The 30th Armoured Brigade was an armoured formation of the British Army that served in Western Europe Campaign as part of the 79th Armoured Division.[1] After the reformation of the Territorial Army in 1947, the brigade was re-created within the Territorials based in Scotland and finally disbanded by 1967.
A Valentine tank of the 30th Armoured Brigade which broke down in a stream during exercises near Kirkby Lonsdale in Lancashire, 1 April 1942.
The 30th Armoured Brigade was created on 27 December 1940[1][2] as part of Northern Command.[2] It was initially formed from the 2nd Battalion, The Queen's Westminsters, a motorized infantry unit, which was joined by a cavalry unit, the 23rd Hussars, three days later, on 30 December.[3] Just over a week later, on 8 January 1941, the 23rd Hussars were replaced by the 22nd Dragoons,[3] and on 28 January the brigade was transferred to Western Command.[2]
On 20 April 1942 the brigade was briefly transferred to the 3rd Armoured Group, and on 13 May it was transferred again to the 42nd Armoured Division.[2] The brigade lost the 12th KRRC on 15 October 1943,[3] and two days later, on 17 October was transferred for the last time, joining the 79th Armoured Division,[2] and finding itself once again under the overall command of Percy Hobart.
A disabled Sherman Crab flail tank of the Westminster Dragoons on Sword Beach, 7 June 1944.
It now consisted of three Armoured units - the 22nd Dragoons, 1st Lothian and Border Yeomanry, and the Westminster Dragoons - that would remain the backbone of the brigade. After a succession of officers, command was assumed by Brigadier Nigel W. Duncan on 6 December 1943.[4] Duncan would command the brigade during its active service from D-Day until after the end of the war in Europe.
By the time of the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 all three units of the 30th Armoured Brigade were operating the Sherman Crab flail tank, designed to clear paths through minefields and other obstructions.[5] However in common with other 79th Division units they rarely found themselves operating together. On D-Day itself, 'A' Squadron of the 22nd Dragoons, and two troops of 'C' Squadron, landed on Sword Beach with the first wave, while the 22nd's 'B' Squadron landed on Juno Beach, with the remainder of 'C' Squadron, landing there later in the day. The Westminster Dragoons 'B' and 'C' Squadrons landed alongside the 50th Infantry Division on 'Jig' and 'King' sectors of Gold Beach in the first wave,[6] with 'A' Squadron landing later in the day on 'Queen' sector of Sword Beach.[7] The 1st Lothian and Border Yeomanry did not arrive in France until 12 July, but soon found itself in action around Caen.[8]
Brigadier N. W. Duncan, commander of the 30th Armoured Brigade, observes the attack on Caen from beside his Humber Scout Car outside Beuville, 8 July 1944.
Finally, the 22nd Dragoons, the 1st Lothians and Border Yeomanry and the Westminster Dragoons were all transferred from the brigade on 31 August 1945, bringing its existence to an end.[3]
After a short time of disbandment, the brigade was reformed in Scotland as a fully Territorial Army formation, known as the 30th (Lowland) Independent Armoured Brigade. The new formation fell under control of Scottish Command and was headquartered in Glasgow.[11] The brigade's structure in 1947 was as follows:[11]
The brigade's history following its recreation is unknown, however its signal squadron was absorbed into 52nd (Lowland) Signal Regiment in 1950.[13][14]
According to an Army Order regarding the reorganisation of armoured brigades in 1951, the 30th Armoured Brigade (TA) was to be converted to a flamethrower tank role.[15]
In 1956, the signal squadron tasked with supporting the brigade was disbanded. The three lowland armoured regiments were then amalgamated: Lanarkshire Yeomanry, Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry, and Lothians & Border Horse Yeomanry became the Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry. It is therefore possible that the brigade was disbanded in 1956.[13][14]
The Royal Armoured Corps is the armoured arm of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle. It includes most of the Army's armoured regiments, both the Royal Tank Regiment and those converted from old horse cavalry regiments. Today it comprises twelve regiments, eight regular and four reserve. Although the Household Cavalry Regiment provide an armoured regiment, they are not part of the RAC.
Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War.
The 79th Armoured Division was a specialist armoured division of the British Army created during the Second World War. The division was created as part of the preparations for the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, D-Day.
