20th Armoured Brigade (United Kingdom)

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20th Armoured Brigade
Active	2 September 1939 -
Country	Great Britain
Branch	British Army
Type	Armoured Brigade
Part of	1st (UK) Armoured Division

The 20th Armoured Brigade has been a British Army brigade since the Second World War.

1 History
- 1.1 World War II
- 1.2 Reformed
2 Component Units

[edit] History

[edit] World War II

The 20th Light Armoured Brigade was formed from Yeomanry Regiments on 2 September 1939, part of the 6th Armoured Division. It was a Territorial Army formation whose insignia was an armoured white horse's head. On 14 April 1940 it was re-titled the 20th Armoured Brigade; a title it has retained ever since. The Brigade came under the command of 6th Armoured Division, whose insignia was a white mailed fist with a black background. The mailed fist was selected by the Division as a symbol of the hard punch that an armoured formation gives the enemy. The Brigade was disbanded on the 30 April 1943.

[edit] Reformed

However, on 15 September 1950 the Brigade reformed, moving to Munster in December 1951 where it again came under the command of 6th Armoured Division. In Apil 1958 the 6th Armoured Division disbanded. The surviving 20th Armoured Brigade assumed the insignia of the Division changing the background of the white fist from black to blue. In May 1958, 20th Armoured Brigade came under command of the 4th Armoured Division.

On 22 June 1974, 20th Armoured Brigade and the German 21st Panzer Brigade, based in Augusdorf, held a partnership parade to emphasise the confidence and understanding which exists between the allied forces of the NATO countries.

On 1 December 1977, the Brigade was renamed "Task Force Hotel". On 1 January 1980 Task Force Hotel was redesignated the 20th Armoured Brigade.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the Brigade merged with the 33rd Armoured Brigade in December 1992 as part of 'Options for Change', moving to Barker Barracks, Paderborn, where it came under the command of the 1st (UK) Armoured Division. The Brigade is currently based upon an armoured regiment and two armoured infantry battalions.

Headquarters 20th Armoured Brigade, with some elements of the Brigade deployed to the Former Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in April 1995 to take command of Sector South West under the United Nations mandate. Based at Gronji Vakuf in central Bosnia, the commander was responsible for a large multi-national UN force as well as having responsibility for all forces in FRY. The end of the tour coincided with a declaration of peace and a shift in emphasis to a larger NATO force.

In October 1996 the Brigade returned to FRY as part of IFOR. It was initially based at Sipovo, moving to Banja Luka in December 1996, whilst overseeing the transition from IFOR to SFOR and OP RESOLUTE to OP LODESTAR. The brigade returned to Paderborn in April 1997.

In August 1999, the Brigade again deployed to Banja Luka on Operation PALATINE. It returned to Paderborn in December 1999.