YH - Potted History 1941-45
In August 1941 1 Cavalry Division converted to 10 Armoured Division and the Yorkshire Hussars joined 8 Armoured Brigade. Training with Stuart tanks was started. In March 1942 the Regiment moved to Cyprus to become the so-called Armoured Striking Force in Cyprus with A10 and A13 Cruiser and Valentine tanks. Their presence in Cyprus was part of what was known as the Cyprus Defence Plan – a large scale deception operation to deter the Germans from attempting a landing on Cyprus by inflating the size of the actual garrison (4,000 troops) to over 10,000 (6,000 of whom would be “notional”). In order to give this notional force some armoured units actual tanks (such as those crewed by the Yorkshire Hussars) and dummy tanks were employed. By January 1943 the Yorkshire Hussars were in Egypt where to enable them to resume training as an armoured regiment they took over Grant and Crusader tanks from 44 RTR (1 Army Tk Bde) and 4 CLY (22 Armd Bde) respectively, before returning to England at the end of the year.
On arrival in England, the Yorkshire Hussars were offered three roles; a tank regiment, a reconnaissance regiment or an armoured delivery regiment. Selected to become a reconnaissance regiment the Yorkshire Hussars served as such in 50 (Northumbrian) Infantry Division for just two months from December 1943 and then in 61 (South Midland) Infantry Division from 24 January 1944 to 16 July 1945. In April 1944 the squadrons were given the task of running some of the pre-D Day Marshalling Area Camps on the south coast. The regiment was brought together again in August 1944 and given the role of an armoured reinforcement holding and drafting unit carrying out the administration, training and drafting of Royal Armoured Corps personnel including those who had recovered from wounds and who were returning to active service. To do this the unit had to be trained on Churchill tanks so courses were conducted in gunnery, driving and maintenance and radio operation. Having trained the instructors, the reinforcements could now be trained. After May 1945 the regiment continued in the same role, but now they had to train reinforcement to go to armoured regiments in the Far East. The Yorkshire Hussars continued in this role until June 1945 when they joined 35 Army Tank Brigade (later 35 Armoured Brigade) also in England. The regiment then went into Suspended Animation in June 1946 until resuscitated when the Territorial Army was reformed in 1947.(Extract from article in Militaria magazine by MJ)
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06-12-15, 08:19 PM
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