Miles From Our Home ORBAT thread

[pyeknu]

Now, the first of the Canadian Army's three armoured brigades as the Army returns to Camp Borden...

4 CANADIAN ARMOURED BRIGADE GROUP

4 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group Headquarters (4 CABG HQ)
    Brigade Group Headquarters - MacLaren Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
7th Canadian Mounted Rifles (7 CMR)
    Regiment Headquarters - Elmsley Barracks, MEAFORD, Ontario
    "A" Squadron
    "B" Squadron
    "C" Squadron
    "D" Squadron
    Support Squadron
3rd Canadian Mounted Rifles (3 CMR)
    Regiment Headquarters - Mouquet Farm Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
    "A" Squadron
    "B" Squadron
    "C" Squadron
    "D" Squadron
    Support Squadron
4th Canadian Mounted Rifles (4 CMR)
    Regiment Headquarters - Holmes Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
    "A" Squadron
    "B" Squadron
    "C" Squadron
    "D" Squadron
    Support Squadron
32nd (Georgian) Armoured Artillery Regiment, RCA (32 AAR RCA)
    Regiment Headquarters - Crerar Barracks, MEAFORD, Ontario
    121 Battery
    134 Battery
    138 Battery
    208 Battery
    332 Headquarters and Services Battery
1st Battalion, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada (1 QOR OF C)
    Battalion Headquarters - De Wind Barracks, TORONTO (NORTH YORK), Ontario
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
4 Combat Engineer Regiment (4 CER)
    Regiment Headquarters - Shaw Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
    141 Armoured Squadron
    142 Armoured Squadron
    143 Armoured Squadron
    144 Combat Diver Squadron
    145 Support Squadron
    148 Administration Squadron
700 Signal Squadron (700 SIG SQN)
    Squadron Headquarters - MacLaren Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
4 Service Battalion (4 SVC BN)
    Battalion Headquarters - MacLaren Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
    Transport Company
    Supply Company
    Maintenance Company
    Administration Company

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

104 "Township of Essa" (Hermit) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (104 THS) (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)
    Squadron Headquarters - McLeod House, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
4 Field Ambulance (4 FD AMB) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Battalion Headquarters - Thompson Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario
    Ambulance Company
    Surgical Company
    Medical Support Company
    Administration Company
4 Military Police Company (4 MP COY) (detached from 2 Military Police Regiment, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Company Headquarters - MacLaren Barracks, ESSA (BORDEN), Ontario

Originally formed in the 1950s to serve as Canada's forward brigade in Germany to deal with the threat of the Soviet Union, 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group was withdrawn from Europe in 1993 and disbanded, though several of its composite units would remain on active service.  The brigade itself wouldn't be reformed until after the Shift, when it was made one of the French-speaking formations of Second Canadian Division.  Re-adopting the maple leaf-and-NATO star badge that had been worn by members of 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in the latter years of the Cold War, the formation would fight its way through France, the Low Countries and Germany before hostilities were concluded and troops would be allowed to return to Canada.

Even before the troops returned, it had been decided by the leaders of the Canadian Army that the post-war version of 4 CMBG would be converted into an armoured force meant to effective perpetuate the Fourth Canadian Division (Armoured) that arose from Ontario to fight overseas.  Because of that and because of the lack of real training areas that were controlled by the Army, it was decided that the new 4 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group would be based out of CFB Borden just northwest of Toronto.  This sprawling field of territory in the southwest section of Simcoe County had been a training base for both the Army and the Air Force since the Great War and had been host to Canada's newborn armoured forces in World War Two IOTL; the school for tankers would be based in Borden until 1970 and the shift of all major Army trades training to Gagetown.  Thus, it was seen as only right to have the new 4 CABG take up quarters at Borden, with detached elements basing themselves not just at Camp Meaford on the shores of Georgian Bay but at the reactivated CFB Toronto at the Downsview Airport in old North York.

As the three separate locations were converted and upgraded to take in the potential influx of new troops, the leaders of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps found themselves facing a dilemma concerning which Militia regiments would be providing the tank units for the peacetime brigade.  Given that the trend when it came to Regular Force units to embrace national in lieu of regional or local titles was still prevalent, it was eventually decided that the new full-time regiments would revise the titles of the various units of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, a pre-Great War group of effectively dragoon (mounted infantry) regiments that later became the ancestors of some of the more storied units of the RCAC, including both the Royal Canadian Dragoons and Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians).  To that end, seven returning tank regiments from the overseas forces of First Canadian Army were picked out to remain on active duty, but re-badge as reborn regiments of the CMRs.  Three of them would be assigned to 4 CABG, with two regiments in Borden itself and one at the Meaford training grounds.

The senior of the three new regiments would be the 7th Canadian Mounted Rifles, which would be based at Elmsley Barracks near the headquarters of the just-renamed II Canadian Corps Training Centre at Camp Meaford.  The regiment itself had been formed after the Shift as the active wing of the 1st Hussars from London.  This came about because of what happened to the original 7 CMR during the Great War.  Formed in late 1914 by the-then Governor General's Body Guard (one of the ancestral units of the Governor General's Horse Guards), the regiment would be disbanded and broken up while still in Canada, with many of its personnel shifted over to the integral cavalry squadron of the original Second Canadian Division (which were formed from the 1st Hussars).  Thus, the modern 7 CMR would maintain affiliations with both the GGHG and the 1st Hussars and (by virtue of its original establishment date) be made the senior of the Canadian Mounted Rifles units maintained post-war.  The place where the new regiment would be based out of at the Meaford training grounds was named in tribute to MGen James Harold Elmsley, a veteran of both the Governor General's Body Guard and the Royal Canadian Dragoons who served in the Boer War and the Great War, not to mention commanding the Canadian Siberian Expedition after the end of the Great War.

Next on the order list would be the 3rd Canadian Mounted Rifles, one of two regiments to be quartered at Camp Borden itself.  Said regiment was formed from the post-Shift active element of the 19th Alberta Dragoons from Edmonton, which served as an element of the Sixth Canadian Division (Armoured) in the Low Countries and Germany during the latter phases of "round two" of the Second World War.  While originally meant to be based out west as a possible fighting element of 6 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group, it was decided to base the reformed 3 CMR at Borden and make the unit part of 4 CABG.  Of course, the connections between 3 CMR and the Alberta Dragoons were maintained, as was a link between the Regular Force regiment and the South Alberta Light Horse; the original 3rd Regiment of the Canadian Mounted Rifles had been established in Medicine Hat in the early stages of the Great War before being sent overseas to be broken up as reinforcements for infantry battalions then serving in the Third Canadian Division.  The post-war regiment's base of operations, Mouquet Farm Barracks, was named in tribute to the Battle of Mouquet Farm fought in the mid-summer of 1916 by elements of that division, including four converted cavalry regiments of the Canadian Mounted Rifles.

The last of the tank units assigned to the brigade group would be the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles, also headquartered at Camp Borden.  The regiment had been formed from the active element of the 9th Mississauga Horse, which had been originally formed in 1903 as old Peel County's resident cavalry unit, serving as a separate regiment until it was amalgamated with the Governor General's Body Guard in the 1936 Militia reforms, creating the modern Governor General's Horse Guards.  The post-Shift active element of the Mississauga Horse would serve as one of the tank regiments in the Ninth Canadian Division (Armoured) for the last phase of "round two" of World War Two, thus ensuring the inaugural generation of the new 4 CMR would be effectively freshly trained on both the Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 main battle tanks.  Said regiment would maintain ties with both the GGHG and the Mississauga Horse; its original Great War incarnation had been formed by the Governor General's Body Guard and actually served as one of the four infantry battalions in the Third Canadian Division's 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade throughout that conflict.  Marking that affiliation would be the name of the barracks assigned to the modern 4 CMR; Holmes Barracks got its name from Sgt Thomas William Holmes, a native of Owen Sound and winner of the Victoria Cross while serving with the 4th Battalion CMR during the Passchendaele campaign in 1917.

Assigned as the brigade group's gunners would be a totally brand-new field unit of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery.  The 32nd Armoured Artillery Regiment, RCA was established from drafts drawn from Fourth Canadian Division's four field units of gunners, then amalgamated and allowed to set up quarters close to where 7 CMR was based at the Meaford ranges.  The barracks themselves were named after Canada's highest-ranking general from World War Two IOTL, Gen Henry Duncan Graham "Harry" Crerar, who commanded the First Canadian Army during the final years of "round one" of that conflict; he had served as an artillery officer in the Great War, advancing to the rank of lieutenant colonel by the end of that conflict.  The 32nd Regiment takes its number from a World War Two IOTL unit that was established in Toronto as a reserve artillery regiment in 1942, being converted to a self-propelled artillery unit after that war and serving until disbandment in 1954.  The new regiment would absorb the active gunners from 121 Battery (from the 40th Field Artillery Regiment in Fort Frances), 134 and 208 Batteries (from the 42nd Target Acquisition Artillery Regiment in Toronto) and 138 Battery (from the 45th Air Defence Artillery Regiment, based out of the town of Meaford); naturally, the like-numbered Militia batteries would get the "2/" (read "second of the...") prefix title to prevent confusion.  The 32nd Regiment would get the regional title "Georgian" assigned to it to mark its general location.

The formation's infantry element was filled by the first battalion of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada.  Like the Black Watch, the Queen's Own had two active battalions operational during the early years of the Cold War, serving until reduction to nil strength in 1970.  After "round two" of World War Two ended and the needs of the post-war Canadian Army were set out, it was decided to allow the Queen's Own to maintain two Regular Force battalions.  Fortunately, the first battalion had been active as a parachute/air assault unit of the Seventh Canadian Division in the Low Countries and Germany.  However, it was decided that the post-war first battalion of the Queen's Own would be attached to 4 CABG as mechanized infantry; the second battalion would be the airborne force of the post-war 7 Canadian Brigade Group (Light).  Thus, the wartime first battalion of the Queen's Own would be re-numbered as the second battalion and based at Suffield in Alberta; the post-war first battalion would be formed by the renaming of the active battalion of the Royal Regina Rifles, which had served as part of the Third Canadian Division throughout "round two" of World War Two.  This would help forge bonds not just between the Queen's Own and the Royal Reginas, but between the former regiment and ALL other rifles and fusilier units based across the nation.  To mark a more proper home station for the Queen's Own, the first battalion would take up quarters at the reactivated CFB Toronto by the Downsview Airport in old North York.  The area where the battalion would be based, De Wind Barracks, got its name from 2Lt Edmund De Wind, a posthumous winner of the Victoria Cross while serving with the 15th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles during the 1918 Spring Offensive; while a native of Northern Ireland, De Wind would migrate to Canada and serve with the Queen's Own Rifles prior to the start of the Great War, then join the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a private until shifting to the British Army in late 1917.

The formation's engineers would be raised from the wartime 4e Régiment du Génie de Combat, which was one of the three French-language units of the Royal Canadian Engineers assigned to Second Canadian Division that fought throughout all of "round two" of the Second World War.  Said regiment would remain on strength even as it converted into an English-language unit and took up headquarters at Borden; it's new home, Shaw Barracks, was named after WO Robert Sidney Shaw, who served in the RCE during the Cold War, including the original 4 Combat Engineer Regiment in Germany.  The regiment would also be given a special tasking to provide a squadron of combat divers that could be deployed throughout II Canadian Corps' zone of operations as well as overseas; this reflected the maintenance of such things as the explosive ordnance disposal group forming part of 4 CER's sister unit in Petawawa.  Immediately after the war, the regiment would contribute to the completion of King's Highway 426, which was an expressway connecting Owen Sound (and the nearby Meaford ranges) to Barrie (and CFB Borden itself), where the new highway would connect to King's Highway 400 for travel to Toronto beyond.  Said highway was one of several new thoroughfares being built in Canada specifically designed to hold up to tank travel.

All the remaining elements of the brigade group would take up quarters at the newly-constructed MacLaren Barracks sited close to the area where Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot Detachment Angus was located north of the base's urban area.  The barracks was named in tribute to LCol D.H. MacLaren, who commanded one of the first two units to occupy the grounds of the new training camp during the Great War, the 157th Battalion (Simcoe Foresters) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (today perpetuated by the Grey and Simcoe Foresters of Owen Sound and Barrie).  Also co-located with the brigade group headquarters, 700 Signal Squadron and 4 Service Battalion was the military police company assigned to 4 CABG from 2 Military Police Regiment.  The brigade group's field ambulance battalion would take up quarters close to the Canadian Forces Health Services Training Centre; the area would be named Thompson Barracks in honour of Pte Richard Rowland Thompson, who was given a beautiful scarf knitted by Queen Victoria herself for exceptional bravery in action during the Second Boer War.  As for the formation's affiliated tactical helicopter squadron, such would be adopted by the Township of Essa (on whose territory the main part of CFB Borden is located) and was designated the "Hermit Squadron" in honour of a tropical relative to the hummingbird; 104 Squadron would take up quarters at the Borden Heliport vacated by 400 Squadron post-war, with its home designated as McLeod House in honour of Lt Alan Arnett McLeod, a winner of the Victoria Cross during the Great War who flew for the Royal Flying Corps after being trained in Toronto.

Next:  Québec's senior Army formation returns to Valcartier and Ville de Québec...!

[pyeknu]

And now, the Army's senior brigade in la Belle Province...

5e GROUPE-BRIGADE MÉCHANISÉ DU CANADA

Quartier-Général de la 5e Groupe-Brigade Méchanisé du Canada (QG 5e GBMC)
    Quartier-Général de la Groupe-Brigade - Caserne Giffard, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
12e Régiment Blindé du Canada (12e RBC)
    Quartier-Général du Régiment - Caserne Allard, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    Escadron "A"
    Escadron "B"
    Escadron "C"
    Escadron "D"
    Escadron d'Appui
5e Régiment d'Artillerie à Cheval Royal du Canada (5e RÉGT ACRC)
    Quartier-Général du Régiment - Caserne Dallaire, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    Batterie "Q"
    Batterie "R"
    Batterie "V"
    Batterie "X"
    295e Batterie de Commandement et Services
1re Bataillon, Le Royal 22e Régiment (1re R22eR)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon - La Citadelle, VILLE DE QUÉBEC, Québec
    Compagnie "A"
    Compagnie "B"
    Compagnie "C"
    Compagnie "D"
    Compagnie "D" (Armes)
    Compagnie "F" (Appui)
1re Bataillon, Les Voltigeurs de Québec (1re VOLTIGEURS)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon - Caserne de Salaberry, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    Compagnie "A"
    Compagnie "B"
    Compagnie "C"
    Compagnie "D"
    Compagnie "E" (Armes)
    Compagnie "F" (Appui)
2e Bataillon, Le Royal 22e Régiment (2e R22eR)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon - Caserne Triquet, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    Compagnie "A"
    Compagnie "B"
    Compagnie "C"
    Compagnie "D"
    Compagnie "E" (Armes)
    Compagnie "F" (Appui)
5e Régiment du Génie de Combat (5e RGC)
    Quartier-Général du Régiment - Caserne Hamel, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    151e Escadron Blindé
    152e Escadron de Génie
    153e Escadron du Génie
    155e Escadron d'Appui
    156e Escadron de Plongeurs de Combat
    158e Escadron de Commandement et de Services
711e Escadron des Transmissions (711e ESC TRANS)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron - Caserne Giffard, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
5e Bataillon des Services (5e BON SVC)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon - Caserne Giffard, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    Compagnie de Transport
    Compagnie d'Approvisionnement
    Compagnie de Maintenance
    Compagnie de Commandement et des Services

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

105e (Bec-en-Faucille) Escadron Tactique d'Hélicoptères "Ville de Shannon" (105e ETH) (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron - Maison Lecomte, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
5e Ambulance de Campagne (5e AMB C) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon - Caserne Giffard, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    Compagnie d'Ambulance
    Compagnie de Chirurgie
    Compagnie d'Appui Médicale
    Compagnie d'Administration
5e Compagnie de Police Militaire (5e CIE PM) (detached from 5e Régiment de Police Militaire, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Quartier-Général de Compagnie - Caserne Giffard, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec

The 5e Groupe-Brigade Méchanisé du Canada was one of Canada's three active brigades at the time of the Shift, having been first established in 1968 as a way of allowing more French-Canadian participation in the military; this would see the disbandment of its sister brigade based out of Gagetown a couple years later as that base was effectively transformed into the main training station for the then-Force Mobile Command as a whole.  After the Shift, the formation was instantly called up for duty as part of the First Canadian Mechanized Division, fighting all the way from France through the Low Countries into Germany itself, giving an excellent accounting of itself and engineering a great amount of pride within Québec as a whole, a province traditionally known to not really care for military adventures abroad as the population's reaction to the hideous casualties of the Great War and the Second World War IOTL demonstrated loudly.  Thus, when the brigade was detached from First Division and allowed to return to barracks, seeing to its reconstitution was a priority at Canadian Army headquarters in Ottawa.

Unlike its sister pre-Shift Regular Force brigade groups, 5e GBMC survive the post-war shakeup of the Canadian Army relatively well, only losing one battalion to the newly-constituted 8e Groupe-Brigade Légère du Canada to be established at the old RCAF base at Saint-Hubert near Montréal.  Naturally, a brigade raised from the Militia would be slotted into the gap left behind by 3e Bataillon of le Royal 22e Régiment...and much to the delight of many Québécois, that unit was the active battalion of les Voltigeurs de Québec, a regiment whose history effectively dates back to les Voltigeurs Canadiens, a regiment of volunteer infantry that was raised to help defend then-Lower Canada during the War of 1812.  The post-war 1re Bataillon of les Voltigeurs de Québec would help honour that history by taking up new quarters at Caserne de Salaberry, which was named in honour of two generations of the same family who were involved with both the original and modern Voltigeurs, LCol Charles-Michel d'Irumberry de Salaberry (who was the man who formed and commanded the original Voltigeurs against the Americans) and his son LCol Charles-René-Léonidas d'Irumberry de Salaberry (the first commanding officer of the modern Voltigeurs de Québec).  Since the battalion had gained much experience as part of the Second Canadian Mechanized Division's Fourth Canadian Mechanized Brigade, the inclusion of the "ennobled" element of les Voltigeurs didn't cause much of a disruption within 5e GBMC post-war.

Naturally, the formation was dominated by the two remaining battalions of le Royal 22e Régiment who had served to one extent or another in the area of Ville de Québec since the regiment's foundation in 1920 as a continuation of the famous 22nd Battalion (French Canadian) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force from the Great War.  One small change was enacted, though.  It was decided to allow the 1re Bataillon to take up quarters at La Citadelle (the traditional Québec residence of the Canadian monarch and his vice-regal representative, the Governor General) while the 2e Bataillon would shift quarters up to the Valcartier camp, thus allowing the famous fortress overlooking the old town of Canada's oldest city to become the true home station of the Vandoos.  Fortunately, the 2e Bataillon wouldn't feel too out of sorts being moved out of their old barracks and shifted onto the base; the new barracks set up for that unit would be named Caserne Triquet, after BGen Paul Triquet, the only winner of the Victoria Cross from Québec during World War Two IOTL, said award given in response to the attack on Casa Berardi during the Moro River Campaign in 1943 when Triquet was a captain and the officer commanding Compagnie "C" of the Vandoos' active battalion.

Of course, other sectors of Garnison Valcartier would be designated as new barracks for the various units of 5e GBMC in following the same trend seen at Edmonton, Petawawa, Gagetown and Borden.  For the armoured fist of the formation, the quarters set up for 12e Régiment Blindée du Canada was designated Caserne Allard; this area was named in tribute to Gen Jean Victor Allard, who was Chief of the Defence Staff at the time of Unification of the Forces, when the Regular Force element of the 12e RBC was first established in Valcartier.  The gunners of the brigade group would see their quarters designated as Caserne Dallaire, which is named in tribute to the most well-known gunner of the modern era, LGen the Honourable Roméo Antonius Dallaire, a former member of the regiment and the man who commanded Canada's peacekeepers in location during the Rwanda Genocide in the mid-1990s; this would see the home of the recently-renamed 5e Régiment d'Artillerie à Cheval Royal du Canada the first barracks named after a living person.  The engineers would return and take up quarters at Caserne Hamel, which was named after LCol Jacques Hamel, a former member of 5e Régiment du Génie de Combat who would rise to the position of deputy commander of the unit as well as serve in many staff positions at Army headquarters both in Saint-Hubert and Ottawa.  The formation's attached tactical helicopter squadron would take over the quarters once used by 430e Escadron before the Shift; the newly-commissioned 105e Escadron would be adopted by the neighbouring town of Shannon and be quartered at Maison Lecomte, which is named after the man who also had the Valcartier heliport named in his honour, W/C J.H.L. "Joe" Lecomte.  All the other units of the brigade group and its affiliated field ambulance battalion and military police company would be seen as residents of Caserne Giffard, which was named in honour of Robert Giffard, on whose old private estate in the New French seigneurie of Saint-Gabriel the base itself was established in the first year of the Great War.

As for the brigade group's mission post-war, it would become a fully mechanized force, including having tanks based at Garnison Valcartier; before the Shift, Escadron "C" of 12e Régiment Blindé du Canada was co-located at Gagetown with "C" Squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons to serve as 5e GBMC's only force of main battle tanks.  With that, one squadron of 5e Régiment du Génie de Combat would convert to an armoured engineer force, complete with the Titan bridgelayer and Trojan engineering variation of the Challenger 2 main battle tank; much to the surprise of many at Canadian Army headquarters in Ottawa, the tankers of 12e RBC took well to the British-designed tank in lieu of the German-designed Leopard 2 when Canadian-built replicas began reequipping the combat forces of First Canadian Army in the latter phases of "round two" of the Second World War.  To permit the travel of main battle tanks down the major thoroughfares of Ville de Québec, various units of the Royal Canadian Engineers would join with the provincial government in upgrading Autoroute 573 (which leads from the base grounds to Pont Pierre-Laporte over the Saint Lawrence River) and other local expressways to take the travel of Challenger 2 main battle tanks and their derivatives.  Along the way, a new squadron would be raised within 5e RGC, composed of combat divers; this would allow the brigade group to provide that particular service to all of IIIe Corps Canadien across Québec and the Atlantic provinces.

