The regiment was formed in 1992 by the amalgamation of two other regiments: The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. The Royal Dragoon Guards has served in a variety of roles and theatres since its formation. Historically dragoons were flexible soldiers, who fought on and alongside their mounts.[2]
The RDG on patrol in Southern Iraq during Operation Telic 5.
Northern Ireland
In February 1996, three squadrons of the regiment deployed to Northern Ireland as part of Operation Banner, the UK military support to the civil authorities in the province. Two squadrons were employed as infantry in Belfast and the third acted as a prison guard force at the Maze Prison.[3]
Balkans
In the winter of 1997, A Squadron, RDG, deployed with their Challenger 1s tanks to Barice in Bosnia (Op Lodestar) with the 9th/12th Lancers Battle Group. They were subsequently moved to Mrkonjić Grad and were employed, primarily in Land Rovers, to monitor former wartime factions and inspect cantonment sites.[3]
UK
In early 2001 the regiment deployed as part of Operation Fresco (Zulu) to Cumbria and Yorkshire, with specialist Royal Navy teams, to provide emergency fire and rescue cover when the fire brigade was carrying out a programme of industrial action.[4]
Iraq
The regimental Battle Group deployed to Iraq in 2004 (Operation Telic 5) and assumed control of the area south of Basra, close to the border with Kuwait.[5] The main tasks were to mentor the newly formed Iraqi Police Force and provide security for the first presidential elections in the country since the US led invasion in 2003.[6]
The regiment deployed again to Iraq towards the end of the United Kingdom's combat operations in 2007 (Op Telic 11), this time with Main Battle Tanks and Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicles were called upon to support Iraqi led efforts to re-impose control in Basra (Operation Charge of the Knights). During this Operation Sergeant CP Richards was awarded the Military Cross for outstanding leadership and gallantry in the face of the enemy. As commander of the lead tank, working for Left Flank Company Group, Scots Guards Battle Group, he deployed on a joint arrest operation with Iraqi Security Forces in Al Quiblah, Basra. He fought his way through 5 improvised explosive device detonations, showing courageous restraint to minimise any civilian casualties, onto the target.[7]
A Challenger 2 from the Royal Dragoon Guards on Operation Charge of the Knights
During this deployment, squadrons from the regiment assisted the Iraqi Border Agency to provide security on the Border with Iran[8] and mentored Iraqi Army Units.[9]
Afghanistan
The regiment deployed to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010[10] (Operation Herrick 12) to assist in bringing stability to Central Helmand and to provide security for the country's second Presidential Elections. Squadrons from the Regiment provided protected mobility support in the Mastiff (also known as Cougar), Viking (Bv 206), Ridgeback and Warthog armoured vehicles[11] and held ground in Nad Ali District Centre[12] following Op Moshtorak. Tasks of these squadrons included: providing route security,[13] assisting in reconstruction work[14] and clearing insurgents from southern Nad Ali.[15] The regiment had four men killed in action during the tour.[16][17][18][19] Acting corporal Mathew Stenton, one of those killed, was posthumously awarded the Military Cross for bravery. As a Viking commander he moved his vehicle forward to engage insurgents to assist in the evacuation of a friendly casualty, his citation reads: "A/Cpl Stenton's gallantry was of the very highest order and he made the supreme act of self-sacrifice to save a comrade's life".[20]
The Regiment subsequently went on to complete a second tour of Afghanistan in 2013. The Regiment's role was to provide institutional and individual development advice and training to the Afghan National Police in Helmand. During this second tour The Royal Dragoon Guards also deployed a mounted manoeuvre squadron, operating on Warthog armoured vehicles.[21]
Following the 2012 announcement of Army 2020 structures, the RDG has adopted an 'Armoured Cavalry' role equipped initially with Scimitar 2 the latest iteration of the CVR(T) platform. The Regiment moved to Warminster in November 2020, as announced by the Secretary of State for Defence in March 2016.[22]
Squadrons and organisation
The regiment has now been subject to changes implemented through the Army 2020 plan. Despite the re-roleing of the regiment from heavy armour to a new capability of Armoured Cavalry, many traditions have been maintained. The five squadrons of The Royal Dragoon Guards take their history and traditions from the four antecedent regiments that make up the current regiment.[23]
In the new RDG organisation, there are three sabre squadrons and HQ:
Because of its lineage through the 5th Royal Inniskillings and the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards—the 4th had been known as the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards and the 7th also had Irish ancestry—the RDG retains strong links to Northern Ireland.
