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129-1090: The Guards Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army during the Second World War . The division was created in the United Kingdom on 17 June 1941 during the Second World War from elements of the Guards units, the Grenadier Guards , Coldstream Guards , Scots Guards , Irish Guards , Welsh Guards , and the Household Cavalry. The division remained in the United Kingdom, training, until 13 June 1944, when it landed several armoured command vehicles at Arromanche. It lagered its advanced tactical headquarters in communication with GHQ awaiting

258-586: A Schwere Panzerabteilung and a counterattack by the 12 SS Hilterjugend . Novel tactics had to be employed to deal with the more heavily gunned and armoured Tiger, with one being rammed by a Sherman of the Irish Guards . Whilst taking part in Operation Goodwood east of Cagny, Lt John Gorman who was a Troop Commander in the 2nd Armoured Battalion was probing forward in his Sherman tank Ballyragget when suddenly he found himself broadside to

387-779: A Firefly , Ballymena , whose commander had been killed and continued to fire at the Tiger tank with the Firefly's 17-pounder gun until the Tiger's destruction was complete. For this action Gorman was awarded the Military Cross and his driver, L/Cpl James Brown, was awarded the Military Medal, being the first members of the Allied Expeditionary Forces to knock out a Tiger II. However, the German account

516-627: A German Tiger II , the German heavy tank that no-one had yet seen. He fired his 75mm gun but the shot bounced off German tank. He was unable to fire again as the Sherman's gun was jammed. By now, the Tiger Tank was traversing its gun towards Gorman's Sherman so he ordered his driver L/Cpl James Brown to ram the German Tank. The collision disabled the Tiger and caused its crew to bail out. After seeing his own crew to safety, Lt Gorman commandeered

645-495: A battalion of forty-eight Vickers Medium Mark I tanks, a motorised machine-gun battalion, a mechanised artillery regiment, which had one battery of fully tracked self-propelled Birch guns capable of acting as conventional or anti-aircraft artillery, and a motorised company of field engineers. The unit carried out operations on Salisbury Plain and was observed by the other major nations, the United States , Germany , and

774-431: A better range than their WW I predecessors. To save weight, such designs had thin armour plating and this inspired fitting small-calibre high-velocity guns in turrets, giving tanks a good antitank capacity. Both France and Britain eventually built specialised infantry tanks, more heavily armoured to provide infantry support, and cavalry tanks that were faster and could exploit a breakthrough, seeking to bring about defeat of

903-634: A bicycle accident in early July 1917. He returned to the battalion in January 1918, by which time he discovered that there only four of his fellow officers still with the battalion. Adair was awarded his first Military Cross (MC) on 2 December 1918. The citation reads: For conspicuous gallantry and resource while in command of the support company. Owing to thick fog the leading company lost direction and failed to turn up. He led his company correctly into position and then made several personal reconnaissances under heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, and cleared up

1032-654: A breakout or a more limited effort, it had the effect of drawing most of the German reserves towards Caen , aiding the Cobra offensive . Originally intended as a combined attack, it was changed to an armoured assault as the British Army in France had suffered heavy infantry casualties and were struggling to find replacements. As a result, the attack was changed to one largely of armoured divisions, as lost tanks would be easier to replace. The Guards Armoured Division joined with

1161-401: A dangerous practice. The turboshaft -powered M1 Abrams , for example, has such hot exhaust gas that nearby infantry have to be careful where they stand. Tanks can also be very vulnerable to well aimed artillery ; well-coordinated air support and counter-battery artillery units can help overcome this. While attempts to defeat the tank were made before and during the Second World War, through

1290-410: A deliberate military doctrine, in 1941, it ultimately failed on the eastern front, though initially attaining spectacular successes. Before the war, Heinz Guderian had in his Achtung–Panzer! propounded a thorough mechanisation of the German forces. By 1942, increased AFV-production allowed a fuller implementation of this ideal. Now extensive armoured combined arms team could be formed, distinct from

