Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

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georgetanksherman
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Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by georgetanksherman » Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:02 am

Greetings, I apologize as I do not know a whole lot about the Canadian Army. But in research of Americans in the RCAF, I found the names of 22 Americans that were involved in the Dieppe Raid (Not the American Ranger Group) under Western Ontario Regiment, found info on several who was assigned to the Essex Scottish Regiment, so my question is, Is the Essex Scottish Regiment a part of Western Ontario Regiment or are they the same ???

Thanks for any and all education on this !

Cheers, George

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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by BFBSM » Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:09 am

George,

The only reference to The Western Ontario Regiment I can find is to a Great War Unit: https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/insign ... nt-Colonel.
Headquarters Military District No.1 April 15th 1918
Western Ontario Regiment
The Western Ontario Regiment was authorized under G.O. 57 of April 15th 1918 with headquarters located in London Ontario, with a single Depot Battalion and the following units under its command; the 1st Battalion, Canadian Garrison Regiment, a Special Service Company, a Cyclist Platoon, a Detachment of Canadian Military Police The authorized badges for all units were the General Service Maple leaf cap and collar badges with distinctive Depot Battalion titles. A number of units adopted their own patterns of badges but these were unofficial and never received sanction from Headquarters. Returned soldiers that had served at the Front and had been repatriated to Canada and employed at Depots were allowed to wear their Overseas Battalion badges.
Judging from the document referenced, I can only surmise that it, as a Territorial Unit, was disbanded after the Great War ended. I can find no reference to its existence in the Second World War. (I may well be incorrect with my surmising).

To answer your question, the Western Ontario Regiment and the Essex Scottish Regiment are not one of the same.

Can you supply details of the reference in which the details are shown?

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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by Temujin » Tue Nov 16, 2021 8:46 am

georgetanksherman wrote:
Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:02 am
Greetings, I apologize as I do not know a whole lot about the Canadian Army. But in research of Americans in the RCAF, I found the names of 22 Americans that were involved in the Dieppe Raid (Not the American Ranger Group) under Western Ontario Regiment, found info on several who was assigned to the Essex Scottish Regiment, so my question is, Is the Essex Scottish Regiment a part of Western Ontario Regiment or are they the same ???

Thanks for any and all education on this !

Cheers, George
George, their were NO Regiments with the name “Western Ontario Regiment”……..what this was, in the newspapers when they posted the daily casualty lists, they listed men in various “location regiments”…….meaning, due to security reasons they did NOT list them by their actual Regiments name, but listed them from where the Regiment was Recruited………so Regiments from in the “WEST” of Ontario were list as “Western Ontario Regiment”………Regiments formed in the “EAST” of Ontario were listed as “Eastern Ontario Regiments”………etc etc………..So it was used for security reasons.

I’ll see which Western Ontario Regiments were on the Dieppe Raid for you and go from their

Here are all the Army Units that took part on the Raid:

2nd Infantry Division

4th Infantry Brigade
• Royal Regiment of Canada
• Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
• Essex Scottish Regiment

6th Infantry Brigade
• Fusiliers Mont-Royal
• Queens Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada
• South Saskatchewan Regiment

5th Infantry Brigade
• Three platoons of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada
• Calgary Highlanders

o Toronto Scottish Regiment (Machine Gun)

o 14th Armoured Regiment (Calgary Regiment)

o Detachment of 3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment

o Detachment of 4th Field Regiment

o Detachments from the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers,

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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by Temujin » Tue Nov 16, 2021 8:59 am

I found a few, and you can see they were spread around different Regiments……..I’ll see what else I can find

The Evening Sun
Baltimore, Maryland
02 Oct 1942, Fri • Page 6
8D388B7D-ABF1-4451-A6DF-19BA87942CB9.jpeg
8D388B7D-ABF1-4451-A6DF-19BA87942CB9.jpeg (203.04 KiB) Viewed 5435 times

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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by Temujin » Tue Nov 16, 2021 9:04 am

The Tipton Daily Tribune
Tipton, Indiana
22 Dec 1942, Tue • Page 1
F24B3FDD-DA8F-49B5-AF06-C6046D57DDD7.jpeg
F24B3FDD-DA8F-49B5-AF06-C6046D57DDD7.jpeg (101.88 KiB) Viewed 5434 times


Clarion-Ledger
Jackson, Mississippi
22 Dec 1942, Tue • Page 10
A3839B00-784A-41B5-A162-2538C362ADC8.jpeg
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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by georgetanksherman » Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:37 pm

Thank You so much, I was confused when I looked at other sites and there was no mention about Western Ontario Regiment, but listed other units, so I was not sure if they all fell under that name or whatever the case may be, I saw it on this sight about a quarter of the way down the page on the left, I was looking up some airmen when I found this listing of some the Army members involved

https://diepperaf.blogspot.com/2014/12/godfrey.html?m=0

And as always, Thank You for the info, You thought I was lost with the R.C.A.F., this has me really scrambling :-) LOL and oh, by the way, you gave me the names of 13 more that I did not have ! :-)

Hope things are well !

Cheers

George

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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by georgetanksherman » Wed Nov 17, 2021 1:24 pm

Temujin,

This also popped up while researching, it was posted here on Wartimes, it also has a listing for the Western Ontario Regiment, is it possible that they used this if they did not know who the casualty was with ?

https://wartimes.ca/wp-content/uploads/ ... Dieppe.pdf

Cheers for any and all help.

George

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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by Temujin » Wed Nov 17, 2021 7:13 pm

georgetanksherman wrote:
Wed Nov 17, 2021 1:24 pm
Temujin,

This also popped up while researching, it was posted here on Wartimes, it also has a listing for the Western Ontario Regiment, is it possible that they used this if they did not know who the casualty was with ?

https://wartimes.ca/wp-content/uploads/ ... Dieppe.pdf

Cheers for any and all help.

George
No, the designation Western Ontario Regiment, or Saskatchewan Regiment or Eastern Ontario Regiment or Manitoba Regiment was used strictly for Security reasons. They “knew” which Regiment each man was part of……for example the ACTUAL Regiment on the Dieppe Raid from Saskatchewan was the “South Saskatchewan Regiment” etc etc. Regiments from Saskatchewan during WW2 were the South Saskatchewan Regiment, the North Saskatchewan Regiment, the Regina Rifles, Saskatoon Light Infantry. At the beginning of the war the newspapers would publish the “real regiment names”, but then that was stopped as it gave away the Regiments or units involved to the Axis forces.
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Re: Questions about Western Ontario Regiment

Post by georgetanksherman » Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:41 pm

Temujin, that's kinda what I started thinking, this afternoon when I started to look up these guys to verify where they were from, a few actually had stated what unit they were actually with, so I was able to put them with the actual Units, the others at least I know Who, Where they are from, and that they were in the Canadian Army, between yesterday and today, with your help, I have found another 63 men and 2 women in the WAC's, I am sure like the R.C.A.F., there are a lot more out there to be found

Appreciate the help and the info, being Air Force, not really up on Army and Navy stuff !

Cheers

George

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