Halifax Rifles returned to Order of Battle?

[George Wallace]

Ummm!    Geo ?

Looking for a complete break down of units the Brigades?

Lets see if I got this one right....

36 CBG

Prince Edward Island Regiment
1st Field Regiment RCA (Halifax-Dartmouth) 
84th Independant Field Battery 
45th Field Engineer Squadron  
The Princess Louise Fusiliers 
The West Nova Scotia Regiment 
1st Battalion, The Nova Scotia Highlanders (North) 
2nd Battalion, The Nova Scotia Highlanders (Cape Breton) 
33 (Halifax) Service Battalion
35 (Sydney) Service Battalion
33 (Halifax) Field Ambulance 

37 CBG
1st Bn The Royal New Brunswick Regiment (Carleton and York) Saint John, Fredericton, and Edmundston, N.B.
2nd Bn The Royal New Brunswick Regiment (North Shore) Bathurst and Campbellton, N.B.
1st Bn The Royal Newfoundland Regiment St. John's, N.L
2nd Bn The Royal Newfoundland Regiment Cornerbrook, N.L
B Coy 2nd Bn The Royal Newfoundland Regiment Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L
C Coy 2nd Bn The Royal Newfoundland Regiment Stephenville, N.L
115 Bty 3rd Field Artillery Regiment RCA Saint John, New Brunswick
89 Bty 3rd Field Artillery Regiment RCA Woodstock, New Brunswick
The 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise's) Moncton, New Brunswick
B Sqn The 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise's) Sussex, New Brunswick
56 Field Engineer Squadron (56 FES) St. John's N.L

 

[Eye In The Sky]

That being said, there appears to be an "armoured" or light RECCE & Engineer capacity mising from the NS mix....

I am not sure about the unit strenghts now, been gone for 2+ years from Bde.  However, 36 CBG has Armd Recce (PEIR) and Fd Egnr (45 FES).

 

[George Wallace]

In both cases, neither is in Halifax.  The PEIR are in Charlottetown and Summerside, PEI and 45 FES is in Sydney, NS.

http://www.army.dnd.ca/36cbg_hq/pages/units_e.html

 

[Loachman]

Lets not forget though that most of our AF reservists are class B/C and are not likely to be recruited from the local community in the case of 440 Sqn.

Not where I am.

 

[geo]

Ummm...
1.  When trouble happens, you never have enough Sappers
2.  45 FES is based in Cape Breton (Sydney)... a fair distance from Halifax.  56 FES is well.... even further - on the rock.

3  The PEIR & 8CH are light RECCE units - again - a fair distance away.

If someone has concluded that there is enough of a need for RECCE in the Halifax area, then there might very well be a need for those additional sappers... Possibly a detached troop from 45 FES.  I just don't know :shrug:

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Ummm...
1.  When trouble happens, you never have enough Sappers
2.  45 FES is based in Cape Breton (Sydney)... a fair distance from Halifax.  56 FES is well.... even further - on the rock.Unless we get airlift we are more than 16+hrs away by road and sea and assuming that Marine Atlantic would give us priority for a crossing

3  The PEIR & 8CH are light RECCE units - again - a fair distance away.

If someone has concluded that there is enough of a need for RECCE in the Halifax area, then there might very well be a need for those additional sappers... Possibly a detached troop from 45 FES.  I just don't know :shrug:

Don't forget that 4 ESR is within driving distance albeit something like 4+hrs.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

George, true but both are in 36 CBG, although not geographically in Hfx, and geographically 36 CBG is all of NS and PEI.  The last time they were "needed" in Hfx was Juan back in Sept 2003, and, like the IRU out of Gagetown, they were here (all 3 being about a 4 hour drive from Hfx).   Its a bit of a mix-match in the CBGs down here.  As I mentioned, 35 Fd Amb is located in Sydney but belongs to 37 CBG, which is not even in the same provinces(s) as 37.  Same goes for Nfld, which has no Armd or Arty units.  56 FES is the 37 Bde Engr unit but is only in St-Johns.  Thats a big area for a Res unit to cover.

