quebec.
History
The ancestor of the regiment was formed in the early days of the First World War, when volunteers from all over Canada were being massed for training at Valcartier, Quebec, just outside of Quebec City. The first contingent of 30,000 volunteers, which became the 1st Canadian Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, were grouped into numbered battalions, regardless of origin. The existing reserve regiments were not mobilized, due to the belief of the Defence Minister, Sam Hughes, that a new "efficient" structure was required. In the process, the new structure failed to create French-speaking units, such as those that had existed in the reserves. Over 1000 French-Canadian volunteers were scattered into different English-speaking units. This was not an oversight. Ontario (Hughes's political base) was in the process of forbidding teaching in French, or of French, in the school system (Regulation 17), causing outrage in French Canada and a lack of support for the war of the "king and country" that was perceived as seeking to destroy the Francophone community in Canada.
The second contingent was based, more logically, on battalions raised and trained in the various military districts in which they had been recruited, but still on an impersonal numbered basis (with the exception of some with a Highland or Irish identity). Considerable political pressure in Quebec, along with public rallies, demanded the creation of French-speaking units to fight a war that many viewed as being right and necessary, despite the infamous Regulation 17 in Ontario. When the government relented, the first such unit was the 22nd (French Canadian) Infantry Battalion, CEF. The 22nd went to France as part of the 5th Canadian Brigade and the 2nd Canadian Division in September 1915, and fought with distinction in every major Canadian engagement until the end of the war. While other French-speaking units were also created, they were all broken up upon arrival in France to provide reinforcements for the 22nd, which suffered close to 4000 wounded and killed in the course of the war. Two members of the 22nd were awarded the Victoria Cross in that war, Lieutenant Jean Brillant and Corporal Joseph Kaeble.
After the war, the 22nd Battalion was disbanded on May 20, 1919, sharing the fate of the other numbered battalions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. However, in the post-war reorganizations of the army, public pressure, such as resolutions by the Legislature of Quebec as well as the City Council of Quebec City, demanded that a permanent French-language unit be created in the peace-time Regular Force, and accordingly a new regiment was created, made up of veterans of the 22nd Battalion, on April 1, 1921. Initially the regiment was simply the 22nd Regiment, but in June King George V approved renaming it The Royal 22nd Regiment. In 1928 the anomaly of a French-language unit with an English name was resolved, and the regiment became the Royal 22e Régiment.
In 1940, the regiment became the first Francophone Canadian unit to mount the King's Guard in London, and was the first of the three current Regular Force regiments to do so.
In the Second World War the regiment was part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade and the 1st Canadian Infantry Division and was involved in intense combat in Italy, (where Captain Paul Triquet earned the Victoria Cross) and later in the Netherlands and northwest Germany.
During the Korean War, 1951-1953, the regiment expanded to three battalions, each serving in turn as part of the Canadian brigade in the 1st Commonwealth Division. Thus the "Van Doos" represented one-third of Canada's infantry contingent throughout the war.
Pte. Patrick Cloutier, a
'Van Doo' perimeter sentry, and Mohawk Warrior Brad "Freddy Krueger" Larocque, a
University of Saskatchewan economics student, face off.
During the Cold War the regular battalions of the regiment served, in turn, in West Germany for most of the period.
The regiment also served during the Oka Crisis. (see photo, right)
During the life of the Canadian Airborne Regiment (1968-1995) the 1er Commando was manned as a French-speaking sub-unit by soldiers of the Royal 22e Régiment.
In the 1950s, the Canadian Army promoted a scheme of administratively associating reserve infantry regiments with a regular one. Although this project did not make much progress in most of the army, three reserve regiments did join the Van Doos, becoming battalions of the Royal 22e Régiment:
| Old regiment name | Formed | New battalion name | Joined R22eR |
|---|
| Le Régiment de Châteauguay | 1869 | 4th Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment (Châteauguay) | 1954 |
| Fusiliers du St. Laurent | 1869 | Les Fusiliers du St. Laurent (5th Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment) | 1954 to 1968 |
| Le Régiment de Ste. Hyacinthe | 1866 | 6th Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment | 1956 |
In the case of Les Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent, the battalion designation was in a subsidiary title, but it became nevertheless, administratively, part of the Royal 22e Régiment. However, in 1968, Les Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent dropped the subsidiary title, and ended their administrative association with the R22eR.
Battalions
| Battalion | Home | Brigade | Notes |
|---|
| 1er Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment | CFB Valcartier | 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group | Mechanized infantry |
| 2e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment | Quebec City | 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group | Mechanized infantry |
| 3e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment | CFB Valcartier | 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group | Light infantry, Includes a parachute company |
| 4e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment (Châteauguay) | Laval, Quebec | 34 Canadian Brigade Group | Reserve, Dismounted infantry |
| 6e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment | Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec | 34 Canadian Brigade Group | Reserve, Dismounted infantry |
| La Musique du Royal 22e Régiment | CFB Valcartier | Land Force Quebec Area | Regular Force professional band |
Battle honours
- The Great War: Mont-Sorrel1, Somme 1916 '18, Flers-Courcelette, Thiepval, Les Hauteurs d'Ancre1, Arras 1917 '18, Vimy 1917, Arleux, Scarpe 1917 '18, Côte 701, Ypres 1917, Passchendaele, Amiens, Ligne Hindenburg1, Canal du Nord, Cambrai 1918, Poussée de Mons1, France et Flandres 1915-181
- The Second World War: Débarquement en Sicile1, Valguarnera, Adrano, Catenuova, Sicile 19431, Débarquement à Reggio1, Potenza, Le Sangro1, Casa Berardi, Torre Mucchia, Cassino II, Ligne Gustav1, Vallée de la Liri1, Ligne Hitler1, Ligne Gothique1, Borgo Santa Maria, Passage du Lamone1, Ligne Rimini1, San Martino-San Lorenzo, San Fortunato, Cesena, Italie 1943-19451, Apeldoorn, Nord-Ouest de l'Europe 19451
- Corée 1951-531
1. translated to French in 1958 from original English awards in 1957.
Victoria Cross recipients
† - Awarded posthumously
A note on the name
Most units of the Canadian Forces have official names in English and in French, but the historic regiments are exceptions, having monolingual names for the sake of tradition. The English name "Royal 22nd Regiment" is often seen, but strictly speaking is incorrect: only the French form is official.
There is also a newspaper named after the "Vandoo" at York University in Canada under the direction of Vanier College students.
[edit] Order of precedence
Regular Force:
Reserve Force:
Preceded by:
Le Régiment de la Chaudière | 4e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment (Chateauguay) | Succeeded by:
6e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment |
Preceded by:
4e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment (Chateauguay) | 6e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment | Succeeded by:
Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal |
Note: The Royal 22e Régiment is last in precedence of Regular Force infantry regiments, and is immediately succeeded by the Governor General's Foot Guards, first in precedence of the Reserve infantry regiments.
