Royal 22nd Regiment

The Royal 22nd Regiment, in French and officially (in both French and English usage ) Royal 22e Régiment and colloquially The Van Doos (an anglicized pronunciation of the first two syllables of vingt-deuxième, "22nd" in French), is an infantry regiment of the Canadian Forces. The mostly francophone regiment comprises three Regular Force battalions, two Primary Reserve battalions, and a band, making it the largest regiment in the Canadian Army. The ceremonial home of the regiment is La Citadelle in Quebec City, where the regimental museum is housed. The regimental headquarters 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 as part of the British Army, 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 Regulation 17 in Ontario. In September 1914, French Canadian pharmaceutical entrepreneur Arthur Mignault communicated with Prime Minister Robert Borden, to incite the formation of a solely French Canadian regiment. Mignault offered the government $50,000 to pursue this end. Borden had recently committed his country into the providing of half a million soldiers to the Allied cause, and was just realising how demanding honouring this promise would show. Borden eagerly accepted Mignault's proposal and accordingly, on 14 October 1914, the 22nd Infantry Battalion, ancestor of the Royal Regiment, was brought into existence. Mignault participated in the recruitment campaign, which resulted in a remarkable success; the ranks of the battalion were filled in less than a month. Arthur Mignault is as such considered the founder of the 22nd regiment.

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 20 May 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 Legislative Assembly 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 1 April 1920. Initially the regiment, which was given the guard of the Citadelle of Quebec, was simply the 22nd Regiment, but in June 1921 King George V approved the renaming of it as 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.

During the Cold War the regular battalions of the regiment served, in turn, in West Germany as part of 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, with the 1er Battalion serving permanently from 1967 until the withdrawal in 1993. The regiment also served during the Oka Crisis. 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 22nd Regiment.

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:



In the case of Les Fusiliers du St-Laurent, the battalion designation was in a subsidiary title, but it became nevertheless, administratively, part of the Royal 22nd Regiment. However, in 1968, Les Fusiliers du St-Laurent dropped the subsidiary title, and ended their administrative association with the R22ndR.

Memorials
A stone shaft was erected on the grounds of Royal Military College Saint-Jean on 26 September 1964 to commemorate the founding of the Royal 22nd Regiment (French-Canadian); the regiment trained at Fort Saint-Jean in 1914. The monument lists the regiment's battle honours.

Je me souviens (1989) by André Gauthier (sculptor), a 6 × bronze haut-relief bronze and granite wall memorial, was erected at Place George V in front of the Grande Allée Armoury in Quebec City. Unveiled on November 11, 1989, the sculpture honours the memory of the soldiers from the Royal 22e Régiment who were killed during the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. The sculptor was inspired by A.T.C. Bastiens' painting L'Avance at the Canadian War Museum. The names of soldiers are inscribed in granite on the monument.

There is a group of 28 gravestones of members of the Royal 22nd Regiment who died between 1929 and 1960 in the Notre Dame de Belmont Cemetery in Quebec City, Quebec. Four gravestones, dated 1929, 1935, 1938, 1938 feature a crown, beaver and regimental motto. Seven gravestones, dated 1939, 1941, 1941, 1942, 1942, 1942, 1947 feature the Maple Leaf and Canadian Forces cross. Seven gravestones feature the Canadian Forces cross dated 1954, 1954, 1955, 1955, 1955, 1954, 1960.

Afghanistan
The 3rd Battalion, along with an attached mechanized company from the 1st, provided the basis for the Canadian ISAF contingent in Kabul, Afghanistan, from February to August 2004.

In August 2007 a battle group based on the 3rd Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment returned to Afghanistan, replacing the 2nd Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment in Kandahar province. The battle group was made up of a company from each of the regiment's three regular battalions. It also included combat support and service support from all the units of 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Valcartier, Quebec. There was a reconnaissance squadron from the 12e Régiment blindé du Canada, a composite tank squadron from Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) (with troops from the other two armoured regiments), a battery from the 5th Regiment light artillery du Canada, an engineer squadron from 5 Combat Engineer Regiment. The battle group, awarded the Commander-in-Chief Unit Commendation, was "instrumental in dismantling improvised explosive device networks, re-capturing checkpoints and returning them to Afghan control, enhancing the capacity of Afghan forces and providing guidance on community building and local governance."

The Royal 22nd Regiment also provided about 150 trainers (OMLT) for the three Afghan "Kandaks" serving with them. As well it provided a protection company for the PRT in Kandahar.

The regiment distinguished itself in Kandahar through its determined and successful efforts to establish Afghan police sub-stations, protected by ANA and Canadian presence, in an ever-widening secure zone in the former Taliban home districts of Zhari and Panjawaii. Light infantry elements often fought toe-to-toe with the Taliban, relying heavily on sniper fire and man-portable grenade launchers to gain the edge over the militants. The battle group, and its associated OMLT and PRT elements, had 10 men killed in action during the six-month tour. The many wounded included Captain Simon Mailloux, a Van Doos platoon commander who returned two years later to Kandahar even though his leg had to be amputated.

