British Guards Armoured Division

[Fallenkezef 5,183]

Note to mods: Not sure if this should be in historical or British section so putting it in general for mods to decide where best it should be placed.

 

There are many posts on technology, this gun or that tank, but what about the men who went into battle? Each nation has units who's reputation was well known within their military and often outside their own nation. Some of these reputations where famous, others somewhat infamous. I'm hoping this post will encourage other amateur historians to write about their favourite regiments/divisions.

 

To understand the British guards of WW2 we need to understand their history and what makes them so unique and special within the ranks of the British army. To many they are silly men in funny hats who march around Buckingham palace, toy soldiers parading for tourists. Yet there is a different side to these men, one that goes back to the restoration of our monarchy in the 1660's.

 

Every nation has elite "guard" regiments, the elite of their nation and often the best looking, best equipped and/or most experienced. They stood out for various reasons, such as the giants of the Prussian grenadiers or the recruitment of men of good breeding "gentlemen" of the French gardes du corps and musketeers. However the British guards where no different from a regular line regiment, from a distance their uniform looked no different and they had no extra pay or special equipment.training. There was nothing to distinguish a British guardsman from a private soldier of another regiment, other than his buttons and the blue trim to his cuffs and lapels.

 

Another distinction was their use in battle, where other nations would hold their guards back to save a defeat or to throw them into battle at the critical point (such as Napoleon's Imperial Guard). Yet with the British, we put our guards onto the front line like any other line regiment, they fought and died shoulder to shoulder with other soldiers of the British army.

Yet the knowledge that they where the senior regiments of the line, the bodyguards to the crown, made them elite. It was a psychological advantage that made them so stubborn and so indomitable of the field, this is what made them hold against all odds in many battlefields. They fought in every major British conflict since the late 17th century. Our greatest victories and greatest defeats saw the guards from the Revolutionary wars to the Peninsula and Waterloo campaigns against Napoleon and the bloodiest battles of WW1.

 

It was no different in WW2, the guards where part of Montgomery's 3rd Infantry division during those early, desperate battles of 1940 and the retreat to Dunkirk forming a dedicated and professional rearguard. They where also present during the bloody to and fro in North Africa. However they served as individual battalions as part of infantry brigades.

 

In WW2 we had 5 guard regiments 1st (Grenadier), 2nd (Coldstream), 3rd (Scots) 4th (Irish) and 5th (Welsh), the decision was taken to create an armoured division from the Guards and this was created in June of 1941. This was due to the shortage of tank forces in the UK and the threat of invasions, it was made up of two armoured brigades (equipped with Covenanters) and an infantry motor battalion. The division continued to expand and re-equip, going from Crusader III's and later to Sherman V's but always kept in England.

 

The Normandy invasion was the Guard's armoured's time to shine, kept back from the initial landings, they went into action at the end of June, in time for operation Goodwood, involved in every major British operation from that moment untill the end of the war, they where the division that attempted the, ultimately futile, race to Arnhem to relieve the paras and where involved in operation Veritable, the British operation to push into Germany.

 

They maintained several unique aspects to their organisation, every "tooth" arm was made up of a Guards battalion, the 3 armoured battalions, the motor rifle battalion. three infantry battalions and the recce battalion. They continued to use infantry designations for their armour, (platoon, company and battalion) rather than the cavalry designations used by other armoured regiments (troop, squadron, regiment) which was a distinction shared by the Royal Tank Regiment who shared infantry origins.

 

The Guards armoured faced some of the best troops the Germans had during their, albeit short, operational history which included experienced and fanatical Waffen SS units. They maintained the British tradition of the guards fighting on the front line, facing whatever the enemy could throw at them and even if they suffered individual defeat, as they have done in the past, fighting through it to help achieve a final victory.

 

Not as famous as the 7th Armoured or the Parachute regiment, not as elite as the LRDG or SAS, the guards represented a tradition that remains to this day with modern conflicts such as the Falklands and Afghanistan. Where the British army are called to war, the guards will fight and will fight hard. Every guardsman stands with a shadow, the shadow of his predecessors who whisper from the pages of history to uphold the traditions and honour the title "guardsman" represents.

 

I think this is the core of what makes the British army what it was in WW2, the last days of the regimental system, the last true war in which a soldier looked at his cap badge and understood that it meant centuries of tradition and a covenant with the past to do his duty and never betray the memories of the soldiers who had fought before under that very same badge and regimental colour.

I'm not sure how to explain this concept, it's a uniquely British tradition that goes back to our regimental system.

 

 

 

[*Distorted_Elk 237]

Well written and very informative, thanks for the insight :yes:

[Tyke_In_A_Tank 389]

Have a +1 sir

[piersyf 340]

They were also the first British unit to adopt dedicated tank/infantry teams by pairing up the battalions (Irish battle group, one tank battalion and one infantry battalion, led the initial assault in Operation Garden). It was something of a shock because it was assumed the 'stuffed shirt' Guards could never do anything 'different' but in combined arms tactics they led the way. For Britain, at least...

[Fallenkezef 5,183]

They were also the first British unit to adopt dedicated tank/infantry teams by pairing up the battalions (Irish battle group, one tank battalion and one infantry battalion, led the initial assault in Operation Garden). It was something of a shock because it was assumed the 'stuffed shirt' Guards could never do anything 'different' but in combined arms tactics they led the way. For Britain, at least...

 

Aye, they did learn from other people's mistakes. The legendary 7th Armoured where somewhat lacklustre in Normandy, falling back to old tactics and methods to the point where Monty sacked their general and reprimanded the whole division.