Next:  Canada's second armoured brigade musters on the Saskatchewan prairies!

[pyeknu]

Now, back out to I Canadian Corps' territory as the Dundurn Magazine plays host to a tonne of tanks...

6 CANADIAN ARMOURED BRIGADE GROUP

6 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group Headquarters (6 CABG HQ)
    Brigade Group Headquarters - Dumont Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
15th Canadian Light Horse (15 CLH)
    Regiment Headquarters - Currie Barracks, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
    "A" Squadron
    "B" Squadron
    "C" Squadron
    "D" Squadron
    Support Squadron
14th Canadian Hussars (14 CH)
    Regiment Headquarters - Sader Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
    "A" Squadron
    "B" Squadron
    "C" Squadron
    "D" Squadron
    Support Squadron
1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (1 CMR)
    Regiment Headquarters - Mount Sorrel Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
    "A" Squadron
    "B" Squadron
    "C" Squadron
    "D" Squadron
    Support Squadron
48th (Rupert's Land) Armoured Artillery Regiment, RCA (48 AAR RCA)
    Regiment Headquarters - Roberts Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
    60 Battery
    64 Battery
    101 Battery
    147 Battery
    348 Headquarters and Services Battery
1st Battalion, The Royal Winnipeg Rifles (1 R WIN RIF)
    Battalion Headquarters - Kennedy Barracks, WINNIPEG, Manitoba
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
6 Combat Engineer Regiment (6 CER)
    Regiment Headquarters - Wagner Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
    161 Armoured Squadron
    162 Armoured Squadron
    163 Armoured Squadron
    164 Bridge Laying Squadron
    165 Support Squadron
    168 Administration Squadron
738 Signal Squadron (738 SIG SQN)
    Squadron Headquarters - Dumont Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
6 Service Battalion (6 SVC BN)
    Battalion Headquarters - Dumont Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
    Transport Company
    Supply Company
    Maintenance Company
    Administration Company

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

106 "Rural Municipality of Dundurn" (Sabrewing) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (106 THS) (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)
    Squadron Headquarters - McEwen House, MOOSE JAW RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 161, Saskatchewan
6 Field Ambulance (6 FD AMB) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Battalion Headquarters - Dumont Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
    Ambulance Company
    Surgical Company
    Medical Support Company
    Administration Company
6 Military Police Company (6 MP COY) (detached from 1 Military Police Regiment, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Company Headquarters - Dumont Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan

Camp Dundurn in the middle of the prairies of Saskatchewan close to Saskatoon has always been something of a backwater when it came to Army training areas.  While it had risen in importance during World War Two IOTL as a tank training centre (one that had been shifted from Borden of all places in the early part of the war), its use was degraded to a simple Militia training zone by the time of the latter years of the Cold War after Unification.  Administratively, the grounds became a detachment of CFB Moose Jaw at the time the modern Canadian Forces were being brought together in the mid-1960s, that lasting until 1988 when the camp was switched to the control of CFB Winnipeg.  Its primary lodger unit was the Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot Dundurn, which was the military's largest source of munitions for the longest time, supplying both the Army and the Air Force with all the wonderfully necessary things that made use the soldiers and airmen could survive a second go-around with the Nazis.  Even better, much to the joy of the people of the namesake town and rural municipality (the Western term for a township as Saskatchewan doesn't have counties) close to the base, CFAD Dundurn became the military's primary munitions manufacturing base, with companies such as Raytheon and Bristol setting up production plants on the grounds to ensure the expanding Forces would be well-supplied with everything from bullets to missiles to beat the Nazis all the way down to the bedrock.

One would understand this expectation of many in the Dundurn area when war came to an end:  That CFAD Dundurn would go back to being a minor support camp for the Militia and the main munitions dump for the Armed Forces as a whole.

One could then understand the sheer shock locals felt when the news came down from Canadian Army Headquarters:  "We're basing a tank brigade at Dundurn."

And so it began...

The post-war 6 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group would be condensed together from all the active elements of the Sixth Canadian Division (Armoured) once it was repatriated back to Canada in the wake of "round two" of World War Two against the Nazis; even if the brigade had the number of a formation of the Second Canadian Mechanized Division, it wouldn't be a French-language unit as it would primarily take up quarters in a mostly English-speaking province on the Canadian prairies.  The choice of locating the brigade in Saskatchewan was intelligent; the Prairie provinces was excellent tank country all around for both training and home defence purposes (given the sheer distance socially between up-time Canada and down-time America, it was just being prudent in the end).  It wouldn't take much to upgrade and build new bridges to take on the weight of Leopard 2s and Challenger 2s on the roadways; even more, the armoured formation would have a dedicated squadron of bridge layers within its constituent engineer regiment, one that would also be busy helping the local highway administrations do the necessary upgrades on major thoroughfares such as Saskatchewan Highway 11 (the Louis Riel Trail) that connected Prince Albert with Saskatoon and Regina, not to mention the two branches of the Trans-Canada Highway (Highways 1 and 16) crossing the province.  While one armoured regiment would be based at CFB Suffield in southeast Alberta, the brigade group's infantry battalion would have quarters at CFB Winnipeg in Manitoba and the attached tactical helicopter squadron would be based at CFB Moose Jaw, 6 CABG would provide a concentrated and heavy armoured fist for I Canadian Corps for all sorts of potential emergencies.

Lead among the armoured regiments would be the 15th Canadian Light Horse, which would be based at Currie Barracks in Suffield and be the Challenger unit of the brigade group.  The regiment would take up the effective foundation name of the modern South Alberta Light Horse and would be the effective renamed active element of that regiment; this was done to maintain the theme of using national titles for Regular Force units whenever possible.  The post-Shift active element of the South Albertas had fought as an element of Third Canadian Mechanized Division through the Low Countries and Germany, though tankers in the post-war version of that unit would have to get used to being part of a dedicated armoured brigade instead of providing tank support to a mechanized infantry formation.  Naturally, the barracks taken over by the new 15 CLH would be named after the most famous soldier of the SALH's World War Two IOTL incarnation, LCol David Vivian Currie, who (as noted before) won the Victoria Cross during the early days of the Normandy campaign in 1944.  Even better, the 15 CLH would share Currie Barracks with its effective sister infantry unit, the first battalion of the South Alberta Regiment tasked to form part of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group; this would allow both units to exercise together when there just wouldn't be enough time or funds to allow shifting of units to the training grounds of Wainwright (or shifting 1 CMBG and 6 CABG down to Suffield) for intensive field exercises.

Next in the brigade group's playbook of tank regiments would be the 14th Canadian Hussars, which was formed after the Shift as part of the famous "Ghost Brigade" of the Sixth Canadian Division (Armoured)'s 17 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group, all of which had been composed of units that had been on the Supplementary Order of Battle before the transition from 2018 to 1939.  With a core of experienced tankers trained in both the Leopard 2, the Cougar C2 armoured car and the Coyote reconnaissance vehicle, the post-war incarnation of the 14th Hussars would take up quarters at the newly-constructed Sader Barracks at Camp Dundurn; said quarters were named in honour of the late Capt Jack Sader, who served as part of the regiment's World War Two IOTL incarnation (the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment) and would later become the honorary lieutenant colonel of the Saskatchewan Dragoons.  Such an association would allow the 14th Hussars to forge a bond of affiliation with the Saskatchewan Dragoons based in Moose Jaw, which is not so far from where the Militia Hussars are quartered in Swift Current.

The final tank unit of the brigade group would be yet another regiment that could trace its ancestry back to the original Canadian Mounted Rifles that often provided the only mounted attack force on the Canadian prairies in the years after the Northwest Rebellion of 1865.  The original 1st Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles had been formed in Brandon during the Great War, originally serving as a cavalry unit before converting to infantry and fighting as part of the Third Canadian Division's 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade for the remainder of the war; said battalion would eventually be perpetuated by the North Saskatchewan Regiment of Saskatoon.  When the Shift happened and the need for more tank regiments was required, volunteer drafts from the North Saskatchewans would train as tankers and help form the newest incarnation of that regiment's ancestral cavalry unit, the 16th/22nd Saskatchewan Horse.  Said unit would be assigned to the Tenth Canadian Mechanized Division, which wouldn't be deployed before war's end, so it was decided to keep the unit on active service, though re-designated the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles; this would ironically make 1 CMR the junior-most ranking Regular Force unit of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps!  Once peacetime was declared, the new regiment would take up quarters at Mount Sorrel Barracks, named in tribute to the Battle of Mount Sorrel in the early summer of 1916.

Another new unit would be raised to form the brigade group's gunners.  Since the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery only had 24 lettered batteries available to use with its six regiments, it was decided to reform old anti-armour units to serve as the armoured artillery elements of the post-war Army's three tank brigades.  Joining 6 CABG would be the 48th Armoured Artillery Regiment, RCA.  The regiment's ancestral organization was first formed in 1946 in Portage la Prairie near Winnipeg from the amalgamation of a reserve reconnaissance regiment of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps and a reserve battery of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, serving as the local anti-amour force for Military District No. 10 until it was reduced to one battery in 1954, that unit serving as part of the 26th Field Artillery Regiment until being reduced to nil strength in 1970.  After the Shift and "round two" of the Second World War, the active elements of the Sixth Canadian Division's two armoured artillery units (the 5th British Columbia Field Artillery Regiment and the 39th Field Artillery Regiment) were amalgamated as the reborn 48th Regiment, to be quartered at Roberts Barracks at Dundurn; the new home of the unit would be named after an (in)famous gunner who held high command during World War Two IOTL, MGen John Hamilton Roberts, commander of Second Canadian Division in the disastrous Dieppe Raid in 1942.  The four batteries of the new regiment would take numbers from the 22nd Air Defence Artillery Regiment (60 Battery), the 53rd Field Artillery Regiment (64 Battery), the 26th Field Artillery Regiment (The Manitoba Rangers) (101 Battery) and the 39th Field Artillery Regiment (147 Battery); naturally, the Militia batteries would get the "2/" prefix to their numbers to mark their affiliation and their host regiments would be seen as the primary place for Militia augmentation to the 48th Regiment whenever required.  The new regiment would get the regional title "Rupert's Land" in honour of the vast swath of territory once controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company that would help form Saskatchewan and Manitoba among other parts of Canada after Confederation.

To serve as the formation's infantry force would be the mobilized battalion of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, which had served as part of Third Canadian Mechanized Division throughout most of "round two" of the Second World War in the Low Countries and Germany.  While there was hope for the first battalion of the North Saskatchewan Regiment to get the chance to serve with the Red Lily Province's resident brigade group, it was decided to keep that battalion as a light infantry unit as part of 7 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) while the first battalion of the Little Black Devils of Winnipeg would remain as mechanized infantry and serve with 6 CABG.  Of course, such an affiliation didn't mean that the Manitoba unit would have to move to Dundurn to be with the rest of its brigade.  As a sort of reciprocal agreement with the Royal Canadian Air Force - which had been in nominal charge of Camp Dundurn since Unification; naturally, the camp had become a proper Canadian Forces base after the Shift - the first battalion of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles would be based at CFB Winnipeg, taking quarters at the newly-commissioned Kennedy Barracks close to the headquarters of 1 Canadian Air Division; said barracks was named in tribute to the regiment's first commanding officer, LCol William Nassau Kennedy, who would later serve as the second mayor of the city of Winnipeg.  While the old grounds of Fort Osborne Barracks on Kenaston Boulevard in Winnipeg's South Tuxedo neighbourhood was considered to be reactivated as an active barracks again, the needs of the various tribes of the Treaty One First Nations (who had title claim on the property) precluded same.

To finally round out the combat forces of the brigade, 6 Combat Engineer Regiment would be reformed at the newly-commissioned Wagner Barracks at Camp Dundurn; said base would be named in honour of LCol Nelson Wagner, a construction engineer officer who was deployed from Winnipeg to Chilliwack to Lahr in Germany during his time of service in the Canadian Military Engineers.  The regiment would be composed of three armoured squadrons complete with Kodiak combat engineer variants of the Leopard 2 main battle tank produced by Rheinmetall Canada in conjunction with General Motors Canada.  Also, a dedicated bridge laying squadron with the Leguan bridge laying version of the Leopard 2 was assigned to the regiment to assist in fast movements of tanks and other vehicles over water obstacles.  As noted before, the regiment would spend time assisting the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure in road improvements in and around CFB Dundurn.

With that, the final elements of the brigade group - the headquarters staff, 738 Signal Squadron and 6 Service Battalion as well as 6 Field Ambulance of the Canadian Forces Health Services Group and 6 Military Police Company of the Canadian Forces Military Police Group - would take up quarters at the converted and expanded Dumont Barracks, named after the famous Métis military leader Gabriel Dumont.  As for the formation's attached tactical helicopter squadron, it was decided to "forward base" the unit at CFB Moose Jaw; the squadron would be able to also assist the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency in keeping the frontier between Saskatchewan and both Montana and North Dakota secure.  Said squadron would be commissioned as 106 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, be nicknamed the "Sabrewing Squadron" after a relative of the hummingbird from Central and South America, and would be adopted by the Rural Municipality of Dundurn No. 314 as their own honorary Air Force unit.  The squadron would take up quarters at McEwen House, which is named after the same person who would also have the base's airport named after him, AVM Clifford Mackay McEwen, a Great War ace who would command the legendary No. 6 Group of the RCAF during World War Two IOTL.

Next:  Let's skip over to Shilo to look at the first of Canada's light brigades...
Hey!
Wait a minute!
Which province is this formation based at, anyway?!

[pyeknu]

Moving to Shilo...and Dundurn...and Suffield...and Wainwright...!

7 CANADIAN BRIGADE GROUP (LIGHT)

7 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) Headquarters (7 CBG[L] HQ)
    Brigade Group Headquarters - Brereton Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
The Fort Garry Horse (FGH)
    Regiment Headquarters - Strachan Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
    "A" Squadron
    "E" (Anti-Armour) Squadron
    Support Squadron
    "B" Squadron - Boulton House, Galloway Barracks, WAINWRIGHT, Alberta
    "C" (Parachute) Squadron - Gillespie House, Barron Barracks, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
    "D" Squadron - Colebourn House, Tuxford Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
79th Light Artillery Regiment (Lord Selkirk's Own), RCA (79 LAR RCA)
    Regiment Headquarters - Burstall Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
    5 Battery
    13 (General Support) Battery
    379 Headquarters and Services Battery
    9 Battery - Francis House, Galloway Barracks, WAINWRIGHT, Alberta
    20 (Parachute) Battery - Goddard House, Barron Barracks, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
    21 Battery - Oulette House, Tuxford Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
3rd Battalion, The Canadian Guards (3 CDN GDS)
    Battalion Headquarters - Galloway Barracks, WAINWRIGHT, Alberta
    13 Company
    14 Company
    15 Company
    16 Company
    17 Company (Weapons)
    18 Company (Support)
2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (2 PPCLI)
    Battalion Headquarters - Kap'yŏng Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
2nd Battalion, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada (2 QOR OF C)
    Battalion Headquarters - Barron Barracks, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
1st Battalion, The North Saskatchewan Regiment (1 N SASK R)
    Battalion Headquarters - Tuxford Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
7 Combat Engineer Regiment (7 CER)
    Regiment Headquarters - Tucker Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
    171 Field Squadron
    175 Support Squadron
    176 Combat Diver Squadron
    178 Administration Squadron
    172 Field Squadron - Greenfield House, Galloway Barracks, WAINWRIGHT, Alberta
    173 Parachute Squadron - Marshall House, Barron Barracks, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
    174 Field Squadron - Collier House, Tuxford Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
731 Signal Squadron (731 SIG SQN)
    Squadron Headquarters - Brereton Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
7 Service Battalion (7 SVC BN)
    Battalion Headquarters - Brereton Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
    70 General Support Company
    72 Forward Support Company
    79 Administration Company
    71 Forward Support Company - Galloway Barracks, WAINWRIGHT, Alberta
    73 Airborne Support Company - Barron Barracks, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
    74 Forward Support Company - Tuxford Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

7 Field Ambulance (7 FD AMB) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Battalion Headquarters - Brereton Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba
    72 Field Medical Company
    75 Medical Support Company
    79 Administration Company
    71 Field Medical Company - Galloway Barracks, WAINWRIGHT, Alberta
    73 Airborne Medical Company - Barron Barracks, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
    74 Field Medical Company - Tuxford Barracks, DUNDURN RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 314, Saskatchewan
7 Military Police Company (7 MP COY) (detached from 1 Military Police Regiment, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Company Headquarters - Brereton Barracks, GLENBORO-SOUTH CYPRESS (SHILO), Manitoba

117 TACTICAL AVIATION WING  (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)

117 Wing Headquarters (117 WG HQ)
    Wing Headquarters - Barker Barracks, PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE RURAL MUNICIPALITY, Manitoba
107 "Rural Municipality of Rosser" (Barbthroat) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (107 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - MacDonald House, WINNIPEG, Manitoba
109 "Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw" (Lancebill) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (109 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Atkey House, MOOSE JAW RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 161, Saskatchewan
116 "County of Red Deer" (Jacobin) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (116 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Manuel House, WAINWRIGHT, Alberta
130 "County of Cypress" (Violetear) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (130 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Puffer House, CYPRESS COUNTY (SUFFIELD), Alberta
156 "Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie" (Sandgrouse) Tactical Transport Helicopter Squadron (156 TTHS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Barker Barracks, PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE RURAL MUNICIPALITY, Manitoba
190 "Rural Municipality of Caron" (Caracara) Attack Helicopter Squadron (190 AHS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Atkey House, MOOSE JAW RURAL MUNICIPALITY NO. 161, Saskatchewan
357 "Rural Municipality of Grey" (Megapode) Air Maintenance Squadron (357 AMS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Barker Barracks, PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE RURAL MUNICIPALITY, Manitoba

"General, this is not a goddamn brigade."
"Oh?  What is it then, General?"
"It's a goddamned DIVISION that flies, sir!"
- Conversation between LGen Derek Macaulay (Commander I Canadian Corps) and MG George S. Patton Jr (member of the United States Army Military Liaison Team to the Canadian Army) at the inaugural parade of 7 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) at CFB Shilo, mid-1943, as witnessed by MG Patton's co-worker MG Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Throughout the history of the Canadian Army after World War Two IOTL, there have been attempts at creating "special" formations of fighting troops that would be ready to deal with the dicey situations which required fast deployment and harsh action, following in the stellar performance of the First Canadian Parachute Battalion serving with the British as well as the joint American-Canadian First Special Service Force.  The most famous of these post-war formations was the Special Service Force, a light brigade composed of an airborne regimental battle group with ground support troops; this force was the Ontario-based wing of the then-Force Mobile Command from the 1970s to the early 1990s before it was transformed back into 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group after the disbandment of the Canadian Airborne Regiment in the wake of the Somalia Affair.  And while Canada's active infantry regiments maintained a company of trained paratroopers in their third battalions, there wasn't any move to enhance any other form of special infantry beyond what was being formed for service in the Special Operations Forces Command.

The Shift immediately presented an opportunity for the Canadian Army to grow away from the "three block war" mentality that had dominated strategic and tactical thinking for the three decades after the end of the Cold War.  While most of the fighting forces of First Canadian Army would be either standardized mechanized infantry or armoured/armoured car divisions, two divisions were specifically dedicated to be light infantry with emphasis on both parachute insertion and helicopter air assault attack.  Both the Seventh and Eighth Canadian Divisions (Airmobile) proved their worth in "round two" of the Second World War in the Low Countries and Germany for the middle and final phases of the conflict, even if the lessons learned by those formations often came with a lot of spilled blood as witness what happened to 20 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) during the Battle of Emst during Operation Nordhammer in the mid-fall of 1940.  Still, the idea of having mixed airborne/air attack forces directly working in the Canadian Army was proven to be a good one...and with the plan for twelve peacetime Regular Force brigades, it was decided that three of them would serve as their regional corps' rapid-deployment formations.

Absorbing the lessons from the late war, 7 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) would be composed of four infantry battalions, three qualified in helicopter air assault while the fourth would be a dedicated parachute infantry unit.  Keeping in mind what happened to 20 CBG(L) at Emst, it was also decided to have a dedicated armoured car regiment of Cougar C2s attached to the brigade so mobile firepower beyond what the light artillery regiment could bring to bear in support of the infantry forces would also be available.  And to ensure that the planned four battalion battle groups could get around quickly whenever needed, a whole tactical aviation wing was detached to 7 CBG(L) from 11 Canadian Air Group, composed of four tactical squadrons of CH-146 Griffons, a tactical transport squadron of CH-147 Chinhooks and an attack squadron of CH-172 Lakotas.  The formation would be dispersed from Shilo to Dundurn to Suffield to Wainwright, but could come together as one large fighting force whenever required.  And given that there were still concerns about how down-time Americans were reacting to up-time Canada, having such a rapid force available to aid the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Service Agency in securing the frontier from Lake Superior all the way to Vancouver was just being prudent.

The first unit assigned to the new formation was the second battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, which was already based in Shilo as part of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group before the Shift.  After returning to Kap'yŏng Barracks after hostilities were concluded, the somewhat-depleted battalion was reinforced from drafts from the wartime 30 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) of Eighth Canadian Division, most of whom came from Saskatchewan and Alberta and were willing to stay on in the Regular Force and were more than willing to rebadge and become Patricias.  Of course, the rather odd situation of said battalion having won the United States Presidential Unit Citation for the Battle of Kap'yŏng in 1951 during the Korean War caused some consternation in Washington when members of the United States Army Military Liaison Team took note of same during their tours throughout Canada.  However, after meeting the few surviving veterans of that battle, it was recommended by the officers of USAMLT that the second battalion of the Patricias be allowed to have their PUC recognized even if the battle in question happened in another timeline.  Such was codified in an Executive Order by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and personally awarded to the battalion when the president came to Canada for a national tour after the war with the Nazis had ended prior to his election to his third term in office.

