17th Duke of yorks RCH & practical questions

[Phil Tonin]

Hi all,
I'm new here and have been reading this forum with a lot of interest. I have searched the forum about the 17th Duke of Yorks Royal Canadian Hussars (7th Recce) and still have many questions.

What was the difference, in terms of objectives and missions, between a Recce Regiment like the 17th Duke of Yorks and an Armoured Recce regiment such as the South Albertas (beside the difference in the vehicles used) ?
Except the hand guns in use, did it happen that members of Recce Regt like 17 DYRCH had individual stens or Enfield n°4 for their personal protection?
Eventually, I have a very minute question about their BD: has anyone an idea if the 17DYRCH shoulder title worn by that time was also woven/embroidered?

Aside from Walter G. Pavey's AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT of the 7th Canadian Reconnaissance Regiment (17th DUKE OF YORK'S ROYAL CANADIAN HUSSARS) in the World War 1939 – 1945 , is there any other book about that regiment? I've seen many websites but there are very little info on it.

Thanx for the help.

Phil

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

The 17 DYRCH was the recce regt. for an infantry division whereas the SAR was that for an armoured division. I suspect the roles of recconaisance, patrolling and scouting were similar but for the range of the respective units. There was a distinction between the roles of armoured car regiments and a recce regiments in the offical pams. I leave it to others to speak to the specific differences.

Small arm were issued according to an 'official' scale of issue for a particular type of regiment. I don't think there would have been any major difference between the infantry and armoured recce regiments. Actual issue and what was picked up according to the user's preference is another thing.

Regarding the flashes, from about 1943 on, printed flashes as a 'war economy' were available and persisted to the end of the war in all regiments. Both would have been used along side each other depending on availability and the wearers preference (or means). Printed were generally used for 'every day' whereas the more desirable emboidered ones were often used on 'best' battledress. UK made flashes were obviously more common in Europe than Canadian made ones. By todays standards, from a collector's point of view, the printed flashes are 'more collectable', followed by period UK made embroided ones.

Hope this helps.

[Phil Tonin]

Thanx a lot for these explanations Bruce!!!

[Dwayne Hordij]

Here is an example of both the embroidered and printed versions.The first set of post war titles are very similar in design. The ones pictured below are wartime issue.

Dwayne

[Phil Tonin]

Thanx a lot Dwayne!!