1419-611: A field day at Pirbright – and their efforts were completely successful. Adair, awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his services in Belgium and France, was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 19 September 1940. On 17 October he was appointed Commander of the 30th Independent Infantry Brigade (Guards) , re-designated the 6th Guards Armoured Brigade on 15 September 1941, with the rank of temporary brigadier. From 12 September 1942 until December 1945 Adair

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1548-581: A group of three German A7V tanks engaged a group of three British Mark IV tanks which they met accidentally. After the final German spring offensives of 21 March to 18 July 1918, the Entente deployed tanks en masse at the Battle of Soissons (18 to 22 July 1918) and Battle of Amiens (August 1918), which ended the stalemate imposed by trench warfare on the Western Front, and thus effectively ended

1677-618: A lack of effective armoured tactics. Strategic use of tanks developed only slowly during and immediately after World War I, partly due to these technical limits but also due to the prestige role traditionally accorded to horse-mounted cavalry. An exception, on paper, was the Plan 1919 of the British Army's Colonel J. F. C. Fuller , who envisaged using the expected vast increase in armour production during 1919 to execute deep strategic penetrations by mechanised forces consisting of tanks and infantry carried by trucks, supported by aeroplanes, to paralyse

1806-628: A major advance, attacks in the local area were fierce, particularly around Chenedolle. Support from other arms was also provided, with the Welsh infantry regiment supported by Churchill tanks of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade and the Household Cavalry deploying as infantry in the line for a brief period. On the 15th the Germans started to withdraw but were caught in the Falaise pocket, allowing

1935-567: A motor infantry battalion. A certain level of common sense was applied to these changes, with the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards being assigned as the motor battalion, due to the presence of King's Company. This group of men were all at least 6 feet tall and were expected to struggle to fit into tanks. Uniquely the Guards Armoured Division also kept its infantry company structure, with the tanks organised into companies and battalions , rather than squadrons and regiments . At

2064-570: A narrow cooperation between large armoured units – of the Panzerwaffe and the Cavalry – and "active" infantry divisions to break the Polish defensive lines and pursue the defeated enemy forces. The more limited and dispersed Polish armoured units were quickly destroyed. The Red Army, invading the east of Poland , also deployed armoured divisions. At the time, the swift collapse of the Polish army

2193-496: A purely infantry or cavalry formation. The panzer divisions integrated tanks with mechanised infantry (riding in halftracks to be protected from small-arms fire while being transported) and self-propelled artillery (howitzers fitted on a tank chassis). This allowed the panzer division to become an independent combat force, in principle able to overcome the problems of attaining a breakthrough against entrenched enemy infantry, equipped with large numbers of antitank-guns, with

2322-533: A sharp increase in the number of available tanks for 1918. The German Empire , on the contrary, produced only a few tanks, late in the war. Twenty German A7V tanks were produced during the entire conflict, compared to over 4,400 French and over 2,500 British tanks of various kinds. Nonetheless, World War I saw the first tank-versus-tank battle, during the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918, when

2451-558: A success from the operational point of view, was a battle in which the Guards acquitted themselves satisfactorily. The operation also drew off most of the German mechanised reserves, being convinced that the allies planned to break out from Caen. This left little for reinforcements, when the Americans began Operation Cobra on 25 July. After Goodwood the Guards Armoured Division was reorganized into unofficial battlegroups. Goodwood had shown

2580-525: A sudden change in the global geostrategic situation, gaining Germany a position of hegemony on the European continent, but also seemed to vindicate the theories of Fuller and Liddell-Hart. Confronted with the undeniable potential of armoured manoeuvre warfare, from the summer of 1940 onwards the armed forces of all surviving major powers adapted their tactical doctrine, unit organisation, strategic planning and tank production plans. According to Frieser, this