Joining the Patricias in the new formation would be the active battalion of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada from Seventh Canadian Division's 19 Canadian Brigade Group (Airborne), which had performed splendidly in northern Germany in the final phases of the war even if they did more helicopter inserts than actually parachuting into target zones.  Allowed to remain as the new brigade group's parachute infantry force, the unit was forced to renumber itself as the Queen's Own's second battalion to allow the first battalion (the renamed active battalion of the Royal Regina Rifles) to set up shop in Toronto and serve as the older regiment's home station unit as well as the mechanized infantry force to 4 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group.  The airborne battalion of the Queen's Own absorbed in personnel from both 19 CBG(AB) as well as its sister formation from the Eighth Canadian Division, 28 Canadian Brigade Group (Airborne), allowing the senior rifles regiment of the Canadian Army to form bonds of friendship with all the rifles and fusiliers regiments in the Dominion, which guaranteed a strong pool of reinforcements happy to wear the maroon beret and be qualified for both airborne and air assault missions.  The battalion would be sited at Suffield in a different section of the base from where the detached elements of 1 CMBG and 6 CABG were based; the new Barron Barracks was named in honour of WO2 (Sergeant Major) Colin Fraser Barron, who served in the Great War as part of the 3rd (Toronto) Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, who won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.

Next to come into the brigade group would be the active battalion of the North Saskatchewan Regiment, one of the "ennobled" Militia regiments who got the chance to maintain a Regular Force unit in the post-war Army.  Fresh from duty as part of Third Canadian Mechanized Division's 9 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, the battalion would end up absorbing troops from the wartime 30 CBG(L) to help balance the experienced number of mechanized infantry warriors who stayed on after hostilities against the Nazis ended.  Allowed to remain within its home province, the first battalion of the North Saskatchewans would base themselves at CFB Dundurn near the regiment's traditional home station of Saskatoon, though they would be based at a different part of the garrison from the majority of 6 CABG.  The battalion's new home would be christened as Tuxford Barracks, named after BGen George Stuart Tuxford, a Welsh native who migrated to Saskatchewan before the Great War and would eventually rise to command the First Canadian Division's 3rd Infantry Brigade from 1916 to the end of the war; his old command, the 5th Battalion (Western Cavalry) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, nicknamed "Tuxford's Dandys" in the war, would be perpetuated by the North Saskatchewans.

Forming the round-out battalion of the formation would be the third battalion of the Regiment of Canadian Guards, who had served in the war as the headquarters defence battalion of First Canadian Army from the Low Countries into Germany.  Said battalion had been raised at CFB Wainwright by drafts trained by the Patricias and the Loyal Edmonton Regiment; many of them were actually up-time foreigners from many Europeans nations, including Germany and Austria.  While the third battalion of the Guards didn't get the chance to earn battle honours like its sister battalions raised at Valcartier and Petawawa did, it still performed sterling service, even going so far as to send companies to help plug up gaps in the line from German counterattacks if they happened to be in quick transit range from the front lines.  Returning to Wainwright, the battalion would find it easy to transform into a helicopter air assault unit; many of their veterans had experience using light vehicles such as MILCOTS GM Silverados and Iveco VM90 LSVWs to transport themselves to potential danger.  The battalion would take up quarters at the newly-constructed Galloway Barracks near the headquarters of the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre; the new barracks was named in honour of Col Strome Galloway, who had served as the commanding officer of the short-lived fourth battalion of the Guards from 1955-57 and who would later become the regiment's only honorary lieutenant colonel.  Atop preparing themselves to deploy anywhere on short notice, the battalion was given the secondary task of serving as OPFOR in field exercises directed by the staff at CMTC.

Keeping in mind the lessons of the Battle of Elms, it was decided right away that the post-war 7 CBG(L) would have something of an armoured force attached it to given the fighting battalions mobile firepower wherever they needed to go.  It was natural that the active unit of the Fort Garry Horse would be elected as the formation's new armoured regiment; this was done in honour of the time the regiment had been allowed to raise a Regular Force unit to serve in Canada and Europe from 1958-70 in the early years of the Cold War.  Of course, converting to the LAV I Cougar C2s armoured fighting vehicles for the sabre squadrons and TOW-equipped LAV III multi-mission effects vehicle for the regiment's anti-armour squadron would be easy for the Fort Garrys to endure; throughout most of "round two" of the Second World War, they had been forced to use the Cougars and like vehicles to serve as the armoured fist of 7 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in the Low Countries and Germany.  The main part of the regiment would base itself at Shilo, entering the newly-constructed Strachan Barracks; such was named after LCol Henry Mareus "Harcus" Strachan, who won the Victoria Cross while serving with the wartime Fort Garrys during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.  The regiment's satellite houses at Wainwright, Suffield and Dundurn would also be named for officers who were affiliated with units perpetuated by the Fort Garrys.  Boulton House in Wainwright got its name from Maj Charles A. Boulton, the commander of Boulton’s Mounted Infantry during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885; said unit was later perpetuated by the Fort Garry Horse.  Gillespie House in Suffield would get its name from the commanding officer of the short-lived 226th Battalion (Men of the North) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War, LCol R. A. Gillespie; said battalion was perpetuated in part by the Fort Garry Horse.  And Colebourn House would get its name from Doctor Harry D. Colebourn, who was a major in the Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps assigned to the Fort Garry Horse in the Great War; during that conflict, he helped the unit adopt a bear named Winnipeg, who was eventually nicknamed "Winnie" as regimental mascot.  That bear would eventually serve as the inspiration for the lead character of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne!

The brigade group's artillery force would perpetuate a unit that served very briefly during the Korean War before it was renamed as part of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery:  The 79th Light Artillery Regiment, RCA.  The original regiment was raised at Shilo in 1951 as a Regular Force unit, drawing in three batteries that had been recruited from Militia units based in Ontario, Québec and Nova Scotia.  Said regiment would be re-designated as the 3rd Regiment of the Horse Artillery two years later, its numbered batteries being given letters to make them part of the "right of the line"; as is known, the 3rd Regiment would serve in Canada until reduced to nil strength in 1992.  After the Shift, the regiment was reformed as a multiple-launch rocket unit assigned to II Canadian Corps' in-house artillery brigade for the battles in the Low Countries and Germany.  The rear staff left behind in Shilo would be ordered to raise the 79th Regiment as a separate unit, seeing that regiment transformed into the light artillery force meant to serve with 7 CBG(L) post-war.  The batteries assigned to the regiment would take their numbers from Militia batteries from across the nation:  5 Battery (from the 2nd Montréal Field Artillery Regiment), 9 Battery (from the 7th Toronto Field Artillery Regiment), 13 Battery (from the 69th Target Acquisition Artillery Regiment in Portage la Prairie), 20 Battery (from the 18th General Support Artillery Regiment in Lethbridge) and 21 Battery (from the 17th Light Artillery Regiment in Saskatoon); naturally, the peacetime Militia batteries of the same number would get the "2/" prefix title to their names.  Unlike the other units of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, the 79th Regiment would have five active batteries, three air assault batteries, one parachute artillery battery and one general support artillery battery with a mobile radar troop, a target acquisition troop with UAVs and an air defence troop with Oerlikon GDF twin 35 millimetre cannons mounted on LAV III multi-mission effects vehicles.  The main base of the 79th Regiment at Shilo would be named Burstall Barracks in honour of LGen Sir Henry Burstall, an artillery officer and veteran of the Yukon Field Force during the Klondike Rebellion, the Boer War and the Great War who eventually rose to become commander of Second Canadian Division from 1916-19.  The three satellite houses for the regiment at Wainwright, Suffield and Dundurn would be named in honour of members of the 1st Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery who fell during the war in Afghanistan:  Capt Jefferson Clifford Francis (who died in Khandahar in 2007), Capt Nichola Kathleen Sarah Goddard (who died in 2006 in Khandahar) and Bdr Jérémie Ouellet (who died in 2008, also in Khandahar).  The 79th Regiment would also adopt the honour title "Lord Selkirk's Own" in tribute to the man who had founded the Red River Colony in the Nineteenth Century that would eventually develop into modern Manitoba, Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk.  Much to the delight of the regiment, the tenth Earl of Selkirk, G/C George Douglas-Hamilton of the Royal Air Force, happily agreed to become the unit's honorary colonel.

As with the Fort Garry Horse and the 79th Regiment, 7 Combat Engineer Regiment would be forced to adopt to become a light engineer unit from its wartime duty as a support force for a mechanized infantry brigade.  Of course, said regiment had been raised in Winnipeg from the pre-Shift 38 Combat Engineer Regiment, so basing itself at Shilo after service with the Third Canadian Mechanized Division was coming home in a way.  The brigade group's engineers would also be an enhanced regiment, having three air assault squadrons, one parachute engineer squadron and a squadron of combat divers to provide that service for I Canadian Corps.  The main quarters of the new regiment would be designated Tucker Barracks, named in tribute to the commander of 23 Field Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers during World War Two IOTL, Maj Michael L. Tucker; his unit had been involved in Operation Berlin in 1944, where his company teamed with three other engineer units to help evacuate elements of the First British Airborne Division across the Lower Rhine to safety in the wake of the failure of Operation Market Garden.  The regiment's three satellite houses would follow the theme used by the formation's gunners and honour casualties from 1 Combat Engineer Regiment who fell in the War on Terror in Afghanistan:  Spr Brian James Collier (who died in Panjwa'i District in 2010), Spr Steven Henry Marshall (who died near Khandahar in 2009) and Spr Sean David Greenfield (who died in Afghanistan in 2009).

For the remainder of the brigade group, the headquarters and other units such as 731 Signal Squadron and the core of 7 Service Battalion would set up shop in a section of Shilo designated as Brereton Barracks.  This part of the base was named in tribute to Company Quartermaster Sergeant and S/Sgt Alexander Picton Brereton of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles from Oak River (which is now part of the Rural Municipality of Blanshard) in Manitoba's Westman region during the Great War; he won the Victoria Cross near Amiens in 1918 during the Hundred Days Offensive.  Also basing themselves at Brereton Barracks would be the affiliated field ambulance battalion and military police company assigned to serve with 7 CBG(L).  Of course, detached forward support companies, field medical companies and military police platoons would be based alongside the brigade's detached elements in Wainwright, Suffield and Dundurn to support the battle groups based there.

And then, there came the tactical aviation element...

In replication of what happened with the fighting brigades of the Seventh and Eighth Canadian Divisions in Europe, a whole tactical aviation wing was assigned to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's contribution to the post-war 7 CBG(L).  Said wing would take up quarters at the reborn CFB Portage la Prairie and would be designated as 117 Tactical Aviation Wing of 11 Canadian Air Group.  To ensure the maximum amount of aviation support could be provided to the detached elements of the brigade group, FOUR squadrons of CH-146 Griffons were allowed to join the wing after the end of "round two" of the Second World War.  First of those units was 107 Squadron, which would base itself at CFB Winnipeg; it would be adopted by the Rural Municipality of Rosser on whose territory part of Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport lies in and would be known as the "Barbthroat Squadron" after a tropical species of hummingbird from South America.  Said squadron would take up residence at the newly-constructed MacDonald House, named in tribute to Great War fighter ace Lt Ross Morrison MacDonald.  Next squadron to join the wing would be 109 Squadron, which would return to CFB Moose Jaw from where it had been raised after the Shift before serving with the wartime 18 Wing; it would become the "Lancebill Squadron" after another tropical relative of the hummingbird and would be adopted by the Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw on whose territory the squadron's home base sits on.  The squadron would move into Atkey House, named after Great War ace Capt Alfred Clayburn Atkey from Minebow.  Coming in from the wartime 20 Wing that supported the Sixth Canadian Division would be 116 Squadron, which had been raised in Red Deer and would take up new quarters at the field heliport at CFB Wainwright.  Said squadron would become officially known as the "Jacobin Squadron" in honour of a dark plumed hummingbird from Central and South America; it would also be adopted by the County of Red Deer as its own honorary Air Force unit.  Said squadron's quarters at Wainwright would be named Manuel House after another Great War ace who hails from Edmonton, Capt John Gerald Manuel.  And basing themselves at CFB Suffield would be 130 Squadron, the "Violetear Squadron" (named after a bird native to Mexico which often migrates north into America and even Canada) that had been formed at the base to serve as part of the wartime 44 Wing attached to 30 CBG(L) of the Eighth Canadian Division.  Said squadron would be adopted by Cypress County (on whose territory CFB Suffield sits in) and would take up quarters at Puffer House, named in honour of a resident of Olds who also became an ace during the Great War, Lt Stanley Asa Puffer.

Also joining the wing would be 190 Squadron, which was raised at CFB Moose Jaw to serve as the attack helicopter force for 44 Wing and 30 CBG(L).  Said squadron would be equipped with CH-172 Lakota anti-armour gunships and would return to its base of origin, moving into Atkey House alongside 109 Squadron.  Said squadron would become known as the "Caracara Squadron" in honour of a bird of prey related to the falcons from Central America; the unit would also be adopted by the Rural Municipality of Caron located just west of Moose Jaw.  Bringing the transport helicopter element to the wing would be 156 Squadron, which had been raised in Portage la Prairie as part of 20 Wing assigned to support the Sixth Canadian Division.  Said squadron would fly the CH-147 Chinhook in the medium transport rôle out of its place of origin, which would be recommissioned as an active base once more after hostilities concluded.  The squadron would be adopted by the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie on whose territory CFB Portage la Prairie sits on and would earn the nickname "Sandgrouse Squadron" after a type of seed-eating bird from Asia.  Rounding out the wing's forces would be 357 Squadron, the formation's air maintenance team.  Said unit would be nicknamed the "Megapode Squadron" after the incubator bird that always nests on the ground after creating mounds to incubate the eggs; the squadron would be adopted by the Rural Municipality of Grey and take up residence at CFB Portage la Prairie.  The wing headquarters as well as 156 and 357 Squadrons would take up residence at the newly-constructed Barker Barracks, named after the famous Great War ace W/C William George Barker from Dauphin, who won the Victoria Cross and would later serve as part of the post-Great War Royal Canadian Air Force; the barracks would also become the new home of 15 Wing's 3 Canadian Forces Flying Training School as a lodger unit.

Next:  And here comes another light brigade from Québec...and Ontario...!

[pyeknu]

And now the second light brigade at Saint-Hubert...and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu...and Mountain View...and Picton...and Niagara-on-the-Lake...and Welland!

8e GROUPE-BRIGADE LÉGÈRE DU CANADA/8 CANADIAN BRIGADE GROUP (LIGHT)

Quartier-Général de la 8e Groupe-Brigade Légère du Canada (QG 8e GBLC)/8 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) Headquarters (8 CBG[L] HQ)
    Quartier-Général de la Groupe-Brigade/Brigade Group Headquarters - Caserne Keable, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards (4 PLDG)/4e Régiment de Gardes de Dragons de la Princesse Louise (4e GDPL)
    Regiment Headquarters/Quartier-Général du Régiment - Coughlin Barracks/Caserne Coughlin, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY (PICTON), Ontario
    "A" Squadron/Escadron "A"
    "E" Squadron/Escadron "E"
    Support Squadron/Escadron d'Appui
    "B" Squadron/Escadron "B" - Maison Titus Cornelius, Caserne Young, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    "C" Squadron/Escadron "C" - Maison Parker, Garnison Saint-Jean, SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Québec
    "D" Squadron/Escadron "D" - Simcoe House, Butler's Barracks/Maison Simcoe, Caserne Butler, NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario
81e (Richelieu) Régiment d'Artillerie Légère, ARC (81e RAL ARC)/81st (Richelieu) Light Artillery Regiment, RCA (81 LAR RCA)
    Regiment Headquarters/Quartier-Général du Régiment - Garnison Saint-Jean, SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Québec
    62e Batterie d'Entraînement/62 Training Battery
    79e Batterie (Appui Général)/79 (General Support) Battery
    236e Batterie/236 Battery
    381e Batterie de Commandement et Services
    27e Batterie/27 Battery - Maison Dion, Caserne Young, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    3 Battery/3e Batterie - Gonthier House, Coughlin Barracks/Maison Gonthier, Caserne Coughlin, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY (PICTON), Ontario
    166 Battery/166e Batterie - Manning House, Butler's Barracks/Maison Manning, Caserne Butler, NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario
1re Bataillon, Le Régiment des Gardes Grenadiers Canadiens (1re GGC)/1st Battalion, The Canadian Grenadier Guards (1 CGG)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon/Battalion Headquarters - Caserne Young, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    1re Compagnie/1 Company
    2e Compagnie/2 Company
    3e Compagnie/3 Company
    4e Compagnie/4 Company
    5e Compagnie (Armes)/5 Company (Weapons)
    6e Compagnie (Appui)/6 Company (Support)
3e Bataillon, Le Royal 22e Régiment (3e R22eR)/3rd Battalion, Le Royal 22e Régiment (3 R22eR)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon/Battalion Headquarters - Butler's Barracks/Caserne Butler, NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario
    Compagnie "A"/"A" Company
    Compagnie "B"/"B" Company
    Compagnie "C"/"C" Company
    Compagnie "D"/"D" Company
    Compagnie "E" (Armes)/"E" Company (Weapons)
    Compagnie "F" (Appui)/"F" Company (Support)
1st Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada (1 RHC)/1re Bataillon, La Garde Noire (Régiment Royal d'Haute-Terre) du Canada (1re RRHTC)
    Battalion Headquarters/Quartier-Général de Bataillon - Caserne Dinesen/Dinesen Barracks, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    "A" Company/Compagnie "A"
    "B" Company/Compagnie "B"
    "C" Company/Compagnie "C"
    "D" Company/Compagnie "D"
    "E" Company (Weapons)/Compagnie "E" (Armes)
    "F" Company (Support)/Compagnie "F" (Appui)
1re Bataillon, Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal (1re FUS MR)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon - Caserne Dextraze, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    Compagnie "A"
    Compagnie "B"
    Compagnie "C"
    Compagnie "D"
    Compagnie "E" (Armes)
    Compagnie "F" (Appui)
8 Combat Engineer Regiment (8 CER)/8e Régiment du Génie de Combat (8e RGC)
    Regiment Headquarters/Quartier-Général du Régiment - Butler's Barracks/Caserne Butler, NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario
    184 Parachute Squadron/134e Escadron d'Aéroporté
    185 Support Squadron/135e Escadron d'Appui
    186 Light Bridge Laying Squadron/186e Escadron de Pontage Légère
    188 Administration Squadron/138e Escadron d'Administration
    181 Field Squadron/131e Escadron de Campagne - Caserne Young, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    182 Field Squadron/132e Escadron de Campagne - Caserne Dinesen/Dinesen Barracks, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    183 Field Squadron/133e Escadron de Campagne - Caserne Dextraze, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
715e Escadron des Transmissions (715e ESC TRANS)/715 Signal Squadron (715 SIG SQN)
    Squadron Headquarters/Quartier-Général du Escadron - Caserne Keable, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
8e Bataillon des Services (8e BON SVC)/8 Service Battalion (8 SVC BN)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon/Battalion Headquarters - Caserne Keable, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    80e Compagnie de Soutien Général/80 General Support Company
    81re Compagnie de Soutien Advancé/81 Forward Support Company
    89e Compagnie d'Administration/89 Administration Company
    82e Compagnie de Soutien Aéroporté/82 Airborne Support Company - Butler's Barracks/Caserne Butler, NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario
    83e Compagnie de Soutien Advancé/83 Forward Support Company - Caserne Saint-Jean, SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Québec
    84e Compagnie de Soutien Advancé/84 Forward Support Company - Coughlin Barracks/Caserne Coughlin, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY (PICTON), Ontario

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

8e Ambulance de Campagne (8e AMB C)/8 Field Ambulance (8 FD AMB) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon/Battalion Headquarters - Caserne Keable, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    81e Compagnie Médicale (Avant)/81 Forward Medical Company
    85e Compagnie de Soutien Médical/85 Medical Support Company
    89e Compagnie d'Administration/89 Administration Company
    82e Compagnie Médicale (Aéroporté)/82 Airborne Medical Company - Butler's Barracks/Caserne Butler, NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario
    83e Compagnie Médicale (Avant)/83 Forward Medical Company - Caserne Saint-Jean, SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Québec
    84e Compagnie Médicale (Avant)/84 Forward Medical Company - Coughlin Barracks/Caserne Coughlin, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY (PICTON), Ontario
8e Compagnie de Police Militaire (8e CPM)/8 Military Police Company (8 MP COY) (detached from 5e Régiment de Police Militaire, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Quartier-Général de la Compagnie/Company Headquarters - Caserne Keable, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec

118e ESCADRE D'AVIATION TACTIQUE/118 TACTICAL AVIATION WING (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)

Quartier-Général de la 118e Escadre (QG 118e ESCADRE)/118 Wing Headquarters (118 WG HQ)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadre/Wing Headquarters - Caserne Beurling, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
121 "City of Vaughan" (Sapphire) Tactical Helicoper Squadron (121 THS)/121e (Saphir) Escadron Tactique d'Hélicoptères "Ville de Vaughan" (121e ETH)
    Squadron Headquarters/Quartier-Général d'Escadron - McRae House/Maison McRae, WELLAND, Ontario
129e (Topaze) Escadron Tactique d'Hélicoptères "Municipalité de Mont-Saint-Grégoire" (129e ETH)/129 "Municipality of Mont-Saint-Grégoire" (Topaz) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (129 THS)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron/Squadron Headquarters - Maison Foster, SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Québec
141 "County of Prince Edward" (Carib) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (141 THS)/141e (Madeira) Escadron Tactique d'Hélicoptères "Comté de Prince Edward" (141e ETH)
    Squadron Headquarters/Quartier-Général d'Escadron - Reid House/Maison Reid, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY (MOUNTAIN VIEW), Ontario
152e (Mésite) Escadron Tactique du Transport d'Hélicoptères (152e ETTH) "Ville de Brossard"/152 "City of Brossard" (Mesite) Tactical Transport Helicopter Squadron (152 TTHS)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron/Squadron Headquarters - Caserne Beurling, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
181e (Faucon Gerfaut) Escadron d'Hélicoptères d'Attaque "Ville de Blainville" (181e EHA)/181 "City of Blainville" (Gryfalcon) Attack Helicopter Squadron (181 AHS)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron/Squadron Headquarters - Maison Foster, SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Québec
221e (Avocette) Escadron Tactique d'Hélicoptères "Ville de Saint-Jérôme" (221e ETH)/221 "City of Saint-Jérôme" (Avocette) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (221 THS)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron/Squadron Headquarters - Caserne Beurling, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
358e (Talégalle) Escadron de Maintenance (Air) "Ville de Carignan" (358e EMA)/358 "City of Carignan" (Brushturkey) Air Maintenance Squadron (358 AMS)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron/Squadron Headquarters - Caserne Beurling, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec

In effect a replica of 7 Canadian Brigade Group (Light), 8e Groupe-Brigade Légère du Canada was automatically meant to be assigned to II Canadian Corps even if its wartime division had been headquartered and partially raised in Québec.  To encompass that bilingual spirit which formed throughout First Canadian Army, it was decided that the brigade group would be another bilingual formation similar to 3 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in New Brunswick, though it would have units based in the southern part of the Saint Lawrence Valley in Québec close to the border with New York and Vermont, not to mention along Lake Ontario.  However, when the actual list of regiments that would be "ennobled" from the Militia to help fill the new formations being set up for the peacetime Canadian Army, it turned out that save for the armoured car unit to be assigned to the brigade group, everyone hailed from Québec itself!  And while there was talk of exchanging units between 8e GBLC and 10 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (to be based in Kingston), it was decided to keep things as is and detach one infantry battalion of the former formation to Ontario.

