During the Second World War, the Ontario Regiment was part of the 1^st Canadian Army Tank Brigade (1 CATB), which was renamed the 1^st Canadian Armoured Brigade (1 CAB) in August 1943. The Brigade also included the Three Rivers Regiment and the Calgary Regiment as the fighting elements. This Brigade was an independent brigade, meaning that it was not permanently under command of a specific division. The Brigade supported Canadian infantry from July – December 1943, but as of January 1944 exclusively worked with units of the British Army. This unique situation set up the three regiments for a significantly different experience than other units of Canadian Army.

Before we dive into the Second World War, we should go back a few years to lay some groundwork. Canada was slow to make the transition to a mechanized army in the 1930s. After much debate on the future of mechanization, the Ontario Regiment was one of six regiments which were converted to tank battalions in December 1936. After seventy years of being an infantry regiment, the Ontarios were in a new role that had not previously existed in the Canadian Army. It is interesting to note that many of the existing cavalry regiments were not converted at this time. Note to the purists: I am going to use tank / armoured and battalion / regiment interchangeably in this article.

The Canadian Armoured Corps (CAC – the “Royal” prefix was added in 1945) was authorized in August 1940. The Ontario Regiment was part of the new corps which originally consisted of four mobilized regiments and four Militia regiments. 

The Ontario Regiment was mobilized for active service on 1 September 1939. Not all Militia regiments were mobilized that day, but many were. Only four of the ten tank / armoured car battalions were mobilized. The Ontarios were part of the first group. This was two days before Britain declared war and nine days before Canada declared war on Germany.

During the summer of 1940 four regiments arrived at the Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicles Training Centre at Camp Borden. These regiments had only 14 tanks to share among themselves. The situation was somewhat rectified by the arrival of 236 obsolete Renault FT-17 tanks in October 1940. The story of the FT-17 in Ontario Regiment service was documented here: https://tankmuseum.ca/blog-post/the-m1917-in-ontario-regiment-service/. Each regiment was allotted some of the tanks a few days after the vehicles arrived at Borden. The Ontario Regiment was one of the first regiments in the CAC to have any significant number of tanks on issue.

The 1^st Canadian Army Tank Brigade arrived in the UK for their next phase of training on 1 July 1941. It was the first Canadian tank formation arrive in the UK. Within a few days the Ontario Regiment began being issued with brand new Churchill tanks, straight from the Vauxhall Motors factory. The Calgary Regiment and the Three Rivers Regiment were issued with Matilda tanks at this time. A representative from Vauxhall was seconded to the 1 CATB headquarters and the Ontarios became the field testing arm of the tank’s manufacturer. They provided feedback on the Churchill’s performance which led to improvements in subsequent models.

The Ontario Regiment was the first Canadian armoured regiment to receive the Churchill. Churchills were issued to the other two regiments of the Brigade in the autumn of 1941. The units of 1 CATB trained extensively with the Churchill tank until late March of 1943 when they were replaced with Ram II tanks. All the returns were complete by the end of March, with the exception of “B” Squadron of the Ontario Regiment. This squadron had been detached to the School of Infantry at Catterick to support the training there. These tanks were returned to the British in mid-May 1943. Thus, the Ontario Regiment was the first and last user of the Churchill tank in the CAC. No other regiment in the Canadian Armoured Corps was ever issued Churchill tanks. The experience of the Churchill tanks in the Ontario Regiment will be the subject of a future article.

The Rams were short-lived in 1 CATB and the Brigade began receiving M4A4 Sherman tanks (Sherman V in British terminology) in early May 1943. Again, the three regiments of the Brigade were the first in the CAC to receive Sherman tanks. The Brigade used the Sherman in several variants throughout the remainder of the war. Interestingly, the Ontario Regiment was the last regiment of the Canadian Army to use the Sherman tank when the Regiment finally gave up their tanks in 1972 (a newer model than used by the Regiment during the war).

Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, began on 10 July 1943 with 1 CATB being the only Canadian tank units to serve on the island (the 4^th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards were an armoured car regiment). The Three Rivers Regiment led the way on the landings with the Ontarios and the Calgaries landing three days later. This was followed by Operation Baytown, the invasion of mainland Italy on 3 September 1943. In this operation, the Ontarios and the Calgaries landed at approximately the same time, becoming the first Canadian tanks in Italy. 1 CAB remained the only Canadian tankers in the country until the arrival of the 5^th Canadian Armoured Division in December 1944.

Working exclusively with the British Army for most of the war set up the Ontario Regiment to be awarded battle honours not shared by many other Canadian regiments. “Point 59” is only shared by the Carleton & York Regiment and the Royal 22^nd Regiment. The Loyal Edmonton Regiment is the only other Canadian awardee of “Colle d’Anchise”. The same is true for “Aquino”, which only the Calgary Regiment was awarded. There are two battle honours held exclusively by the Ontario Regiment within the Canadian Army: “Sant’Angelo in Teodice” and “Sanfatucchio”.

To summarize, the Ontario Regiment was:

• One of the first group of six regiments to convert to tank (pre-war)
• One of the first group of regiments mobilized in September 1939
• One of the first group of four regiments to be issued tanks in any substantial number
• One of the first three Canadian tanks regiments to arrive in the UK
• First and last regiment to use the Churchill tank in the CAC
• One of first three regiments to be issued the Sherman tank
• One of three CAC tank regiments to serve in Sicily
• One of the first two CAC tank regiments to land in Italy
• Only Canadian awardee of the battle honours “Sant’Angelo in Teodice” and “Sanfatucchio”

All-in-all, the tankers of the 1^st Canadian Armoured Brigade, being part of an independent brigade, experienced the war differently than the other armoured regiments.

Rod Henderson is the Regimental Historian of the Ontario Regiment. He served as a Sergeant in the Regiment and is the author of “Fidelis Et Paratus: A History of The Ontario Regiment (RCAC), 1866-2016”.