2709-456: A tank component supplemented by tank destroyers formed into independent tank destroyer battalions . The latter is most closely identified with the Chief of Army Ground Forces, Lesley J. McNair . Having studied the early German successes McNair came under the belief that U.S. forces would be faced with fast moving enemy forces who would seek to bypass, isolate and reduce U.S. forces in a replay of

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2838-527: A war of attrition and embarked on a high-risk strategy. They approved the Manstein Plan , envisaging an advance through the Ardennes by the main mass of German infantry divisions, spearheaded by seven armoured divisions, while the main mobile French reserve consisting of three Cavalry armoured divisions ( Divisions Légères Mécaniques or Mechanised Light Divisions) – the only armoured units organised on

2967-483: Is an extreme example but exemplifies what has been fairly thoroughly documented since the Second World War: tanks and infantry work best by taking advantage of each other's strengths and combining to minimise the weaknesses. In many conflicts, it was usual to see infantry riding on the back of tanks, ready to jump off and provide support when necessary. Unfortunately, the design of many modern tanks makes this

3096-467: Is rather different. The Tiger II gunner, Hans-Joachim Thaysen, insisted he never even saw Gorman's Sherman and was instead concentrating on firing ahead of him. Thaysen also said that it was a German anti-tank gun friendly fire incident which was likely trying to fire at Gorman's Sherman that destroyed his Tiger II, which caused the crew to bail out. The 75mm PaK hit the Tiger II on the left side between

3225-513: The Panzerwaffe . The precise interpretation of this phenomenon has proven controversial among military historians. Traditionally, it has been seen as part of a " Blitzkrieg strategy" of swift world conquest by means of armoured forces. Later it has been argued, among others by Karl-Heinz Frieser , that the German army in the 1930s did not even possess an explicit Blitzkrieg tactical doctrine, let alone strategy. This would have been reflected by

3354-707: The 1937 repression of the officer corps . The Red Army ignored the lessons from Nomonhan , which had been successfully conducted by General Zhukov , and relied instead on lessons from politically selected officers who were veterans of the Spanish Civil War . The result was a poor showing during the Winter War . The Red Army tank fleet was extremely large, consisting of some 24,000 vehicles, but many were obsolete or unfit for service due to difficulties with supplying spare parts and lack of qualified support staff. One important development took place shortly before

3483-640: The 7th and 11th Armoured Divisions for this attack. The aim was to strike south out of the Orne bridgehead on 18 July. The Guards Armoured Division was to advance south-east to capture Vimont and Argences . Prior to this attack the German defences were heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force . Unfortunately this was less effective than hoped against the dug-in defenders, both in the south of Caen and in Cagny and Emieville . All three of these areas were in

3612-606: The Allied break-out from Normandy they advanced across Northern France and into Belgium as part of Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks ' XXX Corps . The division liberated Brussels , after making an unprecedented advance from Douai , 97 miles (156 km) away, in only 14 hours. The division then took a leading role in the ground advance in Operation Market Garden in September. Held in reserve during

3741-694: The Ardennes offensive , it was sent in bitterly cold weather, which forced the tanks to start their engines every hour to prevent the fuel and oil freezing, to the Meuse as a reserve in case the Germans broke through the American lines; some German tanks breaking through were stopped. It endured hard fighting in Operation Veritable , the advance towards the Rhine through the Reichswald, and again in

3870-793: The Battle of the Bulge in December, it was committed to the Battle of the Reichswald ( Operation Veritable ) in February and March 1945. After advancing through Germany and the German surrender in May 1945 the Guards Armoured Division remained as part of the occupying forces, but on 12 June 1945 was converted into an infantry formation, the Guards Division. From December 1945, three months after

3999-546: The First World War . He joined the British Army , receiving his commission as a probationary second lieutenant on 2 May 1916 in the 5th (Reserve) Battalion of the Grenadier Guards , the same regiment with which an ancestor of Adair's had been serving when he was killed at the battle of Waterloo . From January 1917 onwards he served in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgium as part of

