4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards

4th/7th Dragoon Guards
4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards

Regimental Crest and tie colours
Active 1922-1992
Country  United Kingdom
Branch  British Army
Type Royal Armoured Corps
Role Main Battle Tank Main battle tank#Main battle tank (late twentieth century)
Size 550
Motto Quis Separabit (Latin - who shall separate us).
March (Quick) St Patrick's Day. (Slow) Regimental Slow March of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards (amalgam of the slow marches of the 4th and 7th Dragoon Guards)
Anniversaries Normandy Day (6 June), Dettigen Day (27 June).
Commanders
Current
commander		 Defunct

The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1922 to 1992.

History

Formation

The regiment was formed in India, as the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards and 7th Dragoon Guards (Princess Royal's); it gained the distinction Royal in 1935. The regiment returned to the United Kingdom in 1929, was mechanised in 1938, and transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1939 prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Second World War

In 1939, equipped with Vickers Mk.VI light tanks, it deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), as the reconnaissance regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division under I Corps. It participated in the Battle of France, fighting in northern France and Belgium, and evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. The personnel of the regiment landed in England on 3 June 1940, having abandoned their vehicles.

After re-equipping with Beaverette armoured cars, the regiment was posted to the 1st Armoured Reconnaissance Brigade and then, in December 1940, to the 27th Armoured Brigade, part of 9th Armoured Division, equipped with Covenanter tanks. At this time, a small group of personnel was detached to form the cadre of a new regiment, the 22nd Dragoons. In 1943, the regiment joined 79th Armoured Division, equipping with amphibious Valentine tanks, and later re-equipping with M4 Sherman DD tanks.

Under command of the 8th Armoured Brigade, the regiment landed on King Green, Gold Beach, at 07:20 on 6 June 1944 as part of the D-Day landings, supporting the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division. The regiment later participated in the Battle for the Falaise Gap, and as part of the armoured forces in Operation Market Garden - the regiment pushing as far as Driel, on the south bank of the Rhine a couple of miles from Arnhem. Among other notable achievements, it was the first armoured unit to cross the Seine.

The regiment ended the war in Bremerhaven, and a year later was deployed to Palestine for a tour of duty lasting from 1946-1948. The regiment was then deployed to Libya, rotated back to England in 1952, and then to Germany in 1954 as part of 7th Armoured Division. The regiment then rotated regularly between England and Germany, with two squadrons deployed to Aden in 1965 and a squadron to Cyprus in 1966 as part of the United Nations forces. There was also a two-year tour in Omagh in Northern Ireland, from 1966 to 1968, following which the regiment returned to rotation between the United Kingdom and Germany.

Disbandment

Following the reduction of forces at the end of the Cold War, the Options for Change proposal amalgamated the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards with the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, to form the new Royal Dragoon Guards regiment.

References

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