1. Anomally

    Anomally New Member

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    Regiment Names

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by Anomally, May 11, 2008.

    I need to create a Candian sounding regiment name for my historical ficiton, WWII story. I don't want to use any existing ones because, the regiment in the story may commit a couple of warcrimes, and I'd feel like I was dishonouring some of the real regiments by using their names. I know it's fiction, but still...

    I just need something like (insert name here) Foot Guards or something similar. Usually I'm good at this stuff, but I'm drawing a complete blank.
     
  2. Smithy

    Smithy New Member

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    As far as I know, there were no Canadian Guards regiments, the only Guards battalion were in the British Army.

    There were lots of Royal...Canadian Battalions though. If you want an elite sounding unit name then it should have a bit of history behind it, or at least sound like it does. 5th Battalion Royal Canadian Rifle Corps?

    What sort of atrocities are they going to commit? I think that even if you do use a fictional unit you should still be careful as to how low these allied soldiers sink. The Canadians shot prisoners from 12th SS in the fighting around Caen, but that was an exception caused by the fact that 12th SS had shot Canadian prisoners first. Other than shooting prisoners however, the status of which as a War Crime is debatable, atrocities committed by Allied forces were very rare.
     
  3. Anomally

    Anomally New Member

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    There were reports of one regiment setting fire to a civilian city occupied by German soldiers, and it seems to be considered a war crime. I wouldn't go really far, but the basis for their burning of the city (in my story) is that they have reports that citizens have been sheltering high ranking Nazi officials.

    A couple of soldiers from the platoon get drunk and rev themselves up a bit, and decide to torch the village in order to flush out the enemy. They don't actually manage to burn much, but I'd rather not use an actual regiment name, so I can avoid insulting veterans and other people who may have been a part of a regiment I named.

    My grandfather served in the war, and I know he'd hate it if someone wrote a book using the name of his battalion in conjunction with something like the burning of a town. Even if it was fiction.

    Thanks for the help! I think I'll use something like the Royal Canadian Foot Guards. Oh, and there was a Governor General's Foot Guards, that was the regiment my grandfather (whom the story is slightly based off) was part of.
     
  4. Daniel W

    Daniel W New Member

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    If you're still taking in ideas, i suggest researching on some words of another language, something to do with leading. Once you have a good sounding word with a good meaning behind it, alter it a bit and use that.
     

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