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4128-654: The French Army as the best army in Europe, and consequently the U.S. Army frequently copied French uniforms (the American Civil War) and aeroplanes. Only when France was rapidly overrun in 1940 did the U.S. Army become "shocked" into re-thinking the influences by the perceived actions of German tanks in the 1939 Polish Campaign. Its Armored Combat Arm was not created until 1940 when the Armored Force

4257-623: The IJN favoured all-around protective armour) IJA tanks were lightly armoured. As with most armour during the 1930s, the main guns were small in calibre: 37 mm for their Type 95 light tanks and 47 mm for the Type 97 medium tank, but this was sometimes compensated by a high muzzle velocity. The IJA's use of tanks in China exemplifies its doctrine: light tanks were used for scouting or acted as mobile infantry support, while medium tanks supported

4386-679: The Nijmegen Bridge with the help of the US 82nd Airborne Division . Following this they spent the winter in the Netherlands and Germany, before being moved into Belgium as a reserve against the Battle of the Bulge . The infantry of the Welsh Guards were also replaced by the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards , due to a severe lack of replacements in the British Army at the time. Following this the division participated in Operation Veritable ,

4515-567: The River Seine . Due to the near total collapse of the German Army in France they reached and crossed the river on the 29th. Here some more changes were made to the Guards organization. The use of an Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment had not proved successful, while armoured cars had proved more adept at the role, despite the disadvantage of being more tied to the road network. Consequently, the 2nd Household Cavalry were formally attached as

4644-534: The Schneider CA , also failed to live up to expectations. In the Battle of Cambrai (November to December 1917) British tanks were more successful, and broke a German trenchline system , the Hindenburg Line . Despite the generally unpromising beginnings, the military and political leadership in both Britain and France during 1917 backed large investment into armoured-vehicle production. This led to

4773-557: The Second Battle of El Alamein . In 2022, Kendrick Kuo, assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College, wrote that due to factors emanating from the interwar period , the British army in North Africa initially operated their armoured units with little infantry or artillery support. Meanwhile, the Germans had integrated their armour with mechanised infantry and artillery. Only after undoing their misplaced emphasis on armour were

4902-576: The Soviet Union . Although its performance was recognised, it was disbanded in 1928. In 2022, Kendrick Kuo, assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College , argued that the British army, under budget and over-stretched during the interwar period, pursued innovation recklessly by betting on the combat effectiveness of armoured units operating with little infantry or artillery support. Doing so led to its initial setbacks in North Africa during

5031-754: The United Grand Lodge of Freemasons from 1969 to 1976. He also served as Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim , and as a Justice of the Peace for the county of Suffolk . On 28 April 1919 Adair married Enid Violet Ida Ward (1897–1984). They had two sons; Lieutenant Desmond Allan Shafto Adair (1920–1943), killed in action in Italy, and Robert Dudley Shafto Adair (1923–1925), and three daughters; Bridget Mary Adair (b. 1928), Juliet Enid Adair (b. 1930) and Annabel Violet Adair (b. 1937). Adair succeeded his father as 6th baronet on 9 October 1949 inheriting

5160-412: The Western Front by the effectiveness of entrenched defensive infantry armed with machine guns – known as trench warfare . Under these conditions, attacks usually advanced very slowly and incurred massive casualties. The developers of tanks aimed to return manoeuvre to warfare, and found a practical way to do so: providing caterpillar traction to machine guns allowing them to overcome trenches, while at

5289-610: The advance through Germany . The division existed until 12 June 1945, a little over a month after Victory in Europe Day , when it was reorganised as an infantry division, the Guards Division , after almost exactly four years as an armoured division. Brainchild of General Sir Alan Brooke , then the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces , the Guards Armoured Division, commanded by Major General Oliver Leese ,

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5418-544: The highest form of discipline. Last May, when my Division was being hard pressed on the Ypres-Comines Canal I was given a Battalion of the Grenadier Guards as a reserve. After marching well over twenty miles on a very hot day they arrived at my Headquarters at 7.30 p.m. An hour later they were put into a vital counter-attack in the half light, over unknown ground. They advanced as efficiently as if on

