Operation Compass was the first large British military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) during the Second World War. British metropolitan, Imperial and Commonwealth forces attacked the Italian and Libyan forces of the 10th Army in western Egypt and Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya, from December 1940 to February 1941.
The King's Regiment (Liverpool) was one of the oldest line infantry regiments of the British Army, having been formed in 1685 when a single battalion was raised as The Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Foot. In 1702 when she succeeded the throne as Queen Anne, she ordered the title to be altered to The Queen's Regiment. In 1751, when all British Army infantry regiments were numbered, the title became; 8th or The King's Regiment after the then monarch King George II, and was from then onward referred to as 8th Foot, 8th Regiment or 8th King's.
The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps, it is part of the Royal Armoured Corps.
The 41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment was an armoured regiment of the British Army from 1938 until 1956. It was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps.
The Liverpool Welsh, under various guises, was a unit of Britain's Volunteer Force and Territorial Army (TA) associated with the King's Liverpool Regiment. It served as a tank regiment in the Western Desert and Italian Campaigns in the Second World War, as a security force during the Greek Civil War, and as a heavy anti-aircraft artillery regiment postwar.
The 45th Royal Tank Regiment was an armoured regiment of the British Territorial Army that fought at the Battle of Alamein during World War II and continued to serve during the 1950s.
The 42nd Royal Tank Regiment was an armoured regiment of the British Army from 1938 until 1956. It was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps.
The 43rd Royal Tank Regiment was an armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps that tested and demonstrated specialised Armoured Fighting Vehicles during World War II.
The 51st Royal Tank Regiment was an armoured regiment of the British Territorial Army that fought in the Tunisian and Italian campaigns during World War II and continued to serve during the 1950s.
The 21st Army Tank Brigade was an armoured brigade formation of the British Army active during the Second World War. The brigade served with the British First Army and the British Eighth Army during the fighting in Tunisia and Italy.
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 King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army. It served under various titles and fought in many wars and conflicts, including both the First and the Second World Wars, from 1680 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Border Regiment to form the King's Own Royal Border Regiment.
The 40th/41st Royal Tank Regiment was an armoured regiment of the British Army in existence from 1956 until 1967.
Brigadier James Noel Tetley was a member of a prominent Yorkshire brewing family and a senior British Army officer who saw active service in the Italian Campaign during the Second World War.
The Leeds Rifles was a unit of the 19th century Volunteer Force of the British Army that went on to serve under several different guises in the World Wars of the 20th century. In the First World War, both battalions served as infantry on the Western Front. They were later converted into an anti-aircraft and tank units, and fought in North Africa, Italy, and Burma during the Second World War.
Major General Eugene Vincent "Michael" Strickland, was a British Army officer who served as a military adviser to the King of Jordan.
Major-General Arundell Rea Leakey, was an officer in the British Army. He served in the Royal Tank Regiment in the Second World War, in North Africa, Italy and France. He later served in Korea, in the Arab Legion, and commanded a brigade in the British Army of the Rhine in the 1960s. He served as Director-General of Fighting Vehicles and finally as the commander of British troops in Malta and Libya. He retired in 1966, and became Director of the Wolfson Foundation. An autobiography, Leakey's Luck, was published in 1999.
