An Armoured Regiment

Tank Museum photo No 4811/B/2

We often talk about regiments; what do we mean? This is a typical armoured regiment around the time of D-Day. A regiment equipped with Cromwell tanks.

At the top of the tree we have Regimental Headquarters, which has four Cromwell tanks for the commanding officer and other senior staff. Some of these tanks were equipped as command tanks with extra radios and dummy guns. Headquarters also has eight Crusader anti-aircraft tanks.

Tank Museum photo No 1843/B/3 Crusader anti-aircraft tank.

Next in line we have Headquarters Squadron. This contains all the administrative troops and the Reconnaissance Troop, which operates ten Stuart light tanks and twelve scout cars.

The fighting element of the regiment is divided up into three Squadrons, A, B and C, all of which are identical. First there is Squadron Headquarters which has two regular 75mm gun Cromwells and two Close Support Cromwells equipped with 95mm howitzers. The rest of the Squadron is divided up into four troops; each troop has three 75mm Cromwells and one 17 pounder gun tank. In Cromwell regiments this should have been the A30 Challenger but until this was available the place was filled by a Sherman Firefly.