5547-548: The surrender of Japan , until November 1946 Adair served as GOC of the 13th Infantry Division , during the Civil War , and receiving promotion to major-general on 25 July 1946, with seniority from 12 November 1944. He finally retired from active service on 11 March 1947, but remained in the Regular Army Reserve of Officers until reaching the mandatory retirement age on 3 November 1957, his 60th birthday. Adair

5676-416: The 11th Armoured Division, the Guards reached the border with the Netherlands, the Irish Guards under Joe Vandeleur seizing "Joe's Bridge", a bridge over the Meuse-Escault canal in a surprise assault. The Guards Armoured Division was then withdrawn from the line to prepare for Operation Market Garden . They formed the spearhead of the attacks into the Netherlands, with the Grenadier Guards managing to seize

5805-478: The 1920s the armoured vehicles, as early road transport in general, were extremely unreliable, and could not be used in sustained operations. Mainstream thought on the subject was more conservative and tried to integrate armoured vehicles into the existing infantry and cavalry organisation and tactics. Technical development initially focussed on the improvement of the suspension system, transmission and engine, to create vehicles that were faster, more reliable and had

5934-433: The 1930s, political tensions between the world powers quickly increased. The Soviet Union and France began to rearm in the early thirties. In the Soviet Union, the mechanisation of the armed forces was part of a massive general industrialisation programme, the successive Five Years Plans , and the country soon had more tanks than the rest of the world combined, thousands of them being produced per year. In this period, before

6063-399: The 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, with the rank of lieutenant . The battalion was part of the 2nd Guards Brigade of the Guards Division . Adair's first major battle was in the pursuit of the retreating German Army to the Hindenburg Line . The division then took part in the battle of Passchendaele . Adair, however, took no part in the battle, due to an injury sustained in

6192-403: The 3rd Battalion with the rank of acting lieutenant colonel . The battalion, forming part of the 1st Guards Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division (the former commanded by Brigadier Merton Beckwith-Smith and the latter by Major-General Harold Alexander , both, like Adair, Guardsmen), soon found themselves in the thick of the fighting during the battles of Belgium and France , and held

6321-412: The 4th Cavalry Division was transformed into the 1e Division Légère Mécanique , the first French armoured division of the Cavalry. In Germany, after the Nazi Regime started open rearmament in March 1935, on 15 October 1935 three Panzerdivisionen were formed. Though some tank brigades were part of the Cavalry or Infantry arm, most German tanks were concentrated into a special branch, from 1936 called

6450-495: The Allies on the tactical and operational level. German tanks operated while directed by radio communication, which allowed tank commanders to take greater advantage of the manoeuvrability of their vehicles. Even after the conquest of Poland , "Blitzkrieg" was not defined on the strategic level. Guderian and von Manstein devised a strategy that entailed what later would be seen as the essence of Blitzkrieg: concentrated panzer divisions performing swift deep penetrations. This strategy

6579-452: The Anglo-French coalition proved unable to match the Germans in the number of armoured divisions, as it was impossible to quickly raise such large units. Though the French possessed a superior number of tanks, often better armoured and armed, half of these were allotted at army-level to independent Bataillons de Chars de Combat ("battle tank battalions") for infantry support. In early 1940, the German command had concluded that it could not win

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6708-402: The Ardennes forced the crossings over the river Meuse , assisted by massive carpet bombing of the crossing points. In the original plan, the armoured divisions were again supposed to closely cooperate with the infantry divisions. In reality, armour commanders like Erwin Rommel and Heinz Guderian immediately broke out of the bridgeheads, initiating a drive towards the English Channel , which

6837-407: The Battle of Cambrai a large concentration of British heavy tanks effected a breakthrough, it was not exploited by armour. The manoeuvrability of the tank should at least in theory regain armies the ability to flank enemy lines. In practice, tank warfare during most of World War I was hampered by the technical immaturity of the new weapon system, limiting speed, operational range, and reliability, and

