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FORMATION
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The story of The
Royal Tank Regiment is one of struggle, triumph and achievement. Its
origins are a mere three-quarters of a century old, but those years
have seen the stalemate of trench warfare overcome, the restoration
of mobility and the establishment of the tank and mechanised forces,
as a dominant factor in battle. The tank reaffirmed its position as
the decisive weapon on the battlefield during the Gulf War.
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- The present Royal Tank Regiment, composed of
two regular regiments, is the direct heir to the original armoured car
pioneers of 1914, the Naval Brigade and the RNAS squadron which augmented
the British Expeditionary Forces for the defence of Antwerp in August
of that year.
Machine Gun Corps,
Heavy Branch
(1916 - 1917) |
The
Tank Corps
(1917 - 1923) |
The Royal Tank Corps
(1923-1939)
The Royal Tank Regiment
(1939-1952) |
The
Royal Tank Regiment
(1953 to date) |
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THE INVENTION OF THE TANK
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On the 13th
June 1900 Major General Sir Ernest Swinton was serving with
the British Forces in the Boer War. On that precise date, he
visualised the requirement for an armoured fighting vehicle
to defeat the destructive power of the machine gun. The tank,
a revolutionary new weapon system, born of General Swinton's
vision, was to break the stalemate of trench warfare and the
dominance of the machine gun of the battlefields of Flanders
sixteen years later. |
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Major
General Sir Ernest Swinton |
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
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When the first
tanks were produced in 1916, they were manned by members of
the Machine Gun Corps, formed into six companies which were
collectively known as the Heavy Branch. |
- The very first battle involving tanks
took place on the Somme. About thirty British Mark 1 tanks attacked
German positions between the villages of Flers and Courcelette,
on Friday 15 September 1916. The arrival of the tanks on the battlefield
signalled the end of trench warfare, which had suffocated both
sides in the 1914-18 conflict.
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Austin Armoured Car |
- During this action the Press seized on a report
from an aircraft crew, which said that "a tank is walking down the main
street of Flers with the British Army cheering behind it." This was
"D" Company, later the 4th Royal Tank Regiment. These companies were
expanded to form battalions and were renamed the Tank Corps in 1917.
- The first battle between two opposing tanks
took place near the village of Cachy on 24 April 1918. The German A7V
tank Nixe (Lt Biltz), engaged three British Mark IV tanks, and damaged
two, but was knocked out by the third, commanded by 2/Lt Frank Mitchell.
- By December 1918 there were 26 battalions,
and as well as serving in France, a detachment from the Corps had served
under Allenby at Gaza, Palestine in 1917. The Corps saw almost continuous
action, winning four VC's.
CAMBRAI
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In France at
dawn on November 20th, 1917, some 300 British Mark IV tanks
of the Tank Corps, led by Brigadier Hugh Elles, created a major
break in the German Hindenburg Line and nearly reached Cambrai
itself. This was the Battle of Cambrai, and so successful was
this action, that the church bells were rung throughout Great
Britain. Each year this great battle is commemorated as "Cambrai
Day". |
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BETWEEN THE WARS
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At the end of World
War 1 with the status of the Tank Corps in the greatest doubt, three
small tank detachments were despatched to Russia, to support the White
Russians against the Bolsheviks. One British manned tank achieved
the capture of Tsaritsin, later called Stalingrad, now known as Volgograd.
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- By 1920 the Tank Corps was reduced to a Depot
and four battalions, becoming established in its own right in 1923 when
it was granted the prefix "Royal" by King George V, its Colonel-in-Chief
since 1918. At this time it also officially adopted the black beret
as its distinctive headgear, with the silver badge and 'Fear Naught'
motto.
King George V next to a
Carden-Loyd MK V
(1927) |
Medium
MK II
(1920's) |
- Thereafter Royal Tank Regiment armoured car
and light tank units helped maintain the peace throughout the Empire
in Iraq, Persia, Palestine, India and Egypt until 1939 when war clouds
once more gathered over Europe.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
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The Corps changed
to its present title in 1939, with the formation of the Royal Tank
Regiment. The RTC had, up until 1928, been entirely responsible for
all "armour" in the British Army. Its schools began the mechanisation
and training of the cavalry, and the RTR itself expanded between 1935
and 1938 into eight regular battalions. |
- From the outset of World War II, both Sir Winston
Churchill and Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, made
it clear that they wished to be associated with the Royal Tank Regiment
- the value of the tank as a decisive battlefield weapon was being recognised.
- By the end of the Second World War, the tank
had once again proved itself a major battle winner, and having fought
in most of the major engagements in Europe, North Africa, the Middle
and Far East, the Regiment had battalions spread all over the globe.
Two more VC's had been awarded, together with countless other decorations,
to men who, "...cheerfully went to war in tin cans, closely surrounded
by a lethal mixture of petrol and ammunition."
DUNKIRK
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Both 4th and
7th RTR fought in France as part of the British Expeditionary
Force. At Arras, on 21 May 1940 they smashed into the rear of
Rommel's 7th Panzer Division with good effect. However, both
regiments suffered heavily in the end and the survivors escaped
via Dunkirk. |
- Three other RTR regiments fought in Western
France as part of the British First Armoured Division.
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1st
Armoured Division in Northern France (1940) |
ALAMEIN
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Throughout the desert
war, elements of the RTR saw almost continuous action. In particular
the great victory over the Italian at Beda Fomm. The RTR was heavily
committed at El Alamein in October 1942, not only in conventional
tanks but also in mine-sweeping flail tanks called Scorpions. While
Montgomery's Eighth Army pursued retreating Axis forces across Libya,
a new Army under General Eisenhower landed in Tunisia. Here RTR crews
in Churchill tanks met and defeated the mighty German Tigers.
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Valentine
in Libya (1941) |
Matilda
in Libya (1941) |
D-DAY
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Major General
Sir Percy Hobart, an RTR officer since 1923, is best known as
commander of the famous 79th Armoured Division. Equipped with
special purpose tanks known as Funnies this division spearheaded
the British attack on D-Day, 6 June 1944 and continued to support
Allied forces in Europe until the end of the war. Once again
the RTR played a vital part, notably in such events as the attack
on Le Havre, the fantastic six-day dash from Normandy to Belgium
and the crossing of the river Rhine in March 1945. |
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Shermans
played a central role on D-Day (1944) |
POST WAR
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By the end of World
War II there were 24 regiments of the RTR and they had seen service
in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sicily, Malta,
Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Greece, Crete, Algeria, Abyssinia, Sudan, Palestine,
Iraq, Persia, Jordan, India and Burma. |
- Reduced once more to eight regular regiments
after the war, the tank has still continued to demonstrate its
importance on the modern battlefield, with The Royal Tank Regiment
seeing action in Aden, Borneo, Malaya, Egypt, Cyprus, Korea and
the Gulf. The Regiment has also had units stationed in Germany,
Libya, Hong Kong, England and Northern Ireland.
- However, as the recent Gulf War yet again
illustrated most clearly, it is the quality, bravery and high
degree of expertise of the tank crews which was, and still is,
the real battle winner. Throughout the tank's history the most
important element has been the crewmen, who together make up this
close knit team of professionals.
- The value of the tank was reinforced again
as late as the Summer of 1999 as tanks from a variety of units,
led by RTR officers, spearheaded the allied entry into Kosovo
as part of the Fourth Armoured Brigade.
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Men
of The Royal Tank Regiment marching past the Cenotaph in Whitehall |
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