Dettingen Day
At the Battle of Dettingen, 27 June 1743, Cornet Richardson of Ligonier's Horse, later the 7th Dragoon Guards, received 37 wounds while defending the Regimental Standard. The Regiment remembers the day with dinners in the Messes and a families weekend.[27]
Oates' Sunday
Captain L E G Oates, of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, became a legend of self-sacrifice when, as a member of Scott's ill-fated Antarctic Expedition of 1912, he chose to sacrifice himself rather than impede the progress of his comrades. The annual commemoration of Oates' brave action takes place on the Sunday closest to St Patrick's Day – the date of his birthday. It takes the form of a formal parade and church service, where the story of Oates is retold to inspire members of the Regiment.[27]
St Patrick's Day – 17 March
The Regimental Flash
St Patrick's Day is celebrated by the RDG in respect to the Irish traditions it possesses. The Day is a regimental holiday and starts with the Officers and Senior Non-Commissioned Officers waking the men with bagpipes and 'gunfire' (tea laced with whiskey). A Regimental Lunch of Irish Stew is served and every member of the Regiment is presented with shamrock. This latter tradition has been maintained every year regardless of which theatre the Regiment is serving in.[28]
The Regimental Flash
Flashes in Regimental colours were linked to regiments who were involved in the Second World War. The 4/7 DG first wore their flash in 1939 in Northern France in support of the British Expeditionary Force, one of the first armoured units to fight in the desperate but gallant withdrawal to Dunkirk and it is believed to be the first regiment to wear a Tactical Recognition Flash. The worsted material recognition flash came about following an order to remove badges of recognition from battle-dress to conceal regimental identity. The design was copied from the painted diamond flash in Regimental colours on the steel helmets. The order was later rescinded but the cloth badge remained. The 13/18H later followed suit in 1940 with a blue and white flash.[29]
The 4/7 DG Regimental flash was worn by the ranks of Warrant Officer Class 2 and below on BD/SDs upon the left arm 1" below the shoulder seam. (Or 1/8" below the formation badge when one was worn on BDs). The flash is still worn today by the Regiment on Service Dress.[28]
The Second World War – Dyle, Withdrawal to Escaut, St Omer-La Bassée, Dunkirk 1940, Normandy Landings, Odon, Mont Pincon, St Pierre la Vielle, Lisieux, Risle Crossing, Seine 1944, Nederrijn, Lower Maas, Geilenkirchen, Roer, Rhineland, Cleve, Rhine, Ibbenburen, Bremen, North West Europe 1940, 1944 – 45.
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The Blues and Royals (RHG/D) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. The Colonel of the Regiment is Anne, Princess Royal. It is the second-most senior regiment in the British Army.
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The Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own and Royal Irish) (QRH) is a British armoured regiment. It was formed on 1 September 1993 from the amalgamation of the Queen's Own Hussars and the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars. The regiment and its antecedents have been awarded 172 Battle Honours and eight Victoria Crosses. The regiment was based in Sennelager, Germany, until 2019 when it was relocated to Tidworth Camp, England. It is the armoured regiment for 20th Armoured Brigade Combat Team.
The Royal Yorkshire Regiment is an infantry regiment of the British Army, created by the amalgamation of three historic regiments in 2006. It lost one battalion as part of the Army 2020 defence review. The regiment's recruitment area covers the ceremonial counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire; areas near Barnsley are recruitment area for the Rifles.
The Royal Irish Regiment is a light infantry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was founded in 1992 through the amalgamation of the Royal Irish Rangers and the Ulster Defence Regiment. Their oldest predecessor, the 27th Regiment of Foot, was first raised in June 1689 to fight in the Williamite War in Ireland. Other notable regiments in their lineage include the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Irish Fusiliers.
1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards (QDG) is a regiment in the Royal Armoured Corps of the British Army. Nicknamed The Welsh Cavalry, the regiment recruits from Wales and the bordering English counties of Cheshire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire, and is the senior cavalry regiment, and therefore senior regiment of the line of the British Army.
The Light Dragoons (LD) is a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment has a light cavalry role and specialises in mounted and dismounted reconnaissance. The Light Dragoons recruit mainly in Northern England, from County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. For this reason, the regiment is known as "England's Northern Cavalry". It is currently based in Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.
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The 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 5th Dragoon Guards and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. It served in the Second World War and the Korean War. In August 1992, as a consequence of the Options for Change defence cuts, the regiment was amalgamated with the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards to form the Royal Dragoon Guards.
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.
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The Household Cavalry Regiment (HCR) is an Armoured Cavalry regiment of the British Army based in Bulford Camp in Wiltshire. It is the brother regiment of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR) based at Hyde Park Barracks in London - both regiments together form the Household Cavalry (HCav). The Household Cavalry Regiment was formed in 1992, under the Options for Change reforms, by the union of The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals in order to preserve the distinct identities of the regiments. A precedent for the Household Cavalry Regiment has previously been set by the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment - active during the Anglo-Egyptian War, the Second Boer War and latterly during both the First and Second World Wars.
The North Irish Horse was a yeomanry unit of the British Territorial Army raised in the northern counties of Ireland in the aftermath of the Second Boer War. Raised and patronised by the nobility from its inception to the present day, it was one of the first non-regular units to be deployed to France and the Low Countries with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 during World War I and fought with distinction both as mounted troops and later as a cyclist regiment, achieving eighteen battle honours. The regiment was reduced to a single man in the inter war years and re-raised for World War II, when it achieved its greatest distinctions in the North African and Italian campaigns. Reduced again after the Cold War, the regiment's name still exists in B Squadron, the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry and 40 Signal Squadron, part of 32 Signal Regiment.
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The 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1689 as Sir Albert Cunningham's Regiment of Dragoons. One of the regiment's most notable battles was the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. It became the 6th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Dragoons in 1751. The regiment also fought with distinction in the Charge of the Union Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo and again as part of the successful Charge of the Heavy Brigade against superior numbers at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. The First World War sounded the death knell for mounted cavalry as it became apparent that technology had moved forward with greater destructive power and made horsed cavalry redundant on the modern battlefield. The British Army reorganised and reduced its cavalry corps by disbanding or amalgamating many of its famous cavalry regiments. The Inniskillings was one of those affected. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with 5th Dragoon Guards to form 5th/6th Dragoons in 1922.
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