6966-553: The British able to restore their combat effectiveness. Much of the Red Army development in tank use was based on the theoretical work carried out by such officers as Tukhachevsky and Triandafillov in the mid to late 1930s. This was as part of the two-directioned concepts, one being infantry-centred "broad front" and the other being a "shock army". While the infantry based part of the doctrine demanded "powerful tanks" (heavy tanks armed with infantry guns and machineguns) and "tankettes" (light, often amphibious tanks with machineguns),

7095-428: The Commonwealth troops of the British Western Desert Force . The arrival of the German Afrika Korps under command of General der Panzertruppe Erwin Rommel highlighted the weaknesses of the British approach: the small number of infantry and artillery in each armoured division was sufficient when attacking the immobile and uncoordinated Italian troops, but against the highly mobile, well-coordinated German units,

7224-458: The East Mediterranean region and Israel in particular would serve to become a testing ground for development in armoured warfare during the decades of the Cold War. Both sides in the Arab–Israeli series of conflicts made heavy use of tanks and other armoured vehicles due to the practicality of tanks in the desert environment these conflicts largely took place in. During the 1956 Suez War and Six-Day War (1967), Israeli armoured units typically had

7353-400: The Fall of France. To stem the flood of marauding panzers, fast moving powerfully armed tank destroyer battalions were created to be held back and used in the counter-attack. It was also calculated that U.S. interests would be better served by large numbers of reliable ( battle-worthiness ) medium tanks rather than a smaller number of unreliable heavy tanks. It was decided therefore to slow

7482-439: The French, and ultimately were the deciding factors in the battle. It overcame their inferiority in armour and armament relative to the main French materiel such as the Char B1 bis . The superior tactical and operational praxis, combined with an appropriate strategic implementation, enabled the Germans to defeat forces superior in armour (both quantitatively and qualitatively) in the battles of 1940, but just as Blitzkrieg became

7611-418: The German coast. Two Victoria Crosses were awarded to the division for the fighting during this period; neither recipient survived the war. They were Guardsman Edward Charlton of the 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards and Captain Ian Liddell of the 5th Battalion, Coldstream Guards . After the German surrender the Guards were mostly involved in mopping up operations and occupation duties. A small detachment

7740-414: The Guards to recover for a refit. Bluecoat had been a success and the combined arms of the battlegroup concept had been proven. This would be the way the Guards Armoured Division would operate from now on. The division suffered many losses in the operation, though the Allies had enough replacements that they could lose six tanks for every German tank destroyed. Crew were a different matter and a consequence of

7869-407: The Guards who were not used to short-range combat. The Germans ended up committing their tanks piecemeal, and as a result there was no defensive line as such. Instead common opposition would consist of a small mobile group of infantry supported by a few tanks or self-propelled guns. Snipers and mortars were a particular problem in this terrain, with field modifications added to the tank to try to reduce

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7998-431: The Red Army in World War II , initiated under strict secrecy and using the Principle of Surprise. Furthermore, to improve the fighting capabilities of armoured units, all heavy and medium tanks are to be commanded by officers and crewed by NCOs. In Germany, in-depth research through theoretical approaches, wargaming and exercises developed a confidence within the Panzertruppe itself (and political support by Hitler) in

8127-422: The Second World War. All major European states (with the exception of Germany that was forbidden to possess armoured vehicles under the Treaty of Versailles ), the US, and Japan, would create their own experimental mechanised forces during the late 1920s, many using either French or British vehicle designs or even directly purchased vehicles, but largely borrowing from both to develop their own doctrines. During

8256-579: The T-34 was also able to negotiate terrain in difficult weather conditions, something that persistently dogged the German designs. Assessing the success of the German Blitzkrieg strategy, operational methods and tactics, the Red Army concluded that it should return to the use of operational methods developed before the war, so the Tank Armies were eventually created. To complement the T-34, heavy tanks, self-propelled artillery, and tank destroyers were also designed. The Red Army's armoured forces were used in concentrations during all strategic operations of