Fortunately, a strange occurrence during "round two" of the war against the Nazis gave some inspiration.

At the initial mobilization of the First Canadian Mechanized Division for deployment overseas, the three battalions of le Royal 22e Régiment came up short in properly forming up to a wartime strength of four rifle companies per battalion.  And while the Québec-based Militia regiments did much to help alleviate that issue, drafts would still have to be drawn in from other provinces of the nation.  The Franco-Ontarian community in places such as Welland in Niagara Region and Penetanguishine in Simcoe County quickly sent volunteers through the Lincoln and Welland Regiment and the Grey and Simcoe Foresters to top off the reformed Compagnie "D" of the Vandoos' third battalion, which was more than appreciated by its-then commanding officer.  And while the two Militia regiments from Ontario would soon get in on the action as part of the the Sixth Canadian Division (for the Foresters) and the Seventh Canadian Division (for the Links), bonds of affiliation were forged between those two units and the Vandoos; this would prompt the light infantry unit from Niagara to adopt the French-language title "Le Régiment de Lincoln et Welland" and officially assume bilingual status as many up-time natives of France and other Francophone nations then in Canada - not to mention a draft of down-time Americans from Louisiana - joined the regiment for service overseas.  Because of that, the commanding officer of the Links' stay-home training battalion (joined by the commanding officer of the region's new Naval Reserve unit, HMCS Queenston) proposed to Canadian Army headquarters that the old Camp Niagara outside the urban part of Niagara-on-the-Lake be reactivated as either a full-fledged base or a detachment of one; the future peacetime headquarters of the regiment and the stone frigate were being built at the site of Butler's Barracks after the land was reclaimed by the Department of National Defence from Parks Canada.  Given the need to keep the frontier between Ontario and New York secure (as there were now FIVE international bridges crossing the Niagara River; when the Shift occurred, the old Lewiston-Queenston Suspension Bridge connecting both towns at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment had survived intact), the proposal was accepted and the Vandoos' third battalion were invited to site themselves at Butler's Barracks post-war.

Such an invitation was accepted right after hostilities concluded, which soon saw Garrison Niagara (officially a detachment of CFB Toronto) stood up with two primary full-time locations:  Butler's Barracks and the Crowland Heliport, sited on reclaimed industrial land on the south side of King's Highway 58A between the old and new Welland Canals in Welland north of the village of Dain City.  The third battalion of the Vandoos, which had converted to airborne infantry by absorbing stay-on drafts from the Victoria Rifles of Canada and the Royal Rifles of Canada (both Québec-based regiments that served in 19 Canadian Brigade Group [Airborne] of Seventh Canadian Division), shifted to their new home, arriving in proper airborne fashion by doing a combat jump onto the grounds of Fort George (which was still in Parks Canada hands) across the Queen's Promenade from Butler's Barracks.  That ceremony ended up seeing the battalion joined by both the Lincoln and Welland Regiment and HMCS Queenston in being awarded and exercising the Freedom of the City from Niagara-on-the-Lake's lord mayor.  Because Queenston's ship's company had access to active Navy ships as part of their commitment to the active fleets, the third battalion of the Vandoos and the peacetime battalion of the Links would begin doing exercises together both on Lake Ontario (with Naval Reserve corvettes and minesweepers) and on both coasts (with the newly-constructed Chambly-class frigates, including HMCS Saint Catharines, namesake of Niagara Region's largest city).  And, because the battalion was sitting right on the frontier between Ontario and New York, it would be on standby to respond to requests from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency to guard against intrusion by agitators who might jump across the Niagara River to cause trouble.

Joining the new brigade from Montréal itself would be the active unit of the Militia's second senior-ranking infantry regiment, the Canadian Grenadier Guards, which had finished the war as part of Second Canadian Division's 3 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.  Made a functionally bilingual unit with the French language title "Le Régiment des Gardes Grenadiers Canadiens", the CGGs would be given several missions post-war.  For its primary mission atop having a air assault light infantry battalion based at the reactivated Saint-Hubert airport of BFC Montréal (known officially as Garnison Saint-Hubert), the unit would also provide rotating rifle companies to join the Ceremonial Guard in Ottawa and at la Citadelle in Ville de Québec alongside its sister Household Guard units, the Governor General's Horse Guards, the Governor General's Foot Guards and the Canadian Guards; with the greater need and interest in military affairs in Canada in the wake of "round two" of the Second World War, it was decided to maintain the Ceremonial Guard as a full-time function of the Canadian Forces in lieu of just having it as a mostly Militia-only summertime affair.

Along with this came a permanent guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Canadian War Memorial east-southeast of Parliament Hill.  This would replicate the practice done by the United States Army at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier located in Arlington National Cemetery by personnel from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment ("Brave Rifles"), who were normally stationed at Fort Myer next to the cemetery grounds; because of this, the Brave Rifles forged bonds of friendship with all elements of the Canadian Household Division, especially the GGHG as both are armoured regiments.  With the bitter memories of the tragic death of Cpl Nathan Frank Cirillo of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada in the 2014 attack on Parliament by the mentally disturbed Michael Zehaf-Bibeau - an event that horrified members of Britain's Household Division when they first learned of it shortly after the Canadian Argylls came to England as part of Seventh Canadian Division's tragic 20 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) - the guard around the houses of government as well as the Governor General's residences was visibly increased...and secretly armed as well.

One simply never knew.

Beyond duties in Ottawa and Ville de Québec, the first battalion of the CGGs would do most of their work out of their new quarters at Saint-Hubert, which was designated Caserne Young.  The new establishment, which was erected with other new barracks and work buildings on the east side of the Boulevard Clairevue from the airport grounds itself, was named in honour of Sgt John Francis Young, a veteran of the Great War who won the Victoria Cross while serving as part of the 87th Battalion (Canadian Grenadier Guards) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.

Also basing themselves at Saint-Hubert would be the first battalion of the Black Watch, which was maintained from the wartime unit that had been mobilized to serve alongside the active CGGs as part of Second Canadian Division's 3 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.  Made bilingual because it had drawn from both Anglophone and Francophone recruits before it went to Europe, the Black Watch's senior battalion would set up the regiment's new home station at Caserne Dinesen off the Boulevard Clairevue next to the new home of the "ennobled" element of the CGGs.  That particular barracks was named in honour of yet another Great War soldier who won the Victoria Cross during that conflict, Lt Thomas Fasti Dinesen, who was serving as part of the regiment's wartime counterpart, the 42nd Quebec Regiment (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, when he charged over No Man's Land several times to eliminate enemy gunners during the Battle of Amiens in 1918.  To help the battalion become a proper air assault unit, soldiers who served in Seventh Division's air assault Highlander units were asked to stay on and re-badge; among them were personnel from the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada from Ontario's Waterloo Region, Hamilton's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Perth Regiment from the same county near London, the Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment) from the like-named regions and counties near Toronto and both the Toronto Scottish Regiment (Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's Own) and the 48th Highlanders of Canada from Toronto.  This would allow the Black Watch's first battalion to quickly get up to speed in helicopter air assault missions as it would join the CGGs in helping keep the frontier along the Saint Lawrence River and the land border all the way to Edmundston in New Brunswick relatively safe from potential border issues.

The last infantry battalion of the new brigade group would be another veteran unit of the Second Canadian Mechanized Division, les Fusiliers Mont-Royal from Montréal itself.  Having done time in war as part of the wartime 6e Groupe-Brigade Méchanisé du Canada, the "ennobled" Fusiliers would also have to work hard to convert from wheeled motorized infantry into air assault light infantry.  Like the first battalion of the Black Watch, the Fusiliers would get help from regiments who had active units in Seventh and Eighth Canadian Divisions from Québec:  Le Régiment de Joliette from the same city off the north shore of the Saint Lawrence north of Québec's largest city, le Régiment de Châteauguay from the city of the same name on the shore of Lac Saint-Louis south of Montréal, les Chasseurs Canadiens from Ville de Québec and le Régiment de Lévis from the city of the same name across the Saint Lawrence from Québec.  Effectively Canada's French-speaking version of the Queen's Own Rifles - English rifles and French fusilier regiments have the same ceremonial procedures, never carry stands of colours on parade and were trained to march at a much faster pace than standard line infantry - the active battalion of the Fusiliers would take up residence at Caserne Dextraze off the Boulevard Clairevue.  Said quarters were named in honour of Gen Jacques Alfred Dextraze, who was Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces from 1972-77; he was the commanding officer of Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal during the Second World War IOTL and had served with the Royal 22e Régiment in the Korean War.

Assigned as the brigade group's armoured car unit would be the active regiment of the 4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards, which had been restored to service after the Shift in the wake of decades on the Supplementary Order of Battle, then was assigned as part of Fourth Canadian Division's 10 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.  After hostilities ended, the unit would remain active, maintaining its Cougar C2 and Coyote reconnaissance vehicles that it used in France, the Low Countries and Germany during "round two" of the Second World War; it had been helped back to service with the assistance of the stay-home unit of the Royal Canadian Dragoons.  Because of that, the two regiments became formally affiliated and the active Dragoon Guards took on those personnel from the other regiment who wanted to continue to work with wheeled vehicles in lieu of the new Leopard 2 tanks that the Dragoons had been given for 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group; it was also made a bilingual unit and given the French title "4e Régiment de Gardes de Dragons de la Princesse Louise".  To serve as one of the three Ontario-based units of 8e GBLC, the Dragoon Guards were sent to the re-activated Camp Picton outside the town of the same name in Prince Edward County (that being made a detachment of CFB Kingston); this place also served as the old home station of the Canadian Guards before Unification.  The regiment's new home was designated Coughlin Barracks; it was named in tribute to Sgt William Garnet "Bing" Coughlin, who had served with the Dragoon Guards in World War Two IOTL and was an amateur cartoonist whose works always appeared in The Maple Leaf newspaper.  Ironically, Coughlin was in the United States when the Shift occurred; returning to a much different Canada, he was welcomed back into the Dragoon Guards with open arms, then assigned to provide cartoons for The Maple Leaf both in print and on-line.  Thus, Coughlin Barracks would be the second new Army quarters named after a living person...and a down-timer Canadian at that!

As with its sister unit in Shilo, the Dragoon Guards dispatched sabre squadrons to be based alongside the infantry units of the brigade group in both Ontario and Québec.  Because of that, special houses within Butler's Barracks, Caserne Young and Caserne Saint-Jean were set aside for those units.  Escadron "B" would be based at Caserne Young alongside the CGGs; the specific headquarters of the squadron would be designated Maison Titus Cornelius, named in tribute to the (in)famous "Colonel Tye", an escaped slave from New Jersey who formed a band of guerrillas that fought on the Loyalist side in the Revolutionary War and who died in 1780.  Escadron "C" would be based at Garnison Saint-Jean close to the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School, with quarters shared with the core of the 81e Régiment d'Artillerie Légère, ARC to serve as the brigade group's "forward deployed" reconnaissance squadron.  The unit would be specifically housed in Caserne Parker; this location was named in tribute to the commander of "A" Squadron of the regiment's World War Two IOTL incarnation that served as First Canadian Division's reconnaissance force in the Sicily campaign, Maj Harold Parker.  And "D" Squadron's headquarters at Niagara-on-the-Lake was named Simcoe House after LGen the Honourable John Graves Simcoe, who commanded a mixed combat arms force during the American Revolutionary War before he was made Upper Canada's first lieutenant governor; this would see the Dragoon Guards forge affiliations with the Queen's York Rangers (1st American Regiment) (RCAC) of York Region, which is the descendant unit of Simcoe's old command.

Like its sister regiment in 7 CBG(L), the 81e Régiment d'Artillerie Légère, ARC was originally formed in 1952 as an active element of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery for the Korean conflict.  Said regiment would be re-named as the 4th Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery the next year, serving in Canada with some international deployments until it was reduced to nil strength in 1970 following Unification.  The regiment's number was revised by drafts of the reformed 4 RCHA at Kingston to serve as the peacetime artillery for 8e GBLC, then relocated to Garnison Saint-Jean to await the returning troops.  All six artillery units who had served in the wartime Eighth Canadian Division (the 17th Light Artillery Regiment from Saskatoon, the 34e Régiment d'Artillerie Légère from Laval, the 41st Air Defence Artillery Regiment from Cranbrook, the 44th Light Artillery Regiment from Brockville, the 51e Régiment d'Artillerie d'Appui Général from Montréal and the 55th Light Artillery Regiment from Windsor) provided drafts of soldiers wanting to stay in the peacetime army, making the 81e Régiment a fully bilingual unit.  To that end, the new regiment would honour its contributing Militia units by having one battery from each regiment given an "ennobled" counterpart:  3 Battery from Gananoque near Brockville, 27e Batterie from Laval, 79e Batterie from Montréal, 166 Battery from Windsor and 236 Battery from Saskatoon.  The last battery would surprise many as it was one of many post-Shift units of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery that were mobilized for service in "round two" of the Second World War.  Atop the line batteries, the 81e Régiment would also have under its administrative command the new 62e Batterie d'Entraînement, which was detached from the unit to assist in basic military training and basic land environmental training at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School at Garnison Saint-Jean.  The regiment as a whole would be given the honour title "Richelieu" in respect to the river on whose shores the majority of the unit was based on.

Of course, the artillery regiment's overall residence was named in tribute to both the former BFC Saint-Jean - which had been brought back up to base status from an area support unit even if it was still under the operational control of IIIe Corps Canadien's new area support group - as well as the old Fort Saint-Jean which had been built during the New France era to help watch over the Richelieu River, which would become a highway of invasion both north and south in the years following; such was now the home of the Collège Militaire Royal du Canada, the French-language university for officers in the Canadian Forces.  The regiment's branch houses in Saint-Hubert, Picton and Niagara-on-the-Lake were named after Québécois gunners who fell during the War on Terror in Afghanistan:  Artil Jonathan Joseph Jacques Dion of Gatineau (who died in Kandahar in 2007), Bdr Étienne Gonthier of Ville de Québec (who died in Kandahar in early 2008) and Bdr Karl Manning from the Chicoutimi part of Saguenay (who was one of the last to fall in Afghanistan in 2011, just before the final withdrawal of troops from that country).

Formed from the wartime 8 Combat Engineer Regiment which had served as part of Third Canadian Division and had been raised in Vancouver, the peacetime 8 CER would be the third Ontario-based element of the brigade group.  Regimental headquarters would be located at Butler's Barracks in Niagara-on-the-Lake alongside the third battalion of the Vandoos; the peacetime regiment would be augmented by drafts from the five wartime engineer units that had been assigned to Eighth Canadian Division to ensure there would be a decent mixture of experience and training.  The regiment would be enhanced as its sister unit in Shilo was, with three light field squadrons, one airborne engineer squadron, plus the standard support and administration squadrons assigned to such a unit.  The regiment would gain as its "special" force a squadron of bridge-builders working out of modified LAV I Husky AVGP armoured recovery vehicles modified to serve as support platforms; these armoured cars, designated the "LAV I Husky C2 AVRCE(W)" ("Armoured Vehicle, Royal Canadian Engineers [Wheeled]"), had been put to use by the combat engineers of the Seventh and Eighth Canadian Divisions in Europe and it served well given its task to support air assault and airborne sappers.  With that, 8 CER would have four squadrons based at Butler's Barracks and three detached squadrons quartered with the air assault infantry battalions at Saint-Hubert.  Butler's Barracks, it should be noted, was named in tribute to LCol John Butler, a Loyalist who formed Butler's Rangers, a militia force active that served in New York during the American Revolution and would relocate to the Niagara Peninsula of Upper Canada; that unit of rangers is seen today as the ancestral regiment of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment.  However, unlike 7 CER, 8 CER refused to take up names for quarters assigned to the detached squadrons in Saint-Hubert; the commanding officer of the regiment didn't want to "steal" names - to be taken from casualties in the War on Terror - from its sister unit in Valcartier.

Finally, the brigade group headquarters, 715e Escadron des Transmissions and 8e Bataillon des Services would take up residence at the main part of the expanded Garnison Saint-Hubert, which would get the name Caserne Keable.  This area was named in tribute to Cpl Joseph Thomas Keable, a posthumous winner of the Victoria Cross during the Great War while he had served with the Vandoo's ancestral unit; he would be awarded the Cross thanks to his actions near Neuville-Vitasse just prior to the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.  Also taking up residence at Caserne Keable would be the brigade group's attached field ambulance battalion and military police company; detached companies of 8e Ambulance de Campagne would be deployed to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Picton and Niagara-on-the-Lake to provide health services support to the brigade group's units based there.

And as for the affiliated tactical air wing to 8e GBLC...

Most of the elements of 118e Escadre d'Aviation Tactique was formed post-war thanks to the amalgamation of still-serving airmen from the five wings of the wartime 9e Groupe Aérienne du Canada that had been formed in Bagotville to be deployed overseas alongside the Eighth Canadian Division.  The wing's headquarters group, one tactical aviation squadron, the wing's integral tactical transport squadron and the integral maintenance squadron would take up quarters at Saint-Hubert Airport itself; the freshly-built facilities serving 118e Escadre would be designated as Caserne Beurling.  This barracks was named in tribute to F/L George Frederick Beurling, who was the highest Canadian ace of World War Two IOTL and a native of Verdun (now part of Montréal); he would later choose to fly for the Israelies during the 1948 War of Independence but died before going into combat.  Sadly, unlike Sgt Coughlin. F/L Beurling was lost thanks to the Shift.  The detached squadrons at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Mountain Home and Welland would take names from Great War aces who flew for the Royal Flying Corps, the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force.  Maison Foster at Garnison Saint-Jean would get its name from Lt George Buchanan Foster of Montréal.  Reid House at Mountain Home (which would remain a detachment of 8 Wing at CFB Trenton) would be named in tribute to F/SLt Ellis Vair Reid of Belleville, who was one of several Canadian aces from the Great War who flew for the Royal Naval Air Service before it was merged with the RFC to make the modern RAF.  And McRae House at the newly-constructed Canadian Forces Air Reserve Station Crowland (which was seen as part of Garrison Niagara and thus a detachment of CFB Toronto) got its name from Lt Russell Fern McRae of Niagara Falls, who flew with the RFC and the RAF in the Great War.

The squadrons themselves would be named in tribute to various types of hummingbirds (121, 129, 141 and 221 Squadrons), the gryfalcon (for 181e Escadron) and the brushturkey (for 358e Escadron).  All squadrons would follow set RCAF policy and be adopted by municipalities close to where they were formed as their honorary Air Force "home unit".  The Escadron d'Avocette was adopted by the city of Saint-Jérôme near Mirabel where it had been established as part of 23 Wing in support of Seventh Canadian Division's 19 CBG (AB).  The Sapphire Squadron was adopted by the city of Vaughan in Ontario's York Region bordering Toronto; the squadron had been actually organized in neighbouring Markham, but that city had adopted the reborn 432 Tactical Fighter Squadron now flying out of CFB Summerside and RCAF Headquarters allowed municipalities to adopt only ONE squadron.  The Escadron de Topaze would be adopted by the municipality of Mont-Saint-Grégoire, due east of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu; the squadron had been formed at Valcartier before deploying with 43e Escadre to support the Eighth Canadian Division's 29e Groupe-Brigade du Canada (Légere), but wanted to be adopted by a municipality close to its post-war base.  The Carib Squadron was adopted by Prince Edward County in which Picton and Mountain View sit; the "county" is actually a single-tier municipality and rightly called a city even if it maintains its pre-1998 upper-tier name.  As for the Escadron de Mésite and the Escadron de Talégalle, both would be adopted by municipalities neighbouring to Longueuil, Brossard to the south and Carnigan to the east.  Finally, the Escadron de Faucon Gerfaut would be adopted by another neighbouring city to Mirabel where it was first raised, Blainville.

