Early history The
6th Battalion Rifles contributed volunteers for the Canadian Contingents during the
South African War. The British Columbia Regiment trained in Canada until January 1942, when it was announced that the
4th Division would become an armoured division. As a result, the unit was re-designated as the 28th Armoured Regiment (The British Columbia Regiment), and its officers and men were sent to England for training. In August 1943, Lieutenant-Colonel D.G. Worthington became the commanding officer of the regiment. In October, the regiment began to receive the
M4 Sherman tanks, gradually replacing the Canadian-made
Ram tanks, which had been in use for training. Following the Allied invasion of Europe on
D-Day, the regiment embarked for France on July 23 and landed in Normandy on July 26. The 28th would return to action only a week later, contributing to the closing of the
Falaise Pocket during
Operation Tractable, which saw the destruction of the
German Seventh Army and the capture of a great number of enemy soldiers and equipment. After the closing of the Falaise Pocket, the regiment participated in the pursuit of retreating German forces into Belgium, as part of the
First Canadian Army. A main objective of the Allied armies in Europe was the capture of major ports in order to ease the considerable logistical burden caused by the stretched supply lines, some of which extended hundreds of miles back to the invasion beaches in Normandy. The capture of a major port facility would allow the Allied armies to regain their momentum for the push into Germany. The port of
Antwerp was selected as the target of the
21st Army Group for this reason. In October, as part of the
Battle of the Scheldt, the regiment, as part of the First Canadian Army, took part in the essential task of clearing out the Scheldt Estuary to make the approach to the port of Antwerp safe for operation. On November 4, units from the
Lake Superior Regiment (LSR) entered the village of
St. Phillipsland and were informed by the civilian population that there were four small
Kriegsmarine vessels docked at the harbour. The following day, a
troop of tanks from C Squadron, together with units from the LSR opened fire while the vessels were docked and unable to escape. The vessels were attacked by the guns from the C Squadron tanks as well as
6-pounder antitank guns and
mortars from the LSR. Three vessels were sunk and a fourth was severely damaged. Captain R. Styffe from the LSR later removed the log from one of the vessels and wrote as a final entry: "Gesunken by Lake Superior Regiment and British Columbia Regiment – Canadian Army." A member of the British Columbia Regiment recovered the
ship's bell from one of the sunken vessels, and it now resides in the Officer's Mess at the Beatty St. Armoury. (One of the vessels sunk was likely AF-92 The Minute Book, an MFP (Marinefahrprahm), a landing craft type vessel of about 153 feet long, equipped to lay mines and armed with two 88 mm guns. The others were likely similar. The plaque on the bell in the Officer's Mess describes the vessel as an "escort".) The regiment finished the war in Germany, after crossing the
Rhine in April 1945. The regiment captured the town of
Neuenhaus and administered it for a brief period. The final action of the war involved crossing the
Kusten Canal on April 17, 1945. At the close of the war, the regiment had lost 108 officers and men killed, and 213 wounded. 105 Sherman tanks, 14
Stuart tanks, and one
Crusader tank had been lost during the course of the war. These losses were the highest suffered by any regiment in the 4th or 5th Armoured Divisions. 14 new battle honours were added to the regiment's
guidon as a result of its service during the
Second World War. On February 1, 1946, the British Columbia Regiment returned to Vancouver, marching to the Beatty St. Armoury under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J.W. Toogood.
Post-war to modern day General Purpose Machine Gun mounted on a
G-Wagon. In April 1946, Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles and the 28th Armoured amalgamated into the 13th Armoured Regiment (The British Columbia Regiment), RCAC. Later, in 1949 the name was again changed, to The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) (13th Armoured Regiment). The regiment continued to train on the M4A2E8 Sherman tank, winning the Wallace Trophy for most efficient Militia unit in 1954, 1955 and 1956. Although the unit did not deploy to Korea as part of the
Korean War, it did contribute volunteers to augment
Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) and the
Royal Canadian Dragoons, whose regiments were sent. Soldiers of the regiment also served in deployments to Germany during the
Cold War. On May 19, 1958, the regiment was redesignated again, becoming The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) (RCAC); the regiment's title dropped "(RCAC)" in 1985, but it remains part of the corps. On February 28, 1965, the regiment's role changed, and it became an
armoured reconnaissance unit. The long-serving Sherman tanks were retired, and the unit converted to the
M38A1 CDN
Jeep. The
Lynx reconnaissance vehicle entered service in the Canadian Army in 1968, to replace the
Ferret armoured car currently serving in the reconnaissance role. The regiment cross-trained its soldiers to use the Lynx so that they could supplement regular army units overseas if necessary. In the 1987, the regiment received the
Bombardier Iltis Jeep to replace the CJ7, itself a stopgap replacement for the aging M38A1, and the unit continued to train in the light reconnaissance role. The Canadian Army began to change the Reserve concept in the late 1990s, into the year 2000. Reservists would now be trained to the equivalent levels of their Regular force counterparts to ensure that a reserve augmentee could better serve in a given role. Under this concept, the regiment continues to train its soldiers to support and augment regular force units whenever required, in addition to being ready to serve locally whenever required. Soldiers of the regiment have served overseas in Canadian
United Nations missions, especially the former
Yugoslavia. The regiment continues to contribute soldiers to the
NATO mission in
Afghanistan, usually attached to Lord Strathcona's Horse or the Royal Canadian Dragoons, operating the
Leopard C2,
Leopard 2A6 or
Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle. In 2004, the regiment retired its Iltis Jeeps, receiving the
Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon Light Utility Vehicle, Wheeled, in the C&R (command and reconnaissance) version. The G-Wagons are built to accept a lightweight
applique armour kit, and are usually armed with either the
C9A1 Light Machine Gun or
C6 General Purpose Machine Gun in a manually operated
turret., October 11, 2008. ==Recognition==