View source for 7th Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery

{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=October 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox military unit
|unit_name = 7th Medium Regiment
Royal Canadian Artillery
| image = Royal_Canadian_Artillery_FCA_formation_patch.png
| image_size = 250
|caption = Formation patch worn by RCA army troops
|dates = 1 September 1939 – 8 June 1945
|country = {{flag|Canada|1921}}
|allegiance =
|branch = Canadian Army
|type =
|role = Artillery
|size =
|command_structure =
|garrison =
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|nickname =
|patron =
|motto =
|march =
|mascot =
|equipment = {{convert|5.5|in|mm|adj=on}} artillery piece x 16
|equipment_label =
|battles = Normandy, Liberation of the Netherlands
|disbanded = 8 June 1945
<!--Commanders-->
|commander1 =
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|notable_commanders = Lt-Col. G.H. Ellis; Lt-Col. W.G. Myatt; Lt-Col. F.P. Haszard, OBE.
}}
The '''7th Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery''', was one of six Canadian medium [[regiment]]s that saw
service in [[Great Britain|Britain]] and continental [[Europe]] in the [[Second World War]], the others
being the [[1st Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery|1st]], [[2nd Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery|2nd]], [[3rd Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery|3rd]], [[4th Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery|4th]], and [[5th Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery|5th Medium Regiment]]s.
(There was no 6th Medium.)
The 1st, 2nd and 5th Mediums served in Italy, while the 3rd, 4th,
and 7th were in northwest Europe. Three of these units (1st, 4th, and 7th)
were each equipped with sixteen {{convert|5.5|in|mm|adj=on}} [[gun]]s, firing 100-pound [[shell (projectile)|shell]]s,
while the other three had {{convert|4.5|in|mm|adj=on}} guns firing 60-pound shells.
Medium regiments were not part of the [[artillery]] component of the individual [[infantry division|infantry]] or [[armoured division]]s as were most [[field regiment]]s (25-pounder guns) but were classed as "Army" troops and were available to support any formation which needed the fire of heavier guns.
The 7th Medium Regiment was raised in September 1939 with
the mobilization of four [[Ontario]] militia field [[artillery batteries]]: the 12th
([[London, Ontario|London]]), 45th ([[Lindsay, Ontario|Lindsay]]), 97th ([[Walkerton, Ontario|Walkerton]]) and 100th ([[Listowel, Ontario|Listowel]]).
In the period from then until February 1941, during which time
the regiment was at [[Petawawa, Ontario|Petawawa]], there were a number of
organizational changes from which emerged the 7th Army
Field Regiment, RCA, consisting of the 12th, 45th and 97th
Batteries.
The 7th continued its training at Petawawa and in [[New Brunswick]] until November 1941, when it went overseas to [[England]], where it spent over two and a half years in constant training. A major change occurred in November 1943 when the regiment was converted from Field to Medium, and gave up its [[25-pounder]]s for the much bigger [[BL 5.5-inch Medium Gun|5.5 inch]]. In the process it became a two-battery regiment, and the 97th Battery was disbanded, most of its personnel, however, being absorbed by the other two larger batteries.
The war for the 7th Medium became the real thing when it crossed the Channel in the second week in July 1944, and from then until the end of the fighting in the first week of May 1945 it took part in all the major battles and actions in which [[First Canadian Army]] was engaged: [[operation Overlord|Normandy]], the Seine crossing, the [[Channel ports]]
([[Operation Wellhit|Boulogne]] and [[Operation Undergo|Calais]]), [[Battle of the Scheldt|the Scheldt]], [[Bergen op Zoom]], [[Nijmegen salient]],
[[Battle of the Rhineland|the Rhineland]], the [[Operation Plunder|Rhine crossing]], the advance through central and northern [[Netherlands]], and finally across the [[Ems River]] into northwest [[Germany]].