Geo, ref your point #3, ALL PRes Armd units have re-rolled to Armd Recce/Light Recce.  There was talk when I was at Bde HQ about a Res Engr unit being stood up in both Hfx and Fredericton (as I mentioned earlier).  

I'll hopefully get a few details from the folks I know at the Bde Recruiting Cell and G3 world tomorrow...

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Thought 35 FD AMB supports both Brigades?

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Thought 35 FD AMB supports both Brigades?

Well, it was 33 Fd Amb with 36 CBG and 35 Fd Amb went over to 37 CBG...as 37 didn't have a Res Fd Amb.

 

[dapaterson]

Fd ambs do not belong to the CBGs.  They belong to the Health Services Group.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Fd ambs do not belong to the CBGs.  They belong to the Health Services Group.

True.  I should have said "tasked" or "OPCON" or whatever the current situation is. 

3 Int and 30 MP fall directly under LFAA as well IIRC.

 

[Romeo Echo Mike Echo]

I read press release glad to hear about The Halifax Mounted Rifles; the fascinating report was about a " new Company-sized sub-unit to be assigned to one of Land Force Western Area’s existing Reserve Force Infantry Battalions in Yellowknife". Any guesses about which BNs? LER maybe as 4 or5 PPCLI.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Loyal Edmonton Regiment IS the 4th BN PPCLI.

I read press release glad to hear about The Halifax Mounted Rifles; the fascinating report was about a " new Company-sized sub-unit to be assigned to one of Land Force Western Area’s existing Reserve Force Infantry Battalions in Yellowknife". Any guesses about which BNs? LER maybe as 4 or5 PPCLI.

They you then just be another company of LER then not a new BN IMHO

 

[CountDC]

You covered most of the bases, but there is a definite absence of Armour.

No matter what the Recruiting base may be in Halifax, maybe not everyone wants to be Infantry.  There has been no opportunities for those wanting to join Armour, unless they wanted to drive over to the Charlottetown or Sackville/Moncton.  Now the opportunity to join the Armour Corps will be offered to the Halifax and area recruiting base.

the point is with all those units already in Halifax placing another unit there will simply mean taking potential recruits from them. Armour is not a good choice for the area as NS does not allow armoured vehicles to travel on the highway/road system. Anytime they want to play on the tanks they would have to load them onto the back of a rig to transport them to ...... Gagetown.  There really is no training area in NS that is suitable for armoured. I hope they go with Recon and give them a couple snoopy APC's - that might bring in enough additional recruits.

 

[CountDC]

I'd be suprised to see the Halifax Rifles be activated as an armoured regiment again; CLS stated in pretty clear terms at the Infantry Conference in May that there is what he perceives to be a surplus of armoured units and if he has his way, there's going to be some re-roling of those units into what he deems to better suit the Army's needs (*cough* Engineers *cough*).  Whilst it is nice to see a historic regiment return to life, I'm a bit dismayed at the decision, plus the Yellowknife decision.  Seems that we've already got adequate reserve unit coverage for NS, and I don't think that recruiting CF reserve members from a far north workforce is going to be easy.  I'm led to believe that most people who are mostly motivated to stay in that area due so because of the ability to achieve huge monetary gains they make from extensive overtime hours working in the natural resource sectors (i.e. work for a few weeks with insane overtime, then head 'back south' for a week or two off, then repeat the cycle).  I don't see how those kind of folks are going to have any desire to take time off for reserve military training.
For years, Prince George BC has been campaigning for a reserve unit of some kind to be set up in it, and have been consecutively turned down.  Seems to me like this announcement is largely driven by politics than practicality (i.e. Reactivating the Halifax Rifles on McKay's home turf of NS and forming a NT based reserve unit to bolster the focus on northern sovereignty)

I do agree that there seems to be plenty of Reserve units in the Halifax area.