Next:  Québec's resident armoured force sets up at Farnham...!

[pyeknu]

And with a short trip over to Farnham to introduce IIIe Corps Canadien's armoured fist...

9e GROUPE-BRIGADE BLINDÉE DU CANADA/9 CANADIAN ARMOURED BRIGADE GROUP

Quartier-Général de la 9e Groupe-Brigade Blindée du Canada (QG 9e GBBC)/9 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group Headquarters (9 CABG HQ)
    Quartier-Général de la Groupe-Brigade/Brigade Group Headquarters - Caserne de Montmorency/De Montmorency Barracks, FARNHAM, Québec
The Royal Canadian Hussars (RCH)/Le Régiment des Hussards Royaux Canadiens (RHRC)
    Regiment Headquarters/Quartier-Général du Régiment - Caserne Platt/Platt Barracks, LONGUEUIL (SAINT-HUBERT), Québec
    "A" Squadron/Escadron "A"
    "B" Squadron/Escadron "B"
    "C" Squadron/Escadron "C"
    "D" Squadron/Escadron "D"
    Support Squadron/Escadron d'Appui
5e Régiment des Fusiliers Montés du Canada (5e RFMC)/5th Canadian Mounted Rifles (5 CMR)
    Quartier-Général du Régiment/Regiment Headquarters - Caserne Rutherford/Rutherford Barracks, FARNHAM, Québec
    Escadron "A"/"A" Squadron
    Escadron "B"/"B" Squadron
    Escadron "C"/"C" Squadron
    Escadron "D"/"D" Squadron
    Escadron d'Appui/Support Squadron
13e Régiment Écossais de Dragons Légère (13e RÉDL)/13th Scottish Light Dragoons (13 SLD)
    Quartier-Général du Régiment/Regiment Headquarters - Caserne Radley-Walters/Radley-Walters Barracks, FARNHAM, Québec
    Escadron "A"/"A" Squadron
    Escadron "B"/"B" Squadron
    Escadron "C"/"C" Squadron
    Escadron "D"/"D" Squadron
    Escadron d'Appui/Support Squadron
38e (Estrie) Régiment d'Artillerie Blindée, ARC (38e RAB ARC)
    Quartier-Général du Régiment - Caserne Elkins, FARNHAM, Québec
    24e Batterie
    75e Batterie
    82e Batterie
    131e Batterie
    338e Batterie de Commandement et Services
1re Bataillon, Le Régiment des Gardes Canadiennes (1re RGC)/1st Battalion, The Canadian Guards (1 CDN GDS)
    Quartier-Général de la Bataillon/Battalion Headquarters - Caserne Cheriton/Cheriton Barracks, SAINT-GABRIEL-DE-VALCARTIER, Québec
    1re Compagnie/1 Company
    2e Compagnie/2 Company
    3e Compagnie/3 Company
    4e Compagnie/4 Company
    5e Compagnie (Armes)/5 Company (Weapons)
    6e Compagnie (Appui)/6 Company (Support)
9e Régiment du Génie de Combat (9e RGC)
    Quartier-Général du Régiment - Caserne Lalancette, FARNHAM, Québec
    191e Escadron Blindé
    192e Escadron Blindé
    193e Escadron Blindé
    194e Escadron de Pont
    195e Escadron d'Appui
    198e Escadron de Commandement et de Services
717e Escadron des Transmissions (717e ESC TRANS)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron - Caserne de Montmorency, FARNHAM, Québec
9e Bataillon des Services (9e BON SVC)
    Quartier-Général de la Bataillon - Caserne de Montmorency, FARNHAM, Québec
    Compagnie de Transport
    Compagnie d'Approvisionnement
    Compagnie de Maintenance
    Compagnie de Commandement et des Services

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

227e (Colibri de Berlepsch) Escadron Tactique d'Hélicoptères "Ville de Sherbrooke" (227e ETH) (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)
    Quartier-Général d'Escadron - Maison Foster, SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Québec
9e Ambulance de Campagne (9e AMB C) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Quartier-Général de Bataillon - Caserne de Montmorency, FARNHAM, Québec
    Compagnie d'Ambulance
    Compagnie de Chirurgie
    Compagnie d'Appui Médicale
    Compagnie d'Administration
9e Compagnie de Police Militaire (9e CIE PM) (detached from 5e Régiment de Police Militaire, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Quartier-Général de Compagnie - Caserne de Montmorency, FARNHAM, Québec

The Ninth Canadian Division (Armoured) held a number of firsts in its brief existence after the Shift saw the Canadian Army swell in size to numbers that it didn't possess even during "round one" of the Second World War in another timeline.  It was the first newly-numbered division of the Canadian Army to be formed in its history; all its predecessor units had existed in one form or another before the Shift.  It was Canada's first fully-armoured tank division; the Fourth and Sixth Canadian Divisions effectively remained armoured car units right from deployment to war's end.  And it was the first fully-functional bilingual division; while the Ninth's headquarters staff had been raised in Hamilton and was composed of units mostly from Ontario and Manitoba, it did have one armoured brigade from Québec and in the spirit of national unity during this queer time in the Dominion's history, it had been decided by the leader of the "Black Friar's Division" (as the Ninth was eventually nicknamed) that everyone under his command would be damned fluent in both languages, even the many down-timers from America who came north seeking better lives for themselves away from Jim Crow and segregation.  That spirit would effectively remain with the division's peacetime counterpart when it set up shop at Camp Farnham after hostilities ended.

Garnison Farnham - officially commissioned as Base des Forces Canadiennes Farnham on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in 1941 - was first founded in 1910 as a training camp for the Militia in the relatively flat fields of the southern part of the Saint Lawrence Valley in southwestern Québec.  The camp served as a training area for both the cavalry and the infantry until after the Great War ended, when it was closed and turned into an experimental farm.  The camp reopened just before the start of World War Two IOTL, serving yet again as a Militia training base; during the war, it would also serve as a refugee camp and prisoner-of-war camp, where nearly three thousand German prisoners were detained.  After the war, the camp reverted to a Militia training base, to which it effectively remains to this day; there was talk in the 1960s to use the site as a possible relief international airport for Montréal (it went to Mirabel instead).  For the period leading up to the Shift, Garnison Farnham would serve also as the main field training base for the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu; it had both rifle range and nice areas of woods where both officer cadets and recruit privates/aviators/ordinary seamen learned things like weapons handling and fieldcraft.

During "round two" of the Second World War, Garnison Farnham was chosen deliberately to become a base for one of the Army's post-war brigades, which necessitated the camp being upgraded to base status even if it would be a component of IIIe Corps Canadien's area service group.  Because it was out in the country and had relatively decent road access to both the international border and the Saint Lawrence River - enhanced when Transports Québec gladly built a tank-resistant spur route of l'Autoroute des Cantons-de-l'Est (Autoroute 10) to connect the new base to the provincial expressway grid; such a road became Autoroute 510 or l'Autoroute de la Division du Moine Noir (the Black Friar's Division Expressway), the official memorial road for the Ninth Canadian Division (Armoured) - the corps' armoured brigade, which was effectively formed from the re-designation of the wartime 38e Groupe-Brigade Blindée du Canada from nearby Sherbrooke, was sent to the expanded BFC Farnham.

One regiment of the wartime 38e GBBC would be staying on as part of the post-war 9e GBBC without name change or anything.  That regiment was the 13th Scottish Light Dragoons, which had been first raised from a detached squadron of the Sherbrooke Hussars at Granby before being dispatched overseas for service in the last phases of "round two" of the Second World War.  Said regiment did have something of an interesting pedigree.  The original Light Dragoons was formed in Granby in 1872 as the 79th Shefford Battalion of Infantry, a Highlander unit, with companies scattered from Waterloo to Lawrenceville.  The battalion would be made a regiment in 1900 and would be converted to cavalry in 1904 as the 13 SLD.  That regiment would continue to serve until it was disbanded prior to the massive reforms of the Militia in 1936, not even allowed to be perpetuated in another arm of service.  The new regiment would be permitted to have both Regular Force and Militia components, with the latter component based at Granby (and detached squadrons at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Saint-Hyacinthe) while the former would concentrate at BFC Farnham.  Its new home would be designated Caserne Radley-Walters; this was named in tribute to BGen Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters of Gaspé in eastern Québec, who served as an officer of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment (the combined mobilized elements of les Fusiliers du Sherbrooke and the Sherbrooke Hussars) during World War Two IOTL.  Radley-Walters was the man seen as the best claimant to killing the legendary German Waffen SS tank ace HptStuF Michael Wittmann during Operation Totalize in 1944.

Another regiment which fought in the remaining phases of "round two" of the Second World War in 38e GBBC would also get the chance to stay on with the peacetime 9e GBBC, though it would undergo a name change.  The regiment was first mobilized from another detached squadron of the Sherbrooke Hussars in Cookshire-Eaton, just east of the largest city in south-central Québec.  Said regiment had taken up the old name of the 7th/11th Hussars, which was one of the two regiments that merged together to create the modern Sherbrooke Hussars in 1965.  The 7th/11th were first formed in the 1936 Militia reforms from the amalgamation of two numbered cavalry regiments quartered in the Estrie region of la Belle Province, who had been formed originally as infantry battalions around Confederation in 1867, being allowed to become mounted hussars in 1903.  During the Great War, the two regiments helped raise the 5th Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles for service overseas; the battalion would serve as part of Third Canadian Division right though to the end of the war.  Thus, after the end of "round two" with the Nazis, the mobilized 7th/11th were given a choice:  Keep their name or bring back the name of the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles.  The unit chose the latter, thus getting the French-language title "5e Régiment des Fusiliers Montés du Canada".  No matter what, the two regiments would remain directly affiliated; it would be from the 7th/11th that 5e RFMC would draw the majority of its augmentation drafts whenever necessary.  The Regular Force regiment would take up quarters at BFC Farnham in Caserne Rutherford; this particular barracks was named in tribute to Capt Charles Smith Rutherford of Colbourne (now part of Cramahe) near Trenton in Ontario.  He was a winner of the Victoria Cross while serving as part of the 5th Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles during the Great War at the Battle of the Scarpe in 1918.

The round-out tank regiment of the brigade group would be the active element of the Royal Canadian Hussars (Montréal) from Québec's largest city.  The regiment has a considerable pedigree and history; it could trace its ancestry back to the War of 1812 and No. 1 Troop of the Royal Montréal Cavalry, which would fight in both that war and the 1837 Rebellion before establishing itself in the modern Canadian Militia as the first volunteer troop of cavalry in Montréal in 1855.  The regiment would mobilize as part of Second Canadian Division's 3 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group after the Shift, fighting as an armoured car regiment in France, the Low Countries and Germany during "round two" of the Second World War, distinguishing itself well.  When peacetime came, it was an easy decision to make; the Hussars would be "ennobled" with a Regular Force unit, though the subtitle "Montréal" would be dropped from the regiment's name to mark it as a more national unit than a local one.  Even more, because of the fact that it hails originally from Québec's largest city, the regiment would receive the French title "Le Régiment des Hussards Royaux Canadiens".  Finally, the Regular Force regiment would take up station at BFC Montréal's Saint-Hubert garrison, establishing quarters close to the lines where the air assault infantry elements of 8e Groupe-Brigade Légère du Canada would base themselves.  The new headquarters of the Regular Force Hussars would be named Caserne Platt, after Capt George Platt, the first commander of No. 1 Troop of the Royal Montreal Cavalry during the War of 1812.

The brigade group's gunners would be a unit that hadn't been on the order of battle since shortly after World War Two IOTL:  The 38e Régiment d'Artillerie Blindée, ARC.  Said regiment was raised as a reserve manning unit during "round one" of the Second World War at Winnipeg, serving from 1942 to 1946.  The regiment's number was maintained, but used by a light air defence unit at Sherbrooke; it would be based in the Estrie region of Québec until it was reduced to one battery in 1954, said battery lasting until 1968 and reduction to nil strength at Cowansville, both in the light air defence and the field capacity.  The new regiment would be formed from the amalgamation of remaining personnel from both of Ninth Canadian Division's two armoured artillery regiments (the 77th Field Artillery Regiment from London and the 13e Régiment d'Artillerie de Campagne from the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec).  After hostilities were ended, the batteries assigned to the 38e Régiment would be drawn from the 27e Régiment d'Artillerie Antiaérienne in Granby (24e and 75e Batteries), the 13e Régiment d'Artillerie de Campagne (82e Batterie from Gaspé) and the 37e Régiment d'Artillerie d'Appui Général (131e Batterie from Lachute).  The regiment would take up quarters at Farnham; it's new barracks, Caserne Elkins, was named in honour of MGen William Henry Pferinger Elkins from Sherbrooke, commander 1st Canadian Division Artillery during the Great War, helped contribute to ensuring the Royal Regiment would be a modern fighting arm of the Canadian Army.

Assigned as the brigade group's infantry force would be the first battalion of the reborn Canadian Guards, the first attempt by the Dominion to have a truly national regiment that would eventually fall victim to the growing demands of Québécois nationalism and the cost-cutting measures unleashed on the Canadian Forces as a whole after Unification.  Once decried as "too British" in the face of the drive to help the general public accept a policy of multiculturalism by the first government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the new incarnation of the Guards formed after the Shift was emphasized to be a truly national regiment; its members were to be fully and functionally bilingual - which would cause a tonne of confusion with the Germans when platoons of the Guards used "skip speech", switching from English to French and back again rapidly so as hinder intelligence gathering until the skies were dropped on the Nazis.  Thanks to the Army's prohibition from allowing any of its infantry units to form more than FOUR battalions during "round two" of the Second World War, new battalions raised by the stay-home elements of the Dominion's then-three active infantry regiments re-badged when it was decided to restore the Canadian Guards to active service; the regiment would be the LAST unit returned from the Supplementary Order of Battle.  The first battalion would be those trained by the Royal 22e Régiment at Valcartier, which is where the unit would return in the wake of serving as part of the independent 41 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in the middle and latter parts of "round two" of World War Two.  The battalion would take up quarters at Caserne Cheriton; such was named in tribute to MGen Ronald Cheriton, last commanding officer of the second battalion before reduction to nil strength in 1970 (he was one of the first officers of the regiment when it formed in 1953).  Atop serving as 9e GBBC's infantry, the battalion would execute public duties at la Citadelle alongside the first battalions of its post-Shift mother regiment.  Fortunately, to allay resentment from the older units of the Regular Force, the Guards would be seen as part of the Household Division...though it would be junior in rank to the Governor General's Foot Guards and the Canadian Grenadier Guards.  Still, the Canadian Guards - "Le Régiment des Gardes Canadiennes" in French - would fulfill the wishes of its founder LGen Guy Simonds and become the Dominion's truly national regiment, one "worthy of its hire" as veterans of the pre-Unification battalions asserted of the unit.

The formation's engineers were originally established as part of the Third Canadian Division at Calgary, where it would fight as part of the wartime 9 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group throughout the Low Countries and Germany before being allowed to return home.  The new iteration of that regiment would be formed from the renaming of 38e Régiment de Génie de Combat, raised by Franco-Manitobans in Winnipeg to serve with the Ninth Division and were willing to say on after hostilities.  Based at Farnham, the regiment would take up quarters at Caserne Lalancette, named in tribute to Spr Rosaire Lalancette of Montréal, a veteran of the Royal Canadian Engineers in World War Two IOTL who served in the final years with First Canadian Army in Northwest Europe.  The post-war regiment would be given three armoured engineer squadrons and a bridge-laying squadron as its "special" unit beyond the standard engineer support and service support elements.

Finally, the brigade group's headquarters, 717e Escadron des Transmissions, 9e Bataillon des Services, 9e Ambulance de Campagne and 9e Compagnie de Police Militaire would be based at the newly constructed Caserne de Montmorency.  This central part of the expanded BFC Farnham was named in tribute to Capt the Honourable Raymond Harvey Lodge Joseph de Montmorency of Montréal, the scion of the Viscountcy Frankfort de Montmorency in the peerage of old Ireland...as well as a dubious claim to the peerage of the Ancien Régime of France through the House of Montmorency of the Pays de France near Paris.  Capt de Montmorency was the first native-born Québécois to win the Victoria Cross even if he saw himself more British than Canadian; while serving as part of the 21st Lancers (Empress of India's) in the Sudan War, he would demonstrate exceptional bravery at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898.  Ironically, the most legendary of Britain's prime ministers had been present to see de Montmorency perform his deed; then-Lt Winston Spencer Churchill had also rode with said unit in that battle even if he himself was part of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars.

As for the brigade group's affiliated tactical helicopter squadron, it would gain 227e Escadron Tactique d'Hélicoptères from the wartime 43e Escadre and 29e Groupe-Brigade du Canada (Légere) that served in Eighth Canadian Division.  Said squadron had been established at Valcartier, but the peacetime unit would be adopted by the city of Sherbrooke as its own honorary Air Force unit.  The squadron would adopt the Esmeraldas woodstar from Ecuador as its unit symbol and would take up quarters at BFC Saint-Jean, sharing Maison Foster with 129e and 181e Escadrons.

Next:  II Canadian Corps' round-out mechanized brigade invades Kingston!

[pyeknu]

Introducing II Canadian Corps' round-out brigade group as the Army returns full-strength to Kingston...

10 CANADIAN MECHANIZED BRIGADE GROUP

10 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters (10 CMBG HQ)
    Brigade Group Headquarters - McNaughton Barracks, KINGSTON, Ontario
The Governor General's Horse Guards (GGHG)/Le Régiment des Gardes à Cheval du Gouverneur Général (GCGG)
    Regiment Headquarters/Quartier-Général du Régiment - Orléans Barracks/Caserne Orléans, OTTAWA, Ontario
    "A" Squadron/Escadron "A"
    "B" Squadron/Escadron "B"
    "C" Squadron/Escadron "C"
    "D" Squadron/Escadron "D"
    Support Squadron/Escadron d'Appui
4th Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (4 RCHA)/4e Régiment d'Artillerie à Cheval Royal du Canada (4e RÉGT ACRC)
    Regiment Headquarters/Quartier-Général du Régiment - French Barracks, KINGSTON, Ontario
    "K" Battery/Batterie "K"
    "L" Battery/Batterie "L"
    "M" Battery/Batterie "M"
    "N" (Missile) Battery/Batterie "N" (Missiles)
    294 Headquarters and Services Battery/294e Batterie de Commandement et Services
2nd Battalion, The Canadian Guards (2 CDN GDS)/2e Bataillon, Le Régiment des Gardes Canadiennes (2e RGC)
    Battalion Headquarters/Quartier-Général de la Bataillon - Simonds Barracks/Caserne Simonds, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY (PICTON), Ontario
    7 Company/7e Compagnie
    8 Company/8e Compagnie
    9 Company/9e Compagnie
    10 Company/10e Compagnie
    11 Company (Weapons)/11e Compagnie (Armes)
    12 Company (Support)/12e Compagnie (Appui)
1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Canada (1 R REGT C)
    Battalion Headquarters - Dieppe Barracks, TORONTO (NORTH YORK), Ontario
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
1st Battalion, The American Legion (212th Infantry Regiment) (1-212 IR)
    Battalion Headquarters - Pitman Barracks, KINGSTON, Ontario
    Company "A"
    Company "B"
    Company "C"
    Company "D"
    Company "E" (Weapons)
    Company "F" (Support)
10 Combat Engineer Regiment (10 CER)
    Regiment Headquarters - Hertzberg Barracks, TORONTO (NORTH YORK), Ontario
    101 Field Squadron
    102 Field Squadron
    103 Armoured Squadron
    104 Combat Diver Squadron
    105 Support Squadron
    108 Administration Squadron
706 Signal Squadron (706 SIG SQN)
    Squadron Headquarters - McNaughton Barracks, KINGSTON, Ontario
10 Service Battalion (10 SVC BN)
    Battalion Headquarters - McNaughton Barracks, KINGSTON, Ontario
    Transport Company
    Supply Company
    Maintenance Company
    Administration Company

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

110 "Town of Arnprior" (Sheartail) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (110 THS) (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)
    Squadron Headquarters - Johnson House, Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, OTTAWA (UPLANDS), Ontario
10 Field Ambulance (10 FD AMB) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Battalion Headquarters - McNaughton Barracks, KINGSTON, Ontario
    Ambulance Company
    Surgical Company
    Medical Support Company
    Administration Company
10 Military Police Company (10 MP COY) (detached from 2 Military Police Regiment, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Company Headquarters - McNaughton Barracks, KINGSTON, Ontario

The Tenth Canadian Mechanized Division was one of the last two field formations of the Canadian Army to be formed after the Shift; like the Black Friar's Division, the "Skyhawk Division" - the name taken from the sky blue divisional patch designed for the group, though the formation wasn't intended to be an airborne division - was one of three such formations established for the first time in the Canadian Army.  Drawing from personnel spanning from British Columbia to Ontario, the Skyhawks had massed together at CFB Kingston in preparation for deployment overseas in the final phases of "round two" of the Second World War; it was planned that the division would be temporarily assigned to II Canadian Corps before joining with the Ninth Canadian Division (Armoured) and the Eleventh Canadian Mechanized Division to form III Canadian Corps for the final battles to bring down the Nazis.  Fortunately, the war ended before the first elements of the Tenth Division were ready to head overseas, thus seeing the division effectively disbanded and the majority of its forces sent back home to return to civilian life or remain in the Canadian Army.