8385-506: The U.S. Army consisted of the M2A4 and M3 Stuart light tanks up until 1941, although these vehicles were five years newer than the 1935 built Type 95 's, the IJA and U.S. light tanks were comparable to each other, and seemingly performed well for their respective forces during jungle combat operations; during their phase of World War II. As with all armour, maintenance was a continuous challenge; especially in tropical environments. When IJA and SNLF (Imperial marines) tanks did clash with

8514-458: The XXX Corps attack in Operation Market Garden , the ground forces' advance to relieve airborne troops aiming to seize the bridges up to Arnhem, capturing Nijmegen bridge in conjunction with American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division . The Tac HQ reached Arnhem but was not able to seize the bridge because German anti tank guns were entrenched on the North side and the British airborne had surrendered or were too far away to help. During

8643-440: The advantage, mainly due to good tactics and unit cohesion . Conversely, the Yom Kippur War (1973) illustrated the problems that can arise if armoured and infantry units do not work closely together. Israeli tanks, operating independently in large numbers, were decimated by Egyptian anti-tank teams, well-distributed amongst regular infantry, and often equipped with new, first-generation portable anti-tank guided missiles . This

8772-414: The armoured divisions were structurally short of tanks. Though the U.S. had established the Tank Corps in World War I using French Renault FT light tanks and British Mark V and Mark V* heavy tanks, and some officers like Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton, Jr. emerged from that war initially as avid proponents of continuing and developing an American armoured force, the rapid reduction of

8901-449: The armoured formation as the key battlefield formation – although this view was before 1940 not shared by the other Arms of Service. A key part of this doctrine was improved communications by having radios in all tanks, although this ideal suffered from technical limits as most tanks had receiver sets only. At the outbreak of World War II, the German armoured forces benefited from a much more profound and more flexible training than that of

9030-414: The beginning of the war, but would only be built in small numbers towards the end, being placed in reserve, to be deployed for the defence of Japan itself. The Republic of China 's National Revolutionary Army 's 200th Division was the country's only mechanised division during the war. The 200th used pre-war tanks acquired from Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The conflict between Arab nations in

9159-436: The bulk of the armour Normandy , France , during Operation Overlord as part of VIII Corps . Its first major engagement was Operation Goodwood , the attack by three armoured divisions towards Bourguebus Ridge in an attempt to break out of the Normandy beachhead. That was followed by Operation Bluecoat , the advance east of Caen as the Falaise pocket formed. Transferred to XXX Corps , the division liberated Brussels . It led

9288-451: The damage. Due to the difficulty of completely clearing the enemy from a particular area and of supplying sub-units, the attack ground to a halt on 4 August. On 7 August the Guards had a short break as the Germans concentrated their forces on a counter-offensive against the Americans at Mortain. On that day the Guards were given the 11th Armoured Divisions area to defend as well, freeing up the 11th Armoured. While not actually trying to launch

9417-609: The division generally fought as four combined-arms battle-groups, two under each brigade headquarters. The organisation of the division at different times included: The Guards Armoured Division only had three General Officer Commanding , during its existence: Armoured warfare Much of the application of armoured warfare depends on the use of tanks and related vehicles used by other supporting arms such as infantry fighting vehicles , self-propelled artillery , and other combat vehicles , as well as mounted combat engineers and other support units. The doctrine of armored warfare

9546-610: The division: although occasionally altered, the Grenadier and Irish groups formed the 5th Brigade, and the Coldstream and Welsh groups made the 32nd Brigade. Machine-gun support was provided by the Grenadier Guards for the 5th Brigade and the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers in the 32nd. Having broken out from Normandy, the terrain change and the countryside became much more open and flowing. The advance

