Armoured Car Regiments were reconnaissanceunits employed by the British Army during the 20th century. The primary equipment of these units was the armoured car with many different types of armoured cars serving in the regiments during the Second World War and the Cold War. An armoured car regiment typically numbered several hundred men and several tens of armoured cars. By the end of the 20th century, armoured cars as front-line reconnaissance vehicles had been supplanted by tracked vehicles in the British Army and the surviving regiments converted to other organisational forms.
Armoured car regiments were a component of the Royal Armoured Corps. Similarly equipped units of the Reconnaissance Corps were organic parts of infantry divisions during the Second World War.
France 1940
In the 1940 campaign in France and Flanders, the 12th Royal Lancers was the sole armoured car regiment fielded by the British Expeditionary Force.[1] During the 1940 campaign, the 12th Lancers had an authorized strength of 38 armoured cars and about 380 men organised into a headquarters and three squadrons. This regiment served as the army-level reconnaissance asset of the B. E. F.
The war in the desert
Rolls-Royce armoured car in 1940.
In the open spaces of North Africa, armoured reconnaissance was extensively used by both the Axis and the British and Commonwealth) forces. Changes in doctrine made the armoured car regiment an organic asset of the armoured divisions, in which role the regiments typically fielded between 50 and 60 armoured cars ranging in type from older Rolls-Royce armoured cars to more modern Humber types. Less heavily armed scout cars such as the Humber Scout Car were used as well. During the East African Campaign, the 1st East African, Kenya, and Southern Rhodesian armoured car regiments were employed by the East Africa Command.[2]
Italy and northwestern Europe 1943-45
Daimler armoured car.
In 1943, the armoured car regiments were removed from the armoured divisions and used as corps-level reconnaissance assets with one regiment assigned per corps. In this role, they achieved their final organisation of a headquarters and four squadrons with 767 men. Each squadron had five troops of two Dingo scout cars and two Daimler Armoured Cars. The heaviest armoured cars in the regiments, the AEC Armoured Cars, now mounted 75-mm cannon, a far cry from the original armoured car armament of one machine gun and one antitank rifle of 1940.[3]
Commonwealth and other forces
Besides the British Army, Canada, Poland, Southern Rhodesia, and the Union of South Africa also fielded armoured car regiments organised along British lines and employed against Axis troops in North Africa, Italy, and northwestern Europe. Australian forces fielded the 2/11 Armoured Car Regiment, but it was not employed in combat.
The last armoured car intended for conventional battlefield use, the Fox armoured reconnaissance vehicle, was withdrawn from active British service in 1994 and replaced by tracked reconnaissance vehicles like the Sabre. Although reconnaissance regiments like the Household Cavalry Regiment remain active in the British Army, they no longer operate armoured cars and hence the British forces no longer field armoured car regiments.
The Royal Armoured Corps is the component of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Scimitar Reconnaissance 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.
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 Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) is the senior armoured regiment of the Canadian Army by precedence. It is one of three armoured regiments in the Regular Force and forms part of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
The Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) is a corps of the Australian Army which provides the Australian Defence Force's armour capability. Armour combines firepower, mobility, protection and networked situational awareness to generate shock action and overmatch in close combat. Armour is an essential element of the combined arms approach that is employed by the Australian Army.
The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps is the armoured corps within the Canadian Army, including 3 Regular and 18 Reserve Force regiments as well as the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School.
The Daimler Armoured Car was a successful British armoured car design of the Second World War that continued in service into the 1950s. It was designed for armed reconnaissance and liaison purposes. During the postwar era, it doubled as an internal security vehicle in a number of countries.
The Humber Armoured Car was one of the most widely produced British armoured cars of the Second World War. It supplemented the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car and remained in service until the end of the war.
The Formation Reconnaissance Regiment is one of two organisations currently provided by cavalry regiments of the British Army. Until recently, it was known as the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment.
