A dragon from the American Revolution
A dragon was an infantryman who moved on a horse ("ridden") and dropped on foot. The original intention was simply to have infantry that could move quickly. Organization and titles of officers thus corresponded to those of the infantry and not of the cavalry.
By the way, this latter does not apply to the Dutch army. According to the Officers' books 1830 to 1867 (Name and ranking of the officers of the Dutch army), the rankings between Majoor and First Lieutenant were referred to as Rhythmist or Ridmaster, as in the cavalry, and not as Captain. From 1868 there are Hussars instead of Dragonders.
In contrast to real cavalry units, they were in a disadvantage, so they increasingly trained and armed as cavalry units. Gradually, dragons were more and more used as light and medium-sized cavalry.
The name would originate from the dragon-drawn dragon. Another explanation is the typical dragon shape that would have had the course of a 17th century French musket and where especially prepared infantrymen would have been armed. Dragons were deployed by the British during the American Revolution with little success.
Various modern armed forces retained parts with the traditional dragons, even when the mechanized infantry was introduced in the warfare after the development of the armored car.
For example, the British Columbia dragons were part of a Canadian unity that operated in the Netherlands in 1945 and was involved, inter alia, in the liberation of Delfzijl. The Belgian city of Ostend was liberated on 8 September 1944 by units of the Manitoba dragoons. The Manitoba Avenue reminiscent of it. In Bruges, the artwork reminds bizons on the Canadian bridge of liberation in the same year by that regiment.
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