How long has Prince George been campaigning?  Halifax Rifles has been since they were stood down - even formed an association and cadet unit. hey - maybe that is where they can get the needed recruits - convert the cadets into a reserve unit!!

 

[CountDC]

In addition there are PSYOPS, CIMIC, (As part of the Information Operations Unit with 3 Int) and the MPs in Sackville.

as they are part of Int I didn't seperate them - did forget that the MPs were no longer part of Service Battalion.

 

[George Wallace]

as they are part of Int I didn't seperate them - did forget that the MPs were no longer part of Service Battalion.

???

What are you talking about?  Where did you come up with this false info?  They may fall into an organization which brings these different Units together under one 'command'.  That organization is "Information Ops", not "Intelligence"

 

[George Wallace]

the point is with all those units already in Halifax placing another unit there will simply mean taking potential recruits from them. Armour is not a good choice for the area as NS does not allow armoured vehicles to travel on the highway/road system. Anytime they want to play on the tanks they would have to load them onto the back of a rig to transport them to ...... Gagetown.  There really is no training area in NS that is suitable for armoured. I hope they go with Recon and give them a couple snoopy APC's - that might bring in enough additional recruits.

OK

You are right outside of your Lanes on this.  Armour Reserve units do not have any tracked vehicles, let alone tanks...........Where in PEI do you think they have a Training Area?  Do you have any knowledge of any Armour Reserve unit across this country? 

Just as a matter of interest, I have ran Armour Recce Crses in Camp Aldershot, in the Valley, in Nova Scotia, in the Summer Time, and Exercised as an Armour Recce Troop Officer with a full Troop as part of a Recce Sqn several years in a row........All in Nova Scotia....All without any problems.

AND TO GET REALLY PICKY   IT IS RECCE.......NOT Recon. !

 

[CountDC]

OK

You are right outside of your Lanes on this.  Armour Reserve units do not have any tracked vehicles, let alone tanks...........Where in PEI do you think they have a Training Area?  Do you have any knowledge of any Armour Reserve unit across this country? 

Just as a matter of interest, I have ran Armour Recce Crses in Camp Aldershot, in the Valley, in Nova Scotia, in the Summer Time, and Exercised as an Armour Recce Troop Officer with a full Troop as part of a Recce Sqn several years in a row........All in Nova Scotia....All without any problems.

AND TO GET REALLY PICKY   IT IS RECCE.......NOT Recon. !

As a matter of fact I am out of my lane - I do not know any Armoured units period but when people in general talk armoured they refer to tanks which are tracked. I did not see Armoured Recce mentioned at the point that I posted.  I have never been to PEI so I would never have a chance to see a tank there nor would I know what they have for training areas but then I wasn't talking about PEI - I was talking about NS.  I do know NS does not have an area that is really suitable for training Armoured.  Aldershot certainly would not do as I have walked the entire camp in a few hours - not much room for tank training and you couldn't even take the tanks from the main camp to the driving area without breaking the law. At least with Armoured Recce you have wheeled vehicles so you can travel to the driving area and surrounding country side.

As for it being RECCE not Recon - I am aware of that in regards to the Armoured Recce.  Perhaps you would be happier if I said reconnaisance instead of using a standard known abbreviation that everyone would know including all those on here that are not military and thus may not know Recce. By the way - just because someone talks about reconnaisance does not mean they are talking about Armoured Recce, when I was infantry we had a Recce Plt.

So just to make you happy - I would prefer that they set them up as a Reconnaisance Platoon and not regular Infantry.  Give them a couple APCs for colour and to draw in recruits.

 

[CountDC]

???

What are you talking about?  Where did you come up with this false info?  They may fall into an organization which brings these different Units together under one 'command'.  That organization is "Information Ops", not "Intelligence"

Either bad memory (has been awhile since I worked with int)/,misunderstood/misinformed.  When I used to work with the Int boys in Halifax (when they still were part of AMA/LFAA instead of a sub-unit) it was mentioned in a conversation I had with a couple one day.  I thought they had said the others were under their umbrella.

thanks for the correction.