The Humber Scout Car was a British light scout car used in the Second World War. It entered service in 1942 and continued in production until 1945. Designed for reconnaissance, and liaison between armoured units, it provided protection only against light arms fire, so was not a front line vehicle. More importantly it was small and fast and could quickly evade trouble. It became the shape format for the post war Ferret armoured car which began production in 1952.
The Humber Light Reconnaissance Car, also known as Humberette or Ironside, was a British armoured car produced during the Second World War.
The Guy Armoured Carwas a British armoured car produced in limited numbers during Second World War. The car saw limited action during the Battle of France.
Armoured cavalry are combat units using armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) instead of horses. They began to replace horse cavalry in the heavy shock and the light reconnaissance, skirmishing and exploitation/pursuit roles in most armies commencing after the First World War.
The 1st/15th Royal New South Wales Lancers is an active Australian Army Reserve Cavalry regiment. The regiment has its headquarters at Lancer Barracks in Parramatta, a suburb in Western Sydney, New South Wales. Lancer Barracks is the oldest Military Barracks on mainland Australia and dates from 1819.
The 12th Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army first formed in 1715. It saw service for three centuries, including the First World War and the Second World War. The regiment survived the immediate post-war reduction in forces, but was slated for reduction in the 1957 Defence White Paper, and was amalgamated with the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers to form the 9th/12th Royal Lancers in 1960.
The Sri Lanka Armoured Corps (SLAC) provides the armour capability of the Sri Lanka Army, with vehicles such as the T-55AM2, and type 80/88 main battle tanks; the BMP infantry fighting vehicle; and the BTR-80, and WZ551 armoured personnel carriers. It comprises six regular armoured regiments, a volunteer regiment, and a regimental band. It has an independent Armoured Brigade and is headquartered at Rock House Army Camp, Colombo.
The Rhodesian Armoured Corps—the "Black Devils"—was the only standing armoured battalion of the Rhodesian Security Forces. During World War II, it took part in the Allied Spring 1945 offensive and the Battle of Monte Cassino as part of South Africa's 6th Armoured Division. The unit was among the first to enter a liberated Florence in July 1944. Prior to 1963, its crews were trained in the United Kingdom or Aden Colony and were known as the "Selous Scouts" under the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. After Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, maintaining the armoured vehicle fleet became a responsibility of the Rhodesian Light Infantry until Major Bruce Rooken-Smith reactivated the former Rhodesian Armoured Car Regiment in 1972. During the Rhodesian Bush War, the regiment fought in several major campaigns and battles, particularly Operation Miracle in September 1979. It was superseded by the new Zimbabwe Armoured Corps between 1980 and 1981.
The Reconnaissance Corps, or simply Recce Corps, was a corps of the British Army, formed during the Second World War whose units provided reconnaissance for infantry divisions. It was formed from infantry brigade reconnaissance groups on 14 January 1941.
The 8th Reconnaissance Regiment , commonly abbreviated to 8 Recce, VIII Recce or 8 Canadian Recce, was the reconnaissance arm of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division during World War II. The core of the regiment was formed from the militia unit the 14th Canadian Hussars.
The 12th/16th Hunter River Lancers is an Australian Army Reserve cavalry regiment. It was formed on 1 May 1948, although it draws its lineage from units that were originally formed in the 1880s. It is currently a Light Cavalry unit equipped with Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles. The regiment forms part of the 11th Brigade, attached to the 2nd Division and draws its members from regional centres in northern New South Wales, hence the reference to the Hunter River. Since 2000 the regiment has provided individuals as reinforcements to round-out Regular Army units deploying overseas on peacekeeping operations and in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Armoured reconnaissance is the combination of terrestrial reconnaissance with armoured warfare by soldiers using tanks and wheeled or tracked armoured reconnaissance vehicles. While the mission of reconnaissance is to gather intelligence about the enemy with the use of reconnaissance vehicles, armoured reconnaissance adds the ability to fight for information, and to have an effect on and to shape the enemy through the performance of traditional armoured tasks.
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