A second Van Doos battle group, this time based on the 2nd Battalion, deployed to Kandahar from March to November 2009 and was the vanguard of the much-vaunted "key villages" program, wherein Canadian soldiers cleared urban areas of Taliban activity during sweeping combat operations and then installed sub-units permanently in those hamlets, guarding the approaches to Kandahar City. The composition of this battle group was nearly identical to previous incarnations, and it was able to rely heavily on the recently deployed CH-146 Griffon and CH-47 Chinook helicopters to perform a wide variety of airmobile operations, as well as traditional mechanized manoeuvres. The Griffon helicopters proved especially capable at spotting Taliban movements and directing accurate artillery fire on them, preventing Taliban groups from effectively re-infiltrating areas cleared.

Over the course of the seven-month Roto 7, ten soldiers from the battle group were killed in action ("Roto 7" denoting that this was the eighth consecutive Canadian battle group deployment in Kandahar since 2006, as rotations are numbered starting at "0"). An additional five Canadian soldiers, all belonging to the battle group's parent organization, Task Force Kandahar, also died during that period. The vast majority of these soldiers were killed by the Taliban's lethal employment of anti-vehicle or anti-personnel improvised explosive devices.

The final Canadian combat mission began in the fall of 2010 with the 1st Battalion Battle Group (BG) commanded by Lieutant-Colonel Henri St. Louis. One of the main operations taken on by the BG was Operation Baawar beginning in December 2010 featuring a major road project and a strongpoint construction project led by engineers, tanks, and infantry.

Battle honours

 * The War of 1812: Défense du Canada 1812–1815, Châteauguay, Ferme Crysler
 * The Great War: Mont-Sorrel *, Somme 1916 '18, Flers-Courcelette, Thiepval, Les Hauteurs d'Ancre * , Arras 1917 '18, Vimy 1917, Arleux, Scarpe 1917 '18, Côte 70 * , Ypres 1917, Passchendaele, Amiens, Ligne Hindenburg * , Canal du Nord, Cambrai 1918, Poussée de Mons * , France et Flandres 1915–18 *
 * The Second World War: Débarquement en Sicile *, Valguarnera, Adrano, Catenuova, Sicile 1943 * , Débarquement à Reggio * , Potenza, Le Sangro * , Casa Berardi, Torre Mucchia, Cassino II, Ligne Gustav * , Vallée de la Liri * , Ligne Hitler * , Ligne Gothique * , Borgo Santa Maria, Passage du Lamone * , Ligne Rimini * , San Martino-San Lorenzo, San Fortunato, Cesena, Italie 1943–1945 * , Apeldoorn, Nord-Ouest de l'Europe 1945 *
 * Corée 1951–53 *

* Translated to French in 1958 from original English awards in 1957.

Victoria Cross recipients



 * Corporal Joseph Kaeble † – 22nd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force – Neuville-Vitasse, France – 8 June 1918
 * Lieutenant Jean Brillant † – 22nd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force – near Amiens, France – 8 August–9, 1918
 * Major Paul Triquet – Royal 22e Régiment – Casa Berardi, Italy – 14 December 1943

† – Awarded posthumously

Order of precedence
Regular Force:

Reserve Force:

Alliances

 * 🇬🇧 – The Royal Welsh
 * 🇬🇧 – 4th Battalion, Mercian Regiment

Freedom of the City (Military)
The Royal 22e Régiment exercises its Freedom of the City annually in Quebec City on July 3. Canadian cities which have granted Freedom of the City to the Royal 22e Régiment include: Quebec City, Quebec; Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec; Saint-Jérôme, Quebec; Farnham, Quebec; Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec; Drummondville, Quebec and Val-Bélair, Quebec. Foreign cities which have granted Freedom of the City to the Royal 22e Régiment include: Werl, Germany; Lahr, Germany and Ortona, Italy.

Van Doos in popular culture
The Van Doos are the subject of a 2011 National Film Board of Canada documentary Le 22e Régiment en Afghanistan (English: The Van Doos in Afghanistan). The documentary was filmed in Afghanistan in March 2011. On November 9, 2011, the film was previewed for the families of 26 soldiers who have died during their mission in Afghanistan, at a ceremony at the Valcartier base. A commemorative mural by Canadian artist Dave Sopha was also unveiled.

Royal 22nd Regiment Music
The song L'immortel 22ème Canadien-français by Paul Ravennes (music), and Léon Chevalier (words) was published by J.E. Belair, Montreal. The first line is: Gloire au vailland 22ème, a lui la palme de vainqueur; Refrain: Vaillants soldats, vos noms dans notre histoire.
 * Jean F. Pierret, conductor "La Citadelle; la musique du Royal 22e Régiment" (1975 Trans-Canada Musique Service Inc., 7033, route Transcanadienne, Saint-Laurent, Québec H4T 1S2)
 * Victor Falardeau & Jean Parent, conductor "La musique du Royal 22e Régiment : 50 ans d'histoire, 1922-1972" (Québec : Editions Garneau, c1976)
 * Capt. J.P. Armand Ferland, conductor "The Van Doos: the band of the Royal 22e Régiment" (RCA Victor Canada International, PCS-1007)
 * "Recueil de chants du Royal 22e Régiment" (Val-Cartier: s.n., 197-?)