The Royal Rifles of Canada, a French-Canadian unit recruited in the Quebec City area commanded by the English-Canadian, Lieutenant-Colonel W.J. Home, first saw action on 19 December as the Japanese divided the East Brigade into two with the Royal Rifles being forced to retreat into the village of Stanley. Over the following days, the Royal Rifles saw actions of varying degrees of intensity. McDonell of the Royal Rifles later recalled: "It takes a while for green troops to become acclimatised and realise that fire discipline is important; and never give your position away. Well, it took us a long time to learn that, we were green, so they had an enormous advantage...they had been fighting in China for two years. They were really tough professional soldiers, and constantly when we stopped them, the encirclement would begin. You see, we didn't have enough troops, so when we stopped them cold somewhere, within a hour, they would start the encirclement around the flanks, and the next thing you know, machine-gun bullets would come, ploughing into your back. And again and again, they almost closed the circle and trapped us, trapped my platoon and my company".