Because of the intended initial deployment with II Corps before events in Europe came down like they did, it was decided that the post-war 10 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group would be the second Regular Force mechanized formation assigned to the peacetime II Canadian Corps.  The base at Kingston was selected to be the home station for the brigade group as a whole, even if several units would be scattered from Toronto to Ottawa as a result to allow a decent coverage of southern Ontario both to handle aide to the civilian power missions and to help watch over the international border with New York state; again, even if many elements of the American government as well as the governments of the several states bordering the Dominion were more than happy to benefit from the technological largess pursued by the federal government in Ottawa, down-time conservatism in those states had stated to cause issues along that frontier that needed increased forces from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency to keep a firm control over cross-border traffic.  10 CMBG's secondary mission - as it was for the formation's sister brigade groups at Petawawa, Saint-Hubert and Borden - was to provide rapid response forces to aid the RCMP and CBSA in case something went really out of control.

Given the sudden appearance of elements of the Ku Klux Klan of all things in traditional "Yankee" territory close to Canada after the Shift...!

The first regiment to join the new brigade group was the active force of the Governor General's Horse Guards from Toronto, the senior Militia regiment of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.  Fresh from service as part of the Fourth Armoured Division's 12 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group, the "ennobled" Gugga-Huggas (as the regiment is often nicknamed) would take up new quarters at Orléans Barracks alongside the new quarters of the "ennobled" element of its effective sister infantry regiment, the Governor General's Foot Guards.  Like the first battalion of the Foot Guards, the Regular Force Horse Guards would be given the secondary task of providing personnel to the Ceremonial Guard, which would now be a full-time institution manned by personnel of the much-expanded Canadian Household Division as well as detachments from all other elements of the Canadian Forces.  This would see many streets in Ottawa be rebuilt over the following decade to help support the weight of the new Leopard 2 C2 main battle tanks assigned to the Horse Guards, which was a very welcome change from the Cougar C2 armoured cars they used in "round two" of the Second World War while part of the Fourth Division.  Of course, the regiment would maintain a mounted horse troop that would participate in ceremonial duties; in doing so, the Horse Guards would call on the knowledge from its British sister regiments, the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) from Windsor and the Life Guards from London; the Horse Guards would form an alliance with the Life Guards as well as reaffirm its alliance with the Blues, allowing personnel exchange between the regiments post-war to ensure the proper form of spit and polish was maintained at places such as Rideau Hall, la Citadelle as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The brigade group's artillery force would come from the 4th Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, which would return to the traditional home of the active element of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery in Kingston.  The regiment had been first formed for service in the Korean War in 1952 as the 81st Field Regiment, RCA; it would be renamed the next year.  4 RCHA would be based mostly at Camp Petawawa even if it would become something of the international globetrotting unit for the Royal Regiment as a whole as it exercised with other forces as part of NATO and on United Nations peacekeeping duties.  The regiment would be the first to be reduced to nil strength in the massive reductions unleashed on the then-Force Mobile Command after Unification, making way for the 2nd Regiment to move to Petawawa from Gagetown to take its place.  The regiment would be reformed after the Shift at Kingston, being assigned as one of the two missile artillery units to II Canadian Corps' brigade of gunners for service in the Low Countries and Germany during "round two" of the Second World War.  Naturally, the regiment would remain on strength in peacetime, convert back to field artillery (save "N" Battery, which would remain as a multiple-launch rocket unit) as it returned to Kingston and took up new quarters at the newly constructed French Barracks on the grounds near both the Royal Military College and Fort Henry south of old Highway 2; the new location was named in honour of MGen Sir George Arthur French, the first commander of "A" Battery of what later became the RCHA at Kingston who would later be the founding commissioner of the Northwest Mounted Police (one part of the modern RCMP).

The first of the formation's three infantry battalions would come from the second battalion of the Canadian Guards, which had been raised in Petawawa from drafts drawn from the stay-home elements of the Royal Canadian Regiment's first and third battalions before deploying overseas to serve as the infantry force assigned to the independent 40 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group under direct control of First Canadian Army.  The battalion would distinguish itself quite well in both the Low Countries and Germany, earning the regiment's first true battle honours since its formation in 1953 up-time, which would be awarded to the regiment as a whole after hostilities concluded during Canada Day celebrations in 1942 on Parliament Hill.  The battalion would maintain the bilingual traditions of the modern Guards, as did its sister battalion in Valcartier; like the first battalion, the second battalion would be an active part of the Ceremonial Guard that would be a full-time duty for all of Canada's household regiments post-war.  The battalion would return to its traditional home base of Picton in Prince Edward County; as noted before with the Regular Force element of the 4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards, the reactivated Camp Picton would be seen as a detachment of CFB Kingston.  The Guards' barracks there would be designated as Simonds Barracks; this location is named in honour of LGen Guy Granville Simonds, the commander of II Canadian Corps during the campaign in northwest Europe in World War Two IOTL who later served as Chief of the General Staff (head of the Canadian Army) and was the man who drove for the foundation of the Canadian Guards.

Joining the Guards would be the "ennobled" wing of the Royal Regiment of Canada from Toronto.  Said regiment, one of many allowed to wear red distinction cloth behind their hat badges on their berets, had been part of the Second Canadian Division during World War Two IOTL and had been part of the disastrous Operation Jubilee in 1942 when the division did a frontal attack on the occupied port of Dieppe on the English Channel.  In "round two" of the Second World War, the Royal Regiment fared much better; it would serve as air assault infantry as part of Seventh Canadian Division's 22 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) in the Low Countries and northern Germany for the middle and latter phases of the war against the Nazis.  Reorganizing itself as a mechanized infantry unit thanks to drafts joining it from elements of Tenth Division who wanted to remain in the Regular Force, the Royal Regiment would return to its home city and take up quarters at Dieppe Barracks at the reactivated CFB Toronto west of the old Northern Railway of Canada mainline between Union Station in Toronto and Barrie which also carries the Barrie Line of GO Transit; naturally, the barracks was named in tribute to the bloodiest day the Royal Regiment had ever endured.  Even better in the eyes of veterans of the unit, the headquarters and support elements of the Royal Regiment's second battalion would share the barracks with its active element, clearing out of Fort York Armoury close to downtown.

The final battalion joining the brigade group would be the first of two totally-brand new regiments to be raised after the Shift.  Given the sheer number of American volunteers that flocked to join the Canadian Forces after that event - most of whom were up-timers with prior experience in the United States Army; many more were down-timers who had migrated into the Dominion to live in a land free of Jim Crow - it was decided to form an "All-American" regiment in the order of battle of the Canadian Army.  Said regiment would take up the number of the old 212th Battalion (American Legion) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, a very short-lived unit of the Militia raised in Winnipeg to serve overseas during the Great War; the battalion would be broken up for reinforcements once it deployed to England.  The new regiment would be permitted to perpetuate the original American Legion and be designated the American Legion (212th Infantry Regiment), with home station assigned as the Highbury Complex in London.  Three battalions would be raised for the regiment at Hamilton and London in Ontario and Saint John in New Brunswick; all were assigned to the Eleventh Canadian Mechanized Division for eventual deployment overseas.  Denied the chance to fight the Nazis, the regiment would be still retained on strength, with one "ennobled" battalion assigned to 10 CMBG and the other two remaining Militia units in Hamilton and London; this was done in salute to all those of the United States, up-time and down-time alike, who flocked to the colours to fight the Nazis.

The American Legion would be granted several special dispensations by Canadian Army headquarters given the unique origins of most of its personnel.  For example, while rank insignia worn would be the proper ones used by the Canadian Army, the rank titles for non-commissioned members would be Americanized as follows, borrowing mostly from the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps:

Chief Warrant Officer (OR-9) - Sergeant Major (SgtMaj)
Master Warrant Officer (OR-8) - Master Sergeant (MSgt)
Warrant Officer (OR-7) - Gunnery Sergeant (GySgt)
Sergeant (OR-6) - Sergeant (Sgt)
Master Corporal (OR-5) - Lance Sergeant (LSgt)
Corporal (Cpl) (OR-4) - Corporal (Cpl)
Private (Trained) (Pte[T]) (OR-3) - Private First Class (PFC)

Even more so, the position of deputy commanding officer (DCO) of the regiment would be designated "executive officer" (XO) in the American style.  The position of regimental sergeant-major (the senior NCM of the unit) would be designated "command sergeant major" in the American Legion, while company sergeants major (senior NCM of the subordinate companies) would be known as "first sergeants" (1Sgt).  Staff personnel in the battalion's headquarters company would get the "S" numbers to designate who they are; i.e. the battalion S-3 would be the unit's operations officer while the S-4 would be the commander of the battalion's support company.  Finally, the companies themselves in the regiment would be lettered in the American style and be one consecutive line of companies between the three battalions, using letters A-I and K-Z if required; in the United States Army, the letter "J" was never used as in the old days, it looked too similar to the letter "I" and was dropped to prevent confusion.  Finally, those self-same companies would be addressed in the American style, i.e. Company "A" in lieu of "A" Company.

The first battalion of the American Legion would be based at CFB Kingston, taking up quarters at Pitman Barracks; this was named in tribute to the commanding officer of the original 212nd Battalion, LCol E.C. Pitman.

The brigade group's engineer force was first formed in Ottawa to serve as part of the mechanized infantry wing of the Fourth Canadian Division overseas in France, the Low Countries and Germany.  10 Combat Engineer Regiment would be maintained on strength and would be allowed to base itself entirely at CFB Toronto, moving into quarters alongside the Royal Regiment of Canada at Hertzberg Barracks; this location was named after Torontonian Maj Peter Alexander Hertzberg, who served in the Royal Canadian Engineers during World War Two IOTL as part or the Mighty Maroon Machine in Italy and northwest Europe.  The regiment would be given two field squadrons and an armoured squadron as its main combat force; it would also have a squadron of combat divers to provide such a unit to II Canadian Corps wherever such would be required.  Unlike its sister regiment based out of Butler's Barracks across Lake Ontario from Toronto, 10 CER would maintain all its squadrons at one location, though they could be dispatched to Picton, Kingston and Ottawa on both operational deployments and exercises.

Finally, the brigade headquarters, 706 Signal Squadron, 10 Service Battalion and both 10 Field Ambulance and 10 Military Police Company would take up residence at the main part of CFB Kingston north of old King's Highway 2, McNaughton Barracks.  This part of the base was named after Gen the Honourable Andrew George Latta McNaughton, who was the commander of the counter-battery staff for the Canadian Corps' artillery force in the Great War; the scientist-turned-soldier would show how good he was when the Battle of Vimy Ridge happened in 1917.  McNaughton would serve later as the first leader of First Canadian Army in World War Two IOTL, though he wouldn't get the chance to take the Army into the field after Normandy; by that time, he was on the way to replace then-Minister of National Defence (and fellow Great War veteran) James Ralston during the 1944 conscription crisis, then would serve as Canada's first ambassador to the United Nations.

As for the attached tactical helicopter squadron, such would take up quarters alongside 412 Squadron at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (the former CFB Ottawa South), moving into the newly-constructed Johnson House.  Much to the surprise of many Americans, that location was named in tribute to the late LT John Thaddeus Johnson of the United States Army Air Corps; as a member of 27 Pursuit Squadron flying Curtiss P-1 Hawk fighters from Selfridge Field (near Detroit) to the future Ottawa Airport escorting COL Charles Augustus Lindbergh in 1927 to attend Canada's Diamond Jubilee, he was killed after trying to bail out of his aircraft thanks to a mid-air collision.  The barracks for 110 Squadron itself would actually be set up on Thad Johnson Private, who overlooks one of the taxiways at the eastern end of the field.  The squadron itself would be adopted by the town of Arnprior near Ottawa and would take the sheartail from south-central Mexico as its main symbol.

Next:  British Columbia gets a whole brigade assigned to it as the Army returns to Chilliwack and Vernon!

[pyeknu]

And now looking at British Columbia's resident brigade...

11 CANADIAN MECHANIZED BRIGADE GROUP

11 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters (11 CMBG HQ)
    Brigade Group Headquarters - St John Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles (2 CMR)
    Regiment Headquarters - MacGregor Barracks, VERNON, British Columbia
    "A" Squadron
    "B" Squadron
    "C" Squadron
    "D" Squadron
    Support Squadron
3rd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (3 RCHA)
    Regiment Headquarters - Ziegler Barracks, VERNON, British Columbia
    "G" Battery
    "H" Battery
    "J" Battery
    "U" Battery (Missile)
    293 Headquarters and Services Battery
3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (3 PPCLI)
    Battalion Headquarters - Mullin Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
1st Battalion, The Irish Fusiliers of Canada (Vancouver Regiment) (1 IFC)/1ú Cathlán, Fiúsailéirí na hÉireann i gCeanada (Reisimint Vancouver) (1ú FÉC)
    Battalion Headquarters/Ceanncheathrú an Chathláin - McLelan Barracks/Dúnanna McLelan, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
    "A" Company/Cuideachta "A"
    "B" Company/Cuideachta "B"
    "C" Company/Cuideachta "C"
    "D" Company/Cuideachta "D"
    "E" Company (Weapons)/Cuideachta "E" (Airm)
    "F" Company (Support)/Cuideachta "F" (Tacaíocht)
1st Battalion, The Vikings of Canada (197th Infantry Regiment) (1 VIKINGS)
    Battalion Headquarters - Fonseca Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
11 Combat Engineer Regiment (11 CER)
    Regiment Headquarters - St John Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
    116 Field Squadron
    117 Field Squadron
    118 Armoured Squadron
    160 Mountain Assault Squadron
    119 Support Squadron
    100 Administration Squadron
744 Signal Squadron (744 SIG SQN)
    Squadron Headquarters - St John Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
11 Service Battalion (11 SVC BN)
    Battalion Headquarters - St John Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
    Transport Company
    Supply Company
    Maintenance Company
    Administration Company

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

132 "District Municipality of West Vancouver" (Starthroat) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (132 THS) (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)
    Squadron Headquarters - Collishaw House, ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia
11 Field Ambulance (11 FD AMB) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Battalion Headquarters - St John Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia
    Ambulance Company
    Surgical Company
    Medical Support Company
    Administration Company
11 Military Police Company (11 MP COY) (detached from 1 Military Police Regiment, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Company Headquarters - St John Barracks, CHILLIWACK, British Columbia

The Eleventh Canadian Mechanized Division was the last major field formation of the post-Shift Canadian Army to be organized and trained for deployment overseas in "round two" of the Second World War.  Nicknamed the "Mango Division" from its bright orange formation patch, the formation drew in personnel from Ontario and the Atlantic Provinces.  It was intended to be initially used as a replacement division for one of the formations of I Canadian Corps once deployed in Europe (thus allow Second Canadian Mechanized Division to be pulled back and refitted into a proper mechanized formation with new-built Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 main battle tanks), then it would join the Ninth Canadian Division (Armoured) and the Tenth Canadian Mechanized Division to form the field forces of III Canadian Corps for the final phase of the campaign within Germany.  Fortunately, the war ended before the formation could deploy from Gagetown across the Atlantic.

With most of its personnel allowed to return to civilian life, the division was disbanded but allowed to be effectively perpetuated in 11 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, the round-out formation of the peacetime I Canadian Corps.  Given the long-demanded need to have a permanent full-time Army presence returned to Canada's third most populous province, planners at Army Headquarters in Ottawa announced the standing up once more of Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack as well as the reactivation of the Vernon Army Camp as permanent bases within British Columbia; this would prevent the logistical issues that had once faced part of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group when it had a battalion of infantry based at Esquimalt on Vancouver Island of all things!  With the old CFB Chilliwack having pretty much been taken over by other agencies since it was reduced to area support unit status in 1997, it was decided to build a brand new base to the west of the old location, thus not forcing those people and organizations who moved into the divested property by Vedder Crossing to relocate once again.  Over at Camp Vernon - which had been primarily used by the Royal Canadian Army Cadets as a summer training facility - new barracks and work buildings were built west of Highway 97 so as to not disturb the World War Two IOTL-era buildings members of Canada's national youth organization would use once peacetime came and the needs of war finally fulfilled.

Returning to CFB Chilliwack after it had been briefly based there in 1994 as one of the "10/90" battalions of mostly-Militia soldiers during the very lean years after the end of the Cold War was the third battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, which had been quartered after Unification at Work Point Barracks in Esquimalt after the reduction of the Queen's Own Rifles' Regular Force units to nil strength in 1970.  The battalion had been part of 1 CMBG since that time, serving before the Shift as the combined light/airborne infantry force of the formation while it had been based in Edmonton.  Converting to mechanized infantry after the Shift for service in Europe, the unit performed splendidly throughout France, the Low Countries and Germany, coming out at the end reduced but still quite combat capable.  Allowed to shift to Chilliwack as it absorbed replacements from Tenth Division's disbanding active regiments to bring it back to full strength, it moved into Mullin Barracks in the newly-constructed base.  Said quarters was named in tribute to Maj George Harry Mullin, an Oregon-born and Saskatchewan-raised soldier from Portland and Moosomin who won the Victoria Cross during the Great War at the battle of Passchendaele in 1917 while part of the active unit of the Patricias.

Moving into Camp Vernon would be the 3rd Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery.  Initially formed at Shilo in 1951 as the 79th Field Regiment, RCA for service in the Korean War, the unit assumed its modern title two years later.  The unit effectively stayed at that location until it was reduced to nil strength in 1992 to make way for 1 RCHA after its repatriation from Germany in the wake of the Cold War.  After the Shift, the regiment was re-raised at Shilo from elements of the rear staff of 1 RCHA to become one of the two multiple-launch rocket units of II Canadian Corps' artillery brigade.  When the post-war plans for the Canadian Army were announced, 3 RCHA was slated to become 11 CMBG's unit of gunners.  It was planned to base the unit at Suffield at first, but the plans were soon changed and the regiment was relocated to the Okanagan Valley.  The regiment also was transformed into a field artillery unit save for "U" Battery, which kept its missile launchers to serve as the "personal shotgun" for the commander of the formation.  Given how close the regiment is based to places such as Rogers Pass and other such openings in the various western mountain ranges, 3 RCHA was given the secondary task of providing gunners and weapons for Operation Palaci, an avalanche-control exercise meant to keep both the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway to Vancouver as well as the mainline of the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) clear at all times.  The regiment would take up quarters at the newly-constructed Ziegler Barracks; this location was named in tribute to Brig William Smith Ziegler of Calgary, who commanded First Canadian Division's artillery in World War Two IOTL and was especially noted for his excellence in preparing fire plans at locations such as the Liri Valley of Italy.

Joining 3 RCHA at Vernon would be 11 CMBG's in-house tank regiment.  While formed after the Shift as the active unit of the British Columbia Dragoons from Kamloops to serve as part of Sixth Canadian Division's 16 Canadian Armoured Brigade Group to fight in the Low Countries and Germany, the trend post-war to allow the "ennobled" Militia regiments being asked to remain as part of the Regular Force saw the unit given the title of the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles.  This particular title matched that of the unit's parent regiment quite well; in the Great War, the 2nd Regiment of the Canadian Mounted Rifles had been formed from drafts of the BCD's incarnation active in that time, the 30th Regiment of the British Columbia Horse.  Said regiment would convert to infantry once in Europe and fight as part of Third Canadian Division from Mount Sorrel to the Hundred Days' Campaign that ended the war on the Western Front.  Befitting for its return to the post-war Canadian Army, 2 CMR would take up quarters at the newly-constructed MacGregor Barracks; this location was named in tribute to LCol John MacGregor, a Scottish-born British Columbian who served in 2 CMR during the Great War, where he won the Victoria Cross during the Hundred Days near Cambrai in 1918.  The regiment would be given the secondary task of providing emergency snowplowing services to the provincial government in case of massive storms; all the Challenger 2s assigned to the unit were equipped with dozer blades for that purpose.

One of the two "ennobled" Militia regiments who were given the chance to provide Regular Force battalions to 11 CMBG post-war was a unit that had been effectively wiped out of existence in 2002:  The Irish Fusiliers of Canada (Vancouver Regiment).  Formed from the amalgamation of two separate Vancouver-based infantry regiments in the 1936 Militia reforms, the Fusiliers remained on the order of battle until it was reduced to nil strength and placed on the Supplementary Order of Battle in 1965, where it remained until it was administratively amalgamated with the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) (RCAC) as a way of preserving the Fusiliers' battle honours and history; all that realistically remained of the Fusiliers was a cadet corps who were allowed to wear the caubeen with green hackle headdress and the prince's coronet-and-flaming grenade of the Fusiliers.  After the Shift, up-time Irish citizens then in Canada joined with downtime Irish and Irish-Americans who flocked north of the border from America to fight the Nazis and reform the Fusiliers as a separate unit again; once administratively made its own regiment, the Fusiliers formed an active unit to serve in Tenth Canadian Division's 32 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group for eventual deployment to Germany.

Spared fighting thanks to the quick end of the war, it was decided to allow the Fusiliers to remain "ennobled" and become one of several "foreign legion" regiments of the Canadian Army as well as one of two British Columbian regiments to represent the Dogwood Province in the Regular Force.  Because of that, the regiment received the Irish Gaelic title "Fiúsailéirí na hÉireann i gCeanada (Reisimint Vancouver)" and was granted several dispensations similar to what the American Legion received.  Atop making Irish Gaelic an operational language in the battalion, rank titles borrowed from the up-time Irish Defence Force were allowed to be used in the Fusiliers as follows:

Lieutenant Colonel (LCol) -  Leifteanant-Choirnéal
Major (Maj) - Ceannfort ("commandant")
Captain (Capt) - Captaen
Lieutenant (Lt) - Leifteanant
Second Lieutenant (2Lt) - Dara Leifteanant
Officer Cadet (OCdt) - Dalta ("cadet")
Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) - Maor-Sáirsint Reisiminte ("regiment sergeant-major")
Master Warrant Officer (MWO) - Maor-Sáirsint Complachta ("company sergeant-major") *
Warrant Officer (WO) - Sáirsint Complachta ("company sergeant") *
Sergeant (Sgt) - Sáirsint
Master Corporal (MCpl) - Máistir Ceannaire ("master chief")
Corporal (Cpl) - Ceannaire ("chief")
Fusilier (Fus) - Fiúsailéir

* Note that the title for the regiment's quartermaster sergeant (the senior member of the Royal Canadian Logistics Service in the battalion, ranked as a master warrant officer) would be addressed as Ceathrúsháirsint Reisiminte.  Company quartermaster sergeants (ranked as warrant officers) would be known as Ceathrúsháirsint Cathláin.  And the electrical and technical quartermaster sergeant (the senior member of the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in the battalion, ranked as master warrant officer) would be known as Ceathrúsháirsint Teicniúil agus Leictreach.

