Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment)
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) began as volunteer cavalry at the time of the French Revolution, enrolled to defend their locality - county, city, coast - from foreign invasion. They started to serve overseas at the time of the Boer War and after the First World War branched out, mostly into artillery and tanks.
[edit] World War II
In 1939, the Staffordshire Yeomanry was part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, with the Warwickshire Yeomanry and Cheshire Yeomanry. The 6th Cavalry Brigade arrived in Palestine in January 1940 and took part in mounted operations with the police to suppress disturbances between the Arab and Jewish populations.
The Staffordshire Yeomanry retained its horses until 1941 when it converted to tanks and then served in North Africa in the 8th Armoured Brigade which was part of the 10th Armoured Division.
The Staffordshire Yeomanry, during its time in North Africa, fought at the Battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein fighting the Afrika Korps all the way into Tunisia. The unit was transferred to England to serve in the 27th Armoured Brigade, part of Montgomery's Second Army. At Normandy, the Staffordshire Yeomanry was probably the only conventional tank regiment (i.e. equipped with neither DD nor flail) to land on D-Day, on Sword Beach. The 27th Armoured Brigade was disbanded in Normandy in July 1944 after heavy losses and the Staffordshire Yeomanry was once again transferred back to England to join the 79th Armoured Division.
They converted to Sherman DD tanks and B Squadron supported the 52nd (Lowland) Division in the assault on South Beveland, during the Battle of the Scheldt. After a swim of seven miles, carried out without casualties, the terrain proved impassable and only three tanks were able to advance with the infantry. More training ensued and, on 23 March 1945, the regiment used Sherman DD tanks in the Rhine crossings [1]
[edit] Post War
The unit was eventually disbanded in 1973.
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