Named by the Enemy

📖 The Scoop

The Royal Winnipeg Rifles regiment holds a special honour - a second official name first bestowed by the enemy: Little Black Devils. The regiment was formed in 1883 and provided members of the Nile Expedition of 1884/5 to rescue Gordon of Khartoum. Its first major operation was the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, seeing action at Fish Creek and Batoche. The regiment was prominent during the First World War, including the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, when it withstood a poison gas attack and assault that sent units on both sides reeling, leading British Prime Minister Lloyd George to declare that the regiment by steadiness under strain was the focal point in saving the Channel ports and removing the danger to England of invasion. In World War II the regiment was in the spearhead of the Normandy landings and the first Allied unit to reach its D+1 objective. It fought across Northwest Europe into Germany. Since the war it has provided companies for NATO service in Germany and Korea, as well as UN peacekeeping missions.

Genre: History / Canada / Post-Confederation (1867-) (fancy, right?)