The Fusiliers would naturally adopt the green caubeen as their headdress, thought switch to a primrose yellow hackle behind their hat badge to differentiate them from their sister regiment in Ontario; this was meant to effectively match the gold in the sun as displayed on the British Columbia provincial flag.  Also, members of the Fusiliers would be permitted to wear the Highland style of dress worn by members of the Irish Regiment of Canada in Toronto and Sudbury; however, the O'Saffron kilts worn by all personnel of the Irish Regiment would only be worn by members of the Irish Fusiliers' band, with the same pattern trews trousers being worn by line members of the regiment with the Numbers 1 parade dress, Number 2 mess dress and Number 3 service dress.

The Regular Force element of the Fusiliers would shift into quarters at McLelan Barracks in Chilliwack; this was named in honour of the commanding officer of the regiment's Great War contribution to the fighting in Europe, the 121st Battalion (Western Irish) from New Westminister:  LCol A. W. McLelan.

To Be Continued...

[pyeknu]

Note:  Split into two parts due to issues with bold print showing up when not wanted...

The final infantry battalion to join 11 CMBG would be one of two post-Shift regiments organized by up-time foreign residents to help put down the Nazis in "round two" of the Second World War. Said regiment would echo what happened with the American Legion in Ontario and New Brunswick, though the other "foreign legion" unit would be composed of both up-time citizens of the United Kingdom joined by down-time residents who came north from America to answer the call to arms for the Crown. The regiment would take as its inspiration a short-lived battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force from the Great War that had first mobilized in Winnipeg in 1916, the 197th Battalion (Vikings of Canada). The new incarnation of that unit came to be called the Vikings of Canada (197th Infantry Regiment), with two battalions raised in metropolitan Vancouver and the third raised in Calgary to serve with Tenth Canadian Division. Escaping actual fighting thanks to the quick end of the war, the regiment was allowed to keep one "ennobled" battalion on active service as yet another "foreign legion" unit to the Canadian Army; to serve as its base, the first battalion of the Vikings would take up residence at Fonseca Barracks in Chilliwack, named after the old CEF battalion's only commanding officer, LCol H. G. Fonseca.

Like the American Legion and the Irish Fusiliers, the Vikings of Canada were granted special dispensations to mark its unique origins. The regiment would be seen as a ceremonial Highland unit, permitted to wear the British Columbia tartan kilt with their Number 1, 2 and 3 dress uniforms as a show of respect to the unit's home province; the regiment's two Militia battalions would be based in Surrey and Vancouver. Due to a considerable number of former personnel of the British Army Training Unit Suffield having joined the Vikings to lend their expertise to the new regiment and its eager personnel, it was decided to adopt a light grey tam o' shanter similar to the same-colour beret worn by the up-time Royal Scots Dragoon Guards as the official headdress; a white hackle was adopted as the Vikings were also made a ceremonial fusilier regiment. The rank titles use by non-commissioned members would be changed to the British pattern titles as follows:

Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) - Warrant Officer Class I (WO I)
Master Warrant Officer (MWO) - Warrant Officer Class II (WO II)
Warrant Officer (WO) - Staff Sergeant (SSgt)
Sergeant (Sgt) - Sergeant (Sgt)
Master Corporal (MCpl) - Lance Sergeant (LSgt)
Corporal (Cpl) - Corporal (Cpl)
Private (Trained) (Pte[T]) - Lance Corporal (LCpl)

Naturally, personnel of the down-time British Army pursued the chance to go on exchanges with the Vikings post-war to gain more knowledge.

All other parts of the brigade group save the attached tactical helicopter squadron would come together at St John Barracks at Chilliwack. This particular part of the base was named in honour to the last base commander of CFB Chilliwack in the 1990s before its reduction to area support unit status, the late Col Roger Kenwood St John from New Westminster; he would also serve as colonel commandant of the Canadian Military Engineers from 2008-09. With 11 Combat Engineer Regiment taking up quarters there, the Canadian Military Engineers have once again claimed their traditional home station; the training unit for the branch would still remain at Gagetown. 11 CER would be tasked to aide 3 RCHA and 2 CMR with Operation Palaci as well as other snow-clearing duties whenever required; atop its normal run of field and armoured engineer squadrons, the regiment would also possess a mountain assault squadron trained to work in high altitudes. The regiment would share St John Barracks with the brigade group headquarters staff, 744 Signal Squadron, 11 Service Battalion as well as 11 Field Ambulance and 11 Military Police Company.

As for 132 Squadron, the unit would take up quarters at a part of Abbotsford International Airport. Given its close proximity to the border with Washington state, the squadron would be always ready to assist the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency in securing the frontier; the rest of the brigade group would have the same duty, especially with CFB Chilliwack not eight kilometres from the 49th Parallel. The squadron would be adopted by the district municipality of West Vancouver as its honorary Air Force unit and take as its symbol the plain-capped starthroat from Mexico. The squadron's home barracks would be named Collishaw House, after the Great War's second-most successful Canadian fighter ace, then-LCol Raymond Collishaw from West Vancouver; this would make the location the second such installation named after a living down-timer as now-Air Commodore Collishaw was in Egypt at the time of the Shift, then in command of 204 Group of the Royal Air Force! Of course, he was willing to return and properly rejoin the RCAF once the full situation was understood; now a brigadier general, he was senior liaison officer of the commander 3 Canadian Air Division to the senior leaders of the RAF. Now seen as being on reserve service, BGen Collishaw was more than happy to become the honorary colonel of the Starthroat Squadron as well as all other Vancouver-based units of the RCAF in mark of his Great War successes.

Next: The Atlantic Provinces get their own brigade at last!

[pyeknu]

And the final brigade group of the Regular Force arrives as the Atlantic Provinces get their own formation...!

12 CANADIAN BRIGADE GROUP (LIGHT)

12 Canadian Brigade Group (Light) Headquarters (12 CBG[L] HQ)
    Brigade Group Headquarters - Kerr Barracks, KINGS COUNTY (ALDERSHOT), Nova Scotia
6th Canadian Mounted Rifles (The King's Canadian Hussars) (6 CMR)
    Regiment Headquarters - Williams Barracks, HALIFAX (SHEARWATER), Nova Scotia
    "A" Squadron
    "E" Squadron
    Support Squadron
    "B" Squadron - Vincent House, Robertson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
    "C" Squadron - Hayes House, Ings Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
    "D" Squadron - Borden House, Ricketts Barracks, GANDER, Newfoundland and Labrador
71st (Acadia) Light Artillery Regiment, RCA (71 LAR RCA)
    Regiment Headquarters - Buchanan Barracks, KINGS COUNTY (ALDERSHOT), Nova Scotia
    61 (Parachute) Battery
    65 (General Support) Battery
    371 Headquarters and Services Battery
    11 Battery - Armstrong House, Ings Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
    103 Battery - Eaton House, Ricketts Barracks, GANDER, Newfoundland and Labrador
    105 Battery - Plow House, Robertson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (3 RCR)
    Battalion Headquarters - Foulkes Barracks, HALIFAX (SHEARWATER), Nova Scotia
    "M" Company
    "N" Company
    "O" Company
    "P" Company
    "Q" Company (Weapons)
    "R" Company (Support)
1st Battalion, The Nova Scotia Highlanders (1 NS HIGHRS)
    Battalion Headquarters - Robertson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
1st Battalion, The Prince Edward Island Highlanders (1 PEI HIGHRS)
    Battalion Headquarters - Ings Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
1st Battalion, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment (1 R NFLD R)
    Battalion Headquarters - Ricketts Barracks, GANDER, Newfoundland and Labrador
    "A" Company
    "B" Company
    "C" Company
    "D" Company
    "E" Company (Weapons)
    "F" Company (Support)
12 Combat Engineer Regiment (12 CER)
    Regiment Headquarters - Demeter Barracks, KINGS COUNTY (ALDERSHOT), Nova Scotia
    121 Field Squadron
    127 Combat Diver Squadron
    129 Support Squadron
    120 Administration Squadron
    130 Field Squadron - Armstrong House, Ings Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
    136 Parachute Squadron - H.E. MacDonald House, Foulkes Barracks, HALIFAX (SHEARWATER), Nova Scotia
    137 Field Squadron - O'Keefe House, Ricketts Barracks, GANDER, Newfoundland and Labrador
725 Signal Squadron (725 SIG SQN)
    Squadron Headquarters - Kerr Barracks, KINGS COUNTY (ALDERSHOT), Nova Scotia
12 Service Battalion (12 SVC BN)
    Battalion Headquarters - Kerr Barracks, KINGS COUNTY (ALDERSHOT), Nova Scotia
    120 General Support Company
    129 Administration Company
    121 Airborne Support Company - Foulkes Barracks, HALIFAX (SHEARWATER), Nova Scotia
    122 Forward Support Company - Robertson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
    123 Forward Support Company - Ings Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
    124 Forward Support Company - Ricketts Barracks, GANDER, Newfoundland and Labrador

Attached to the formation from other elements of the Canadian Forces:

12 Field Ambulance (12 FD AMB) (detached from 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Military Personnel Command)
    Battalion Headquarters - Tupper Barracks, HALIFAX (SHEARWATER), Nova Scotia
    121 Airborne Medical Company
    126 Medical Support Company
    129 Administration Company
    122 Field Medical Company - Robertson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
    123 Field Medical Company - Ings Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
    124 Field Medical Company - Ricketts Barracks, GANDER, Newfoundland and Labrador
    125 General Medical Company - Kerr Barracks, KINGS COUNTY (ALDERSHOT), Nova Scotia
12 Military Police Company (12 MP COY) (detached from 5 Military Police Regiment, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group)
    Company Headquarters - Kerr Barracks, KINGS COUNTY (ALDERSHOT), Nova Scotia

119 TACTICAL AVIATION WING (detached from 11 Canadian Air Group, Royal Canadian Air Force)

119 Wing Headquarters (119 WG HQ)
    Wing Headquarters - Matheson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
113 "Municipality of the District of Guysborough" (Mango) Tactical Helicoper Squadron (113 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Keirstead Barracks, HALIFAX (SHEARWATER), Nova Scotia
114 "Municipality of the District of Saint Mary's" (Awlbill) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (114 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Matheson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
115 "City of Grand Falls-Windsor" (Lynx) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (115 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Watson Barracks, GANDER, Newfoundland and Labrador
135 "Town of Borden-Carleton" (Streamertail) Tactical Helicopter Squadron (135 THS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Rogers Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
155 "Town of Stratford" (Korhaan) Tactical Transport Helicopter Squadron (155 TTHS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Rogers Barracks, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
189 "Town of Truro" (Hobby) Attack Helicopter Squadron (189 AHS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Matheson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia
359 "County of Colchester" (Scrubfowl) Air Maintenance Squadron (359 AMS)
    Squadron Headquarters - Matheson Barracks, COLCHESTER COUNTY (DEBERT), Nova Scotia

While there were thoughts in Canadian Army Headquarters concerning creating a third airmobile/airborne division to serve in Europe, such never went past the initial planning stages before it became quite obvious that such a formation wasn't necessary.  Given the rapid collapse of Nazi forces in the last stages of "round two" of World War Two, plans concerning field divisions were shelved for the more immediate concerning of building a proper post-war Regular Force Army that could see to the Dominion's defence needs and serve as a much better core of experienced troops in case another major conflict broke out.  To that end, the country's territory was split into three command zones:  I Canadian Corps covering British Columbia, the Prairie provinces, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories; II Canadian Corps covering Ontario and Nunavut; and IIIe Corps Canadien covering Québec and the Atlantic provinces.  Within each corps' operational zones, four active brigade groups would be maintained:  Two mechanized formations, one armoured formation and one air assault/airborne formation.  Save for the last of the twelve planned brigade groups, each post-war formation would effectively perpetuate a wartime division and serve as the core of such a division in a general mobilization.  The last of the Regular Force's field formations, 12 Canadian Brigade Group (Light), would serve as IIIe Corps' air assault/airborne brigade group, covering Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador; whether or not such could serve as a core for a potential Twelfth Canadian Division (Airmobile) would remain unanswered for the time being.

To form the main core of the new formation, the third battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment would de-camp from Petawawa and shift down to Halifax, seeing Foulkes Barracks rebuilt on an expanded Shearwater Heliport in old Dartmouth across from the heart of Nova Scotia's capital city.  As is known, the barracks takes its name from Gen Charles Foulkes, a British-born member of the Royal Canadian Regiment who served in the Second World War IOTL; he rose to command Second Canadian Division in the Normandy campaign in 1944, later rose to command I Canadian Corps in the last part of the war, would serve as the first post-war Chief of the General Staff from 1945-51 and rose eventually to Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff (the pre-Unification incarnation of the Chief of the Defence Staff), serving from 1951-60.  After serving as mechanized infantry within 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in First Canadian Division from France to the Low Countries to Germany itself, the battalion would become a full airborne force after hostilities ended and troops were repatriated, finding itself often exercising with ships of the Royal Canadian Navy's Atlantic Fleet to determine how to best operate with warships on the high seas; with the planned Mount Logan-class amphibious assault ships soon to be commissioned, learning how to work as amphibious infantry would also become a skill the paratroopers of the Royal Canadians would perfect in the years to come.

Three "ennobled" Militia regiments would get the chance to fill the other infantry battalion slots in 12 CBG(L).  The senior of them was the Nova Scotia Highlanders, a regiment whose active element served with the Mighty Maroon Machine as part of the "Lucky Thirteenth":  13 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group of the Fifth Canadian Division through the Low Countries and Germany as one of II Canadian Corps' mechanized formation.  Remaining on strength post-war and gaining drafts of freshly-trained personnel from the Tenth and Eleventh Canadian Divisions who were willing to remain in the Regular Force, the Nova Scotia Highlanders' first battalion would take up newly-constructed quarters at the former Camp Debert near Truro; the camp had been recommissioned after the Shift as CFB Halifax Detachment Debert to serve both as an Army training centre and an Air Force staging base.  The new quarters for the Nova Scotia Highlanders was designated Robertson Barracks, which was named in honour of Pte James Peter Robertson of Stellarton, a posthumous winner of the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 during the Great War.  It should be noted that Robertson had been serving as part of the 27th Battalion (City of Winnipeg) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, which was perpetuated by the Royal Winnipeg Rifles; because of this, the Little Black Devils of Winnipeg and the North Shoremen (as the Nova Scotia Highlanders were nicknamed after the Shift) formed an alliance.

Another Highlander regiment would be "ennobled" to serve with the formation.  This one would represent Canada's smallest province:  The Prince Edward Island Highlanders of Charlottetown, one of the two post-Shift units formed from the old Prince Edward Island Regiment (RCAC).  The "Spud Scotsmen" (as the regiment came to be nicknamed in the field after the Shift) had actually served under its pre-Shift title as a tank regiment, forming part of Fifth Canadian Division's 15 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group that drew in personnel from both Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.  At the same time, a second tank regiment was formed in anticipation of serving with the Eleventh Canadian Division's 35 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group; to prevent confusion, the unit raised in Montague took up the pre-1946 name of the true cavalry regiment from the island, the Prince Edward Island Light Horse.  Because of that, the Prince Edward Island Regiment was re-rolled back into infantry and renamed the Prince Edward Island Highlanders, then was given the right to have a Regular Force battalion raised to serve in 12 CBG(L).  Fortunately, there were enough natives of the Lady's Slipper Province who had done time in infantry to form the new core of the "ennobled" Highlanders; the remaining elements of the post-war battalion would be drawn in from volunteer drafts rising from other regiments.  The Spud Scotsmen would take up residence at the recommissioned CFB Summerside; its new home would be called Ings Barracks after LCol A. Ernest Ings, the commanding officer of the 105th Battalion (Prince Edward Island Highlanders) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War.  Ironically, Ings would have probably his battalion into combat as a fighting element of the Fifth Canadian Division had that formation not been disbanded in April of 1918 to see its personnel sent to the Western Front to reinforce the elements of the Canadian Corps already in the field.

The round-out battalion of 12 CBG(L) would be the famous Blue Puttees of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.  The "youngest" of Canada's infantry regiments thanks to it being officially brought on the order of battle after its home province joined Confederation in 1949, the descendants of the fighters who had been nearly wiped out at Beaumont-Hamel on 1 July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme was one of the more busy units after the Shift.  Atop its two pre-Shift battalions serving as part of 15 CMBG alongside the Prince Edward Island Regiment in the Low Countries and Germany - where the Blue Puttees constantly strove to be in the thick of it from their first battle to the end of the war - the regiment also raised an airfield air defence infantry battalion to serve with 3 Canadian Air Division in the United Kingdom.  In respect to all the regiment did during the war, it was a no-brainer to keep a battalion of the Royal Newfoundlanders as part of the Regular Force post-war.  The unit was assigned to 12 CBG(L) as the third air assault battalion, then was quartered in new barracks built at CFB Gander.  The new quarters were named Ricketts Barracks in honour of Sgt Thomas Ricketts from the Baie Verte Peninsula in the Rock's Notre Dame Bay region; he was a member of the regiment's World War One incarnation when he won the Victoria Cross thanks to his actions near Ledegem in 1918 near the end of the Hundred Days' Offensive.

Forming the brigade group's armoured car force would be the active unit of the Halifax Rifles (RCAC), another veteran regiment of the Mighty Maroon Machine.  Said regiment would be kept on strength post-war, but would be renamed the 6th Canadian Mounted Rifles in reflection of what was happening to other "ennobled" Militia tank units that were scheduled to be retained with the Regular Force after hostilities ended.  The regiment would take up quarters at the Shearwater heliport next to the new quarters of the third battalion of the Royal Canadians; such a location was designated Williams Barracks.  This location was named in honour LGen Sir William Fenwick Williams, the first Baronet of Kars from Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley; he was a veteran of the Crimean War, the first commanding officer of the Halifax Volunteer Battalion (the ancestral unit of the Halifax Rifles) and would later serve as the last governor of pre-Confederation Nova Scotia.  As with its sister regiments at Shilo and Picton, 6 CMR would dispatch squadrons to be based with the light infantry forces based at Debert, Summerside and Gander.  Vincent House in Debert was named in honour of LCol A.G. Vincent, the commanding officer of the 40th Battalion (Nova Scotia) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War, a unit that would be perpetuated by the Halifax Rifles.  Borden House in Gander would get its name from HCol the Right Honourable Sir Robert Laird Borden from Grand-Pré on the shores of the Bay of Fundy; he was the eighth Prime Minister of Canada during the Great War whose tireless work eventually helped make the Dominions equal partners in the British Empire.  He was also a former member of the Halifax Volunteer Battalion who rose through the ranks and earned a commission; he would later serve as honorary colonel of the Halifax Rifles from 1912 to his death in 1937.  And Hayes House in Summerside would get its name from Tpr Corey Joseph Hayes of Ripples in New Brunswick, who was a member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons who died in the War on Terror in 2009 in Afghanistan's Shah Wali Kot District.

As for 12 CBG(L)'s force of gunners, the 71st Light Artillery Regiment, RCA was stood up at Camp Aldershot; the old Militia training centre near Kentville was also made a detachment of CFB Halifax (it had been once a detachment of CFB Gagetown) and upgraded to a fully-active Army training garrison.  The 71st Regiment was originally the post-World War Two IOTL name of what became the 1st Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery; the unit was formed in 1946 and officially renamed three years later.  The new regiment would be established from returning drafts of artillerymen who had been recruited from across the Atlantic provinces, soon moving into quarters at Buchanan Barracks; this location was named after LCol Norman Bruce "Ike" Buchanan of Saint Stephen in New Brunswick, a veteran of World War Two IOTL who served with both the Royal Artillery and Royal Canadian Artillery from north Africa to Italy to northwest Europe, having won the Military Cross a total of three times for valour in the field.  The regiment would draw on batteries from across Canada to form its fighting elements:  11 Battery from the 8th Light Artillery Regiment in Hamilton; 61 Battery from the 20th Field Artillery Regiment in Edmonton; 65 Battery from the 10th General Support Artillery Regiment in Regina; 103 Battery from the 166th Field Artillery Regiment in Saint John's; and 105 Battery from the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (The Loyal Company) in Saint John.  As its sister regiments in both 7 CBG(L) and 8e GBLC did, the 71st Regiment dispatched batteries to be based alongside the infantry battalions based at Summerside, Gander and Debert.  All three locations were named in honour of winners of the Military Cross in the Great War and the Second World War IOTL.  Armstrong House at Summerside was named after Lt Roy Fraser Armstrong from Saint Andrews in New Brunswick; he served in the artillery in the Great War as both gunner and engineer, winning the MC for distinguished action under enemy fire.  Plow House at Debert was dedicated in honour of MGen the Honourable Edward Chester Plow, a Vermont-born adopted Montréalais who served as an artillery officer in the Second World War IOTL, rising to commander of I Canadian Corps' artillery forces; he would later serve as the twenty-second lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia.  And Eaton House at Gander was named in honour of Capt Gordon Campbell "Cam" Eaton, a winner of the Military Cross in the Second World War IOTL as part of the 166th Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery in 1943 while serving as a forward observer in the Italy campaign; he would later serve as the first commanding officer of the post-Confederation 166th Field Artillery Regiment and would later served as honorary colonel of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.  The 71st Regiment would be given the honour title "Acadia" in mark of the general area of the country it had been tasked to serve in.