The Westminster Dragoons (WDs) was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army Army Reserve, located in central London. Its lineage is continued by one of the Royal Yeomanry's six squadrons. Formed in the aftermath of Second Boer War as part of the County of London Yeomanry, the WDs fought in the Battle of Gallipoli and led British forces onto the beaches during the Normandy Invasion in 1944. The squadron most recently saw action on Operation Telic for which it was mobilised for the 2003 war in Iraq.
The 11th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army which was created in March 1941 during the Second World War. The division was formed in response to the unanticipated success of the German panzer divisions. The 11th Armoured was responsible for several major victories in the Battle of Normandy from in the summer of 1944, shortly after the Normandy landings, and it participated in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, the Rhine crossing in March 1945. It was disbanded in January 1946 and reformed towards the end of 1950. In 1956, it was converted into the 4th Infantry Division.
The 6th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army, created in September 1940 during the Second World War and re-formed in May 1951 in the UK.
The 23rd Armoured Brigade, originally formed as the 23rd Army Tank Brigade, was an armoured brigade of the British Army that saw service during the Second World War. The brigade was a 2nd Line Territorial Army (TA) formation. It was reorganised and renamed the 23rd Armoured Brigade, when it was assigned to the 8th Armoured Division, although it never operated under command of the division.
The 10th Armoured Division was an armoured formation of division-size of the British Army, raised during the Second World War and was active from 1941–1944 and after the war from 1956–1957. It was formed from the 1st Cavalry Division, a 1st Line Yeomanry unit of the Territorial Army (TA) which had previously been serving in Palestine. The division was converted from cavalry to armour and redesignated from 1 August 1941.
The Derbyshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794, which served as a cavalry regiment and dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and provided two reconnaissance regiments in the Second World War, before being amalgamated with the Leicestershire Yeomanry to form the Leicestershire and Derbyshire Yeomanry in 1957.
The Ayrshire Yeomanry was a Regiment of the British Yeomanry and is now an armoured Squadron of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry (SNIY), part of the British Army Reserve. It is the Lowlands of Scotland's only Royal Armoured Corps Unit and has an unbroken history stretching back to the 1790s.
The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry (FFY) was an Armoured Yeomanry Regiment of the British Army formed in 1793. It saw action in the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. It amalgamated with the Scottish Horse to form the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse in 1956. The lineage is maintained by "C" Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse Squadron of The Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry based in Cupar in Fife.
The 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. It was raised in 1901 from Second Boer War veterans of the Imperial Yeomanry. During the First World War it served dismounted at Gallipoli, was remounted to serve in Macedonia, Egypt and Palestine, before being converted to machine gunners for service on the Western Front. 2nd and 3rd Line units remained in the United Kingdom throughout.
The 33rd Armoured Brigade was an armoured brigade of the British Army that was active in northwestern Europe in the Second World War from June 1944 until May 1945 and from 1980 to 1992.
The Lothians and Border Horse was a Yeomanry regiment, part of the British Territorial Army. It was ranked 36th in the Yeomanry order of precedence and was based in the Scottish Lowland area, recruiting in the Lothians – East Lothian (Haddingtonshire), Midlothian (Edinburghshire), and West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) – and along the border with England, particularly Berwickshire. It amalgamated with the Lanarkshire Yeomanry and the Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry to form the Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry in 1956.
The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army formed in 1902. Units of Yeomanry Cavalry were raised in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the 18th and early 19th centuries at times of national emergency: the Jacobite Rising of 1745, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. These were stood down once each emergency was over. The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, was established in 1902, and this saw action during the First World War both in the mounted role and as machine gunners.
The Northamptonshire Yeomanry was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1794 as volunteer cavalry. It served in the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War before being reduced to squadron level in 1956. It ceased to have a separate existence in 1971.
The following is a hierarchical outline for the structure of the British Army in 1989. The most authoritative source for this type of information available is Ministry of Defence, Master Order of Battle, and United Kingdom Land Forces, HQ UKLF, UKLF ORBAT Review Action Plan, HQ UKLF, 1990.
References
Lord, Cliff; Watson, Graham (2004). The Royal Corps of Signals: unit histories of the Corps (1920-2001) and its antecedents. Solihull, West Midlands, England: Helion & Company. ISBN978-1-874622-92-5. OCLC184820114.
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