The 7th Medium fired its first round in anger at [[Rots, Calvados|Rots]], near [[Caen]], [[Normandy]], shortly after 18:00 on 13 July 1944, and its last, also shortly after 18:00, from its last gun position at [[Veenheusen]] in Germany, a short distance from [[Emden]], on 4 May 1945. In the course of 10 months in action, the 7th occupied about 60 gun positions, fired nearly 70,000 rounds of 100-pound shells in support of three Canadian divisions, most of the British divisions and the [[1st Polish Armoured Division]], all of the [[British 21st Army Group]].
The major battles in which the 7th was engaged were of course Normandy, the [[Scheldt]] and the Rhineland. The fire program for the opening of the latter is reported to have been the largest in the West during the war: at 05:00 on 8 February 1945, 1,400 British and Canadian guns of all [[caliber|calibre]]s opened fire at once in support of the [[XXX Corps (United Kingdom)|British XXX Corps]], consisting for the opening of the battle of four British divisions and the [[2nd Canadian Infantry Division]] attacking east from [[Nijmegen]] into Germany. Included in the preliminary bombardment, which ended at 09:30, were 16 medium regiments (13 [[Royal Artillery]] and three [[Royal Canadian Artillery]]. This was followed at 10:00 by the 2½-hour [[barrage (artillery)|barrage]] in support of XXX Corps infantry attacking into Germany. In the ten months in which the 7th Medium was in action it had 124 casualties, of which 35 were killed and 89 wounded (some of the latter returned to the unit on recovery).
In Normandy, during Operation Totalize, on 8 August 1944, a group of American bombers dropped their ordnance right on top of the 7th medium regiment, 12th battery, Royal Canadian Artillery. "The great problem on our side was road space, and it was while waiting in our gun positions, still firing at the retreating German forces, that the first disaster of the campaign befell us. A flight of American Fortresses flying high over 12th Battery area unloaded their bomb load right on top of the battery and on a nearby ammunition depot. B troop received most of the damage and Lt. J.E. Clark and ten other ranks were killed or died of wounds shortly afterwards. Captain W.G.Ferguson and eighteen other ranks were wounded and evacuated"<ref>HISTORY OF THE 7th CANADIAN MEDIUM REGIMENT R.C.A. FROM 1st SEPT 1939 To 8th JUNE 1945 WORLD WAR 2, pg 47</ref>
Several G.P.O.s from the 7th became 'Air Observation Post' pilots with [[No. 665 Squadron RCAF]], and [[No. 666 Squadron RCAF]]: Lt. A.B. Culver, Lt. R.G. Everett, and Lt. R.A.S. Perley.
The 7th Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, was disbanded on 8 June 1945.
==Music==
''The call to arms : the Canadian army marching song'' (1914) by W.J. Bugler, was dedicated to Lieutenant Colonel H.C. Becher, commanding, 7th Regiment Fusiliers, London, Ontario. Chorus: ''They will march and fight with a might that's right'' First line: ''British boys who play the war game.''<ref>{{cite web|last=Government of Canada|title=''The call to arms : the Canadian army marching song''|url=http://amicus.collectionscanada.gc.ca/m5-bin/Main/ItemDisplay?l=0&l_ef_l=-1&id=498079.295835&v=1&lvl=1&coll=17&rt=1&itm=22579563&rsn=S_WWWraaWDnlOb&all=1&dt=SW+%7Cregiment%7C&spi=-&rp=1&v=1|access-date=9 January 2012|archive-date=8 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108204416/http://amicus.collectionscanada.gc.ca/m5-bin/Main/ItemDisplay?l=0&l_ef_l=-1&id=498079.295835&v=1&lvl=1&coll=17&rt=1&itm=22579563&rsn=S_WWWraaWDnlOb&all=1&dt=SW+%7cregiment%7c&spi=-&rp=1&v=1|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Lockwood, Captain A.M. ''History of the 7th Canadian Medium Regiment, R.C.A.'' (Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada, 1945) No ISBN issued.
[[Category:Artillery regiments of Canada|007th Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery]]
[[Category:Medium artillery regiments]]
[[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945]]