The brigade group's engineer force would be structured the same ways as 7 CER and 8e RGC were for 12 CBG(L)'s sister formations at Shilo and Saint-Hubert.  12 Combat Engineer Regiment would be headquartered at Aldershot, taking up new quarters at Demeter Barracks; this location was named in honour of Cpl John William "Jack" Demeter of New Waterford in Nova Scotia, a member of the Royal Canadian Engineers and Canadian Military Engineers from 1965-77 who was a veteran of the Québec Crisis and had also trained with the Canadian Airborne Regiment.  Like its sister regiments, detached squadrons would be placed at Summerside, Shearwater and Gander to help form the battalion battle groups that would be the main fighting elements of the brigade group.  H.E. MacDonald House in Shearwater was named in tribute to Cpl Hiliary "Mac" Edward MacDonald of New Waterford, a member of the Canadian Military Engineers who served with the Canadian Airborne Regiment after Unification.  O'Keefe House in Gander was named in tribute to WO Kevin Patrick O'Keefe, a member of the CME who served with both 56 Field Engineer Squadron and the Royal Newfoundland Regiment out of Saint John's.  And the squadron dispatched to Summerside would share Armstrong House with 11 Battery of the 71st Regiment; this was in salute to the fact that while he had first joined as a gunner, Lt Armstrong served as a field engineer during the Great War.  The squadrons in 12 CER were structured to give full field support to the fighting battalions, including three field squadrons and one airborne engineer unit.  The regiment was also given a "special" unit of combat divers who would often train with the clearance divers and port inspection divers of the Royal Canadian Navy based out of Halifax.

The vast majority of the formation's other land-based forces - the brigade group headquarters, 725 Signal Squadron, 12 Service Battalion and 12 Military Police Company - would take up quarters at Kerr Barracks at Aldershot.  This location was named in honour of Pte John Chipman Kerr of Fox River, who won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in 1916 during the Great War when he was serving as part of the 49th Battalion (Edmonton Regiment) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force; he would later became a sergeant in the RCAF.  The formation's health services group, however, would be based out of Shearwater Heliport, having detached companies at Aldershot, Summerside, Debert and Gander; this would make 12 Field Ambulance the largest Regular Force Army support unit of the Health Services Group.  The main headquarters of the battalion would reside at Tupper Barracks at Shearwater; this location was named in honour of Dr the Right Honourable Sir Charles Tupper, the sixth Prime Minister of Canada and the last premier of pre-Confederation Nova Scotia who was also the first medical officer of the Halifax Volunteer Battalion that would eventually evolve into the modern Halifax Rifles (RCAC).  The brigade group's logistics force would do the same as its sister battalions elsewhere did; dispatch forward support companies at Shearwater, Debert, Summerside and Gander to support the infantry battalions located there.

As for 119 Tactical Aviation Wing, it would set up headquarters at the old RCAF Station Debert, which was still in quite operable shape after the Shift.  The formation would absorb all four flying squadrons and the air maintenance unit of the wartime 10 Wing that fought with the Mighty Maroon Machine.  113 Squadron would return to Shearwater heliport post-hostilities; the unit would be adopted by the District of Guysborough at the eastern end of mainland Nova Scotia as its honorary Air Force unit and would adopt the green-throated mango from South America as its mascot.  114 Squadron would be based at Summerside post-war (it had been raised at Gagetown) and would be known as the "Awbill Squadron" after another South American relative of the hummingbird, the fiery-tailed awlbill; the squadron would be adopted by the District of Saint Mary's in the same county as Guysborough.  115 Squadron would return home to Gander and be adopted by the city of Grand Falls-Windsor post-war.  The squadron gained the lynx as its mascot because there had been a badge approved for the squadron back during "round one" of World War Two; at that time, 115 Squadron served as a bomber reconnaissance unit flying out of Tofino on Vancouver Island.  And 155 Squadron would return to Summerside and be adopted by the town of Stratford next to Charlottetown as its honorary Air Force unit; the squadron would adopt the Rüppell's korhaan from southwestern Africa as its mascot.

Also joining the wing from other wartime formations would be 135 and 189 Squadrons.  The former had been meant to serve as part of 39 Wing supporting the Eleventh Canadian Division, being directly assigned to 35 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.  The squadron would effectively remain at Summerside where it was first constituted, being adopted by the town of Borden-Carleton sitting at the Prince Edward Island end of the Confederation Bridge; it would adopt the red-billed streamertail from Jamaica as its mascot.  And the latter squadron, which had been organized as a French-language unit at Valcartier to serve with 43e Escadre attached to Eighth Canadian Division's 29e Groupe-Brigade du Canada (Légere), would be made an English-language unit and take up quarters at Debert; it would be adopted by the town of Truro and would adopt the African hobby (a type of falcon) from the eastern part of the continent as its mascot.  Finally, the former 10 Air Maintenance Squadron from Summerside would be renumbered as 359 Squadron and take up new quarters at Debert; the unit would be adopted by the County of Colchester as its honorary Air Force unit (as Debert is an unincorporated community) and would adopt the Tanimbar scrubfowl from the like-named islands in the Dutch East Indies as its mascot.

Following the theme used by other squadrons and wings of 11 Canadian Air Group, the barracks where the elements of 119 Wing would be based were named in honour of famous Great War fighter aces.  Matheson Barracks at Debert would be named in honour of Capt William Drummond Matheson of nearby New Glasgow, who served in both the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force.  Kierstead Barracks at Shearwater honours Capt Ronald McNeill Keirstead of Wolfville, who served in the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force and was a winner of the Distinguished Service Cross.  Gander's Watson Barracks got its name from Lt Harry Ellis Watson of Saint John's, who flew with the RFC and the RAF.  And Rogers Barracks at Summerside would honour Capt William Wendell Rogers of Alberton, who also flew with the RFC and the RAF in the Great War.  All the aforementioned barracks beyond Debert would be shared with other wings of the Royal Canadian Air Force:  3e Escadre at Summerside, 9 Wing at Gander and 121 Wing at Shearwater.

Next:  The first of the post-war Militia Army brigades guarding the frontier between southwest Ontario and Michigan!

[stevep]

   pyeknu

  Ah you do realise your given the game away with that last sentence.  "Next: The first of the post-war Militia Army brigades guarding the frontier between southwest Ontario and Michigan!"  Once the Nazis are out of the way Canada's main concern is that dodgy lot to their south.

  Seriously a hell of a lot of detail and some clear hints that the German resistance collapses fairly dramatically, which given how things are at the moment in the main TL probably won't last much longer.  Major kudos again for all the work your put in with a massive amount of information on how post-war Canada sets up its military.

  Steve

[pyeknu]

LOL! Guess I did, didn’t I?

[pyeknu]

Before we actually do a breakdown of the Canadian Army's Militia units and formations post-war, several points have to be made...

THE NATURE OF RESERVE SERVICE

Prior to the Shift, the Militia - as well as the other elements of the Canadian Forces Reserves - operated on what sometimes seemed like a shoestring budget, with dated equipment in many places.  Also, the concept of "too many chiefs" was rife throughout the Militia; while regiments and battalions were commanded by full lieutenant colonels, the units in question at most paraded up to double company strength (on average about 200 all ranks), which was often a point used by those who wanted to reform the reserve forces in the way the British Army did, via unification of whole regiments into massive regional "super-regiments" that would combine the histories of up to ten separate units in one single battalion.  Fortunately, such hadn't happened; the defenders of the regimental system as it had evolved in Canada always maintained that doing something like that would be ruinous for already low morale thanks to the dearth of funds from Ottawa to allow operations to happen, to say anything of the lack of supportive labour legislation that would ensure Militia soldiers would be able to retain their jobs with civilian employers when called out to serve.

The Shift changed things radically.

As the "round two" version of the First Canadian Army - the largest formation of soldiers ever assembled under a Canadian commander, with two corps of three divisions each (with a third corps of three field divisions prepared to join in), two spare heavy airmobile divisions, two separate brigade groups and all the support troops needed to keep the formation going in the field thanks to the complete lack of technologically-equal allied forces - did its necessary work in Europe, the planners at Army Headquarters in Ottawa were busy planning a massive overhaul of the Militia to make it an effective partner force to the full-time forces in defence of the nation.  With the whole threat board having changed quite radically, the need to have well-trained and vigilant personnel ready to do anything that could be required in such an uncertain world was paramount.  And given that the potentially largest threat was actually the down-time United States - where many people were being inflamed to rage against the "decadent" Canadians, driven by people such as the infamous Monsignor Charles Edward Coughlin of Hamilton (who had been in the States when the Shift happened and now found himself without a proper home in the Steel City) as well as leaders of a resurgent Ku Klux Klan (who had gained a lot of popularity after the Shift even in traditionally "Yankee" states because of the knowledge of how up-time Canada had evolved) and the fire-eating segregationists from the old Confederacy (who had discovered that many African-Americans were literally quitting the nation in droves, following the trail of the pre-Civil War Underground Railway to expand the Great Migration directly into the "Land of Canaan"; such was adversely affecting local industry and agriculture) - the need to keep the border between the more populous Union and the more advanced Dominion secure was seen as paramount in both Ottawa and Washington.  And while the federal government under President Franklin Roosevelt and the governments of the several states bordering Canada were more than understanding about the sheer social clash that was happening along the frontier - and quite grateful that the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the governments of all the provinces bordering the United States, from the left-leaning New Democrats in British Columbia under Premier John Horgan to the right-leaning Conservatives in Ontario under Premier Doug Ford, were quite understanding and forgiving of many faux pas committed by down-timers south of the border - the leaders in the United States knew that Canadians as a whole had limits to their patience and their nearly infinite ability to accept and forgive such things could easily run out!

While the 49th Parallel wouldn't become an armed border, it would be heavily monitored on both sides.

To aide in that monitoring on the Canadian side, the Militia and the other elements of the Canadian Forces Reserves would be restructured and strengthened to a point that hadn't been seen since the end of the Second World War IOTL.  Concerning the Militia itself, its total numbers would be increased to a "minimum" level of 50,000 soldiers all ranks, which would have seriously outnumbered the pre-Shift full-time Army considerably.  To ensure that all those who wanted to put on or keep wearing a uniform in defence of the Dominion could do so, the structure of the Reserves would be altered as follows:

The Primary Reserve - Known more commonly as "Class A service", the Primary Reserves would be composed of the traditional part-time soldiers who would parade several times a month on weekday evenings and one weekend a month.  This type of service was expanded so that pay for these levels of reservists would match that of the Regular Force (metered for time on the clock at the local armouries), with the full support package including contributions to pensions, health services coverage and the like.  Any unit in the Militia would be required to have at least the equivalent of one company/squadron/battery of field personnel and another company/squadron/battery of support and training staff parading at least once a week and two weekends each month.  And while this would help keep a core of troops ready to go whenever needed, the actual limit of two companies/squadrons/batteries could be exceeded if funds were available and public interest was seen as demanding such; even more so, if the unit commander saw the need for twice-a-week musters of his/her command, that would be permitted if funds were available.  Furthermore, actual field/support personnel could be spread to form the cores of ALL the companies/squadrons/batteries of any unit, thus allowing each regiment to maintain its wartime structure as noted in how the Regular Force brigades' various units were structured.

The Active Reserve - Known more commonly as "Class B service", the Active Reserves would be full-time employed members of the Militia who would sign on for a six-month stint in uniform before committing again or shifting to a different type of service.  Each unit would have an force of up to one company/squadron/battery in size of active reservists, again spread out among the unit's sections as required; this would allow units of the Militia to be seen in as many communities as possible as will be commented on in the future.  This element of the Militia would be the effective "rapid response" group of the Canadian Army's reserve forces, ready to go the instant an alert for any sort of emergency was issued by higher command, covering everything from response to natural disasters to potential civil unrest issues to the first steps in an all-out mobilization of the Army as what happened right after the Shift.  This would help with areas of unemployment considering the sheer masses of service personnel being demobilized in the wake of the war in Europe as the local economy adjusted to a heightened peacetime setting.  Under no circumstances would personnel in the Active Reserves be detailed off peace-meal to augment the Regular Force.  That duty would be saved for personnel in...

The Mobilized Reserve - The new version of what was "Class C service" in pre-Shift days, the Mobilized Reserve would be full-time employed members of the Militia who sign on for more than six months in uniform as required by higher command.  Individual members of Militia units could volunteer for the Mobilized Reserve and serve as augmentation to Regular Force units to keep those regiments and battalions at full fighting strength, something that was seen as necessary in such an uncertain world.  The only way full units could be mobilized is by direct order of the Governor in Council (the Canadian cabinet) in case of very serious emergencies, especially with the potential threats from places such as Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union...and regretfully, the down-time United States as well.

The Ready Reserve - The new version of what was known as the "supplementary ready reserve" before the Shift, the Ready Reserve would be non-employed members of the Militia who would volunteer to be on paper strength with a particular unit, ready to be mobilized whenever required.  This is where a considerable majority of the veterans of the Canadian Forces would be marked as once they were repatriated from Europe and moving to make lives for themselves in the civilian world.  Where once, members of the SRR would have to report to their host unit one day a year to update administrative paperwork, it was decided that such a mustering would occur at the unit's discretion for a period of a week (including weekend) a year to ensure that personnel would be ready to serve; if funds could be made available, such a muster would happen twice a year.  The musters would encompass detailed medical examinations to ensure members were realistically fit in case they needed to be mobilized, a thorough and intensive review of all standard military knowledge learned in recruit and trades training, updating of personnel records to ensure contact information was maintained and even a weekend field exercise for those interested in shifting from the Ready Reserve to the Primary Reserve.  Such musters would also be open to the general public as well, used as a basic recruiting tool to keep the Primary Reserve elements of the Militia in relatively decent shape; while morale had certainly been boosted by the decision to maintain ALL the regiments and battalions that had been mobilized for "round two" of the Second World War, old timers knew that all it needed was for manning numbers to dip way below self-sustainment levels and the threat of the Supplementary Order of Battle being reopened would loom over the Militia once more.  As a bonus, all members of the Ready Reserve would be allowed full-year health services coverage through the Canadian Forces in lieu of seeking civilian doctors and dentists.  The Ready Reserve will also be where personnel who had been wounded in Europe or elsewhere would be placed and cared for when they were seen as unfit for any form of uniformed duty; if long-term hospitalization and/or home care was required, such would be paid jointly by the Canadian Forces and the home province's/territory's disability support departments.

Finally, the Holding Reserve - The new version of the "supplementary holding reserve" from before 2002, the Holding Reserve would be non-employed members of the Militia who had failed to maintain contact with their unit after demobilization.  There would be no annual or biannual musters for these personnel, though anyone seen as part of the Holding Reserve could allow themselves to be switched back to the Ready Reserve within one year of last contact with their home units.  If they had "disappeared" for more than a year, personnel put in the Holding Reserve would have to undergo the WHOLE recruitment process if they wanted to get back into uniform again.  After doing that, such personnel MUST parade with the Primary Reserve for at least a half-year before qualifying for being shifted to the Ready Reserve; there would be no effective scamming of federal dollars by people who would go through retraining, then decide to return full-time to the civilian world.  People who did do that would be permanently released from the Forces and forbidden to return to uniform unless in the most dire of emergencies.

With that, on paper, the Militia would initially have the following units on effective strength post-war:

40 armoured regiments (armoured car and tank)
62 artillery regiments (light, field, armoured, air defence, missile, mixed general support and target acquisition)
100 infantry battalions (light, mechanized, airborne, air assault and mountain)
47 engineer regiments (combat, support, survey and construction)
23 communications regiments (field signals, electronic warfare and communications support)
40 independent communications squadrons (all field signals)
7 field battalions of the Royal Canadian Logistics Service
4 depot regiments of the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
43 service battalions (combined RCLS/RCEME units)

In addition, the reserve elements of 2 Canadian Forces Health Services Group would have:

28 field ambulance battalions
3 theatre-level health services regiments
3 theatre/corps area hospitals
3 combat support hospitals
8 field hospitals
3 general support health services regiments
3 dental services regiments

The reserve elements of the Canadian Forces Military Police Group's land forces wing would have:

10 field military police battalions (eight of which had been company-sized in wartime)
5 field military police specialist battalions

And the reserve elements of the Canadian Forces Intelligence Regiment would contain:

3 corps/regional intelligence battalions
3 intelligence specialist battalions

This represented ALL the field forces of the Canadian Army in "round two" of the Second World War not maintained in the Regular Force.

Next:  Divisions, brigades and districts, plus the Canadian version of the Foreign Legion in the Militia...oh, my!

Note: The tactical aviation elements of the Royal Canadian Air Force Reserve will be covered in the future.

[stevep]

  pyeknu

  Well I was joking about the US.  Expecting some problems due to social issues but sounds like its a good bit worse than I expected.  Suspect its not only blacks that are looking towards Canada in some numbers given both social and economic benefits they might get in working there, although it would be a considerable job bringing many of them up to a level for the higher grade jobs in terms of technical skills.  Which might be a problem in the future if many of them get frustrated at seeing themselves as 2nd class citizens.

  Didn't realise that Coughlin was Canadian by birth.  Always assumed he was American and he had been there for nearly a couple of decades checking his Wiki entry.  Interesting snippet.  Thanks.

  Of course the problem with larger forces is often the funding, especially once the immediate threat is seen to decline.  There are a lot of optional extra training possibilities there 'if funding allows'.  One of the problems of liberal democracies is that when a crisis comes we often pay a heavy bill, in blood as well as other currencies, because we're skimped too much on defence preparation. 

  Steve

[pyeknu]

Jul 23, 2019 22:34:49 GMT stevep said:

  pyeknu

  Well I was joking about the US.  Expecting some problems due to social issues but sounds like its a good bit worse than I expected.  Suspect its not only blacks that are looking towards Canada in some numbers given both social and economic benefits they might get in working there, although it would be a considerable job bringing many of them up to a level for the higher grade jobs in terms of technical skills.  Which might be a problem in the future if many of them get frustrated at seeing themselves as 2nd class citizens.

  Didn't realise that Coughlin was Canadian by birth.  Always assumed he was American and he had been there for nearly a couple of decades checking his Wiki entry.  Interesting snippet.  Thanks.

  Of course the problem with larger forces is often the funding, especially once the immediate threat is seen to decline.  There are a lot of optional extra training possibilities there 'if funding allows'.  One of the problems of liberal democracies is that when a crisis comes we often pay a heavy bill, in blood as well as other currencies, because we're skimped too much on defence preparation. 

  Steve

Well, even if the average American citizen at the time would be somewhat repulsed by what they see of Canada, I doubt there would be many issues.  However, to simply ignore the threat of agitators would be just foolish, especially since Canadians just came from a time when the whole issue of the Second Amendment to the U.S. constitution had caused a considerable level of furor (i.e. Columbine, Las Vegas, Orlando, Parkland, etc); also remember that up-time Canadians came from a period when the fear of terrorism was quite large (the Parliament Hill attack where Cpl Nathan Cirillo was killed).  While in this particular time period, the National Rifle Association in the States is actually quite benign, Canadians would most likely still see them as the far-right gun nuts they later evolved into.  With news coming across the border of KKK expansion, added onto what the migrants from the south would tell about lynchings and the like (which were quite common in this time period), the fear many Canadians would have about down-time Americans trying something to "put the uppity fag-lovers" and the like "in their place" would be profound.

Atop that, while redrobin65 will be the one who decides how many would come north in the long term and how Canadian-American relations would run in the future, the changes such a migration would cause in places like the old Confederacy would be noticed sooner or later.  Especially with the loss of factory and farm workers who would go north to seek better opportunities for themselves and their families.  How would local agriculture be affected if sharecroppers all disappear and don't run the big farms down south, especially since America is still trying to shake off the affects of the Great Depression?  How would vital industries such as shipbuilding, aircraft manufacture, steel making and the like be affected?  While those who still smart thanks to the "lost cause" nonsense that's been prevalent in Dixie for years might be happy deep down that the "uppity niggers" (and please excuse my using that word, everyone!) were gone, they'd be scrambling to make sure local industry and agriculture wouldn't be affected by the voluntary job losses, especially with what just happened in Europe and what could potentially happen in the Pacific and with the Soviets as well.

And yes, you are right concerning the difference of education and the like.  That's why I mentioned that certain units of the Naval Reserve would dedicate themselves to run basic training courses for migrants coming into the country during the war; the other elements of the Canadian Forces Reserve would have done the same thing.  And there would be civilian agencies dedicated to helping migrants get up to speed concerning how things run in the Dominion; this would be ultimately no different in the end than what happens to migrants or refugees from other nations who come to Canada seeking a better life.  Besides, given how bad it could be in places in America, the vast majority of migrants would WANT to learn about things; such is a guarantee that they would eventually have better lives for themselves.  There'll be the troublemakers and the lazy ones, of course; there always is when it comes to something like this.  But those types would be marked out right away and shunted aside, just getting the bare minimum of support from the federal and provincial governments if not encouraged to return home.

I've known all along that Coughlin was a native of Hamilton, which isn't too far from my home town of Welland or my current place of residence in Port Colborne.  I've seen bios about the man over the Internet in recent years, plus read other TLs where he was a player in the storyline.  And given the man was not just an anti-Semite but also pro-fascist, he wouldn't have much of a welcome in Canada after the Shift occurs.  And while he would have been effectively silenced because of the start of World War Two, the Shift and how that changed his own home country would definitely have him speaking up again, joining in concert with the other nay-sayers about how "decadent" the Dominion had suddenly become.  Sure, there would be moves to shut down his use of radio as well as his newspaper Social Justice, but with agitators on the far right in Canada who had access to the Internet, he would have a potential new platform to spout his views before the CRTC and the RCMP got involved and shut that off for him.  That, I think, would make the Roman Catholic Church finally step in and force him to stay quiet or lose his privileges as a priest, but the damage might be done still.