9675-548: The divisions still consisted of infantry that was not even motorised. As a result, tanks tended to be allotted to special armoured units, where the limited and expensive expert maintenance and training capacity could be concentrated. Only the Soviet Union had enough tanks to equip an organic tank battalion in each infantry division. Nevertheless, France was the first to create large armoured units: in 1934 two Mechanised Corps were formed of 430 tanks each. In July 1935, in France

9804-521: The end of 1942, the division, now under the command of Major General Allan Adair , was split in line with all armoured divisions at this time, with one armoured brigade replaced with a brigade of lorried infantry. At this point the 6th and 5th Guards Armoured Brigades were separated. During this period the division re-equipped with Crusader III tanks , which were again replaced with Sherman Vs by 1944. The Guards Armoured Division landed in Normandy at

9933-477: The end of June, and went into battle around Carpiquet Airfield soon after, with the infantry of the 32nd Guards Brigade skirmishing with the 12th SS Hitlerjugend . However this was only to last a couple of weeks before the armour arrived and the division was deployed further south to participate in Operation Goodwood . The aim of this attack has been debated many times, but whether an attempt at

10062-604: The enemy before they could get a shot in. Although they usually had guns of either 75 mm or 76 mm calibre (the M36 used a 90mm calibre gun), the tank destroyer units were issued with the ancestor of the modern armour-piercing discarding sabot , rounds which made their guns much more powerful than a simple comparison of calibres would suggest. The Japanese doctrine was mainly French in concept but with some purely Japanese elements. Due to Japan's naval priorities in warship construction and inter-service feuds (the marine branch of

10191-618: The enemy by severing his lines of communication and supply, as cavalry had done during the previous century. The British were the first to create a larger fully mechanised unit when the War Office sanctioned the creation of the Experimental Mechanized Force , which was formed on 1 May 1927, under infantry Colonel R. J. Collins, after Fuller (was) refused the function. Its sub-units were entirely mobile and consisted of reconnaissance tankettes and armoured cars ,

10320-477: The enemy command-structure. Following the First World War, the technical and doctrinal aspects of armoured warfare became more sophisticated and diverged into multiple schools of doctrinal thought. During the 1920s, a very limited number of tanks were produced. There were however, important theoretical and technical developments. Various British and French commanders who had contributed to the origin of

10449-400: The enemy they were quickly destroyed by concealed anti-tank guns or overwhelming numbers of hostile tanks. Japan was a naval power, and concentrated its production on warships, thus placing a low priority on armoured vehicle development, its tanks becoming quickly obsolete during the later years of the war. A number of designs that were equal to heavier foreign types were on the drawing board at

10578-500: The family home of Flixton Hall in Suffolk. However the burden of its upkeep and maintenance, combined with heavy death duties meant that he was obliged to sell the property in 1950. In his 1986 memoir, Adair described Flixton Hall as "a vast, uncomfortable mausoleum, with no proper central heating. In winter the children had to wear their overcoats when moving from room to room". It was demolished within two years. Adair then settled in

10707-470: The forces and apathy and even antipathy towards funding and maintaining armed forces in the inter-war years led to relative stagnation of armoured doctrine in the United States. Adna R. Chaffee, Jr. , virtually alone, advocated for the future of armoured warfare and the development of appropriate training, equipment and doctrine during the late 1920s through the 1930s. The United States Army regarded

10836-619: The infantry and assaulted deeper objectives, but did not fight en masse. In 1939, the Japanese Army engaged Soviet armour at Nomonhan . During the three-month-long war, Japanese armour had shown their weakness against Soviet tanks; and the resulting Japanese defeat prompted a series of complaints by the Imperial Army to incorporate improvements in future Japanese armour. This is the primary reason IJA tanks were not as successful while being used with IJA tactics. The tank forces of

10965-473: The left front company, which was held up by an organised line of machine guns, he so manoeuvred his platoons as to capture the line with a minimum of casualties. Although wounded in the leg, he continued in command until relieved the following day". After the armistice of 11 November 1918 Adair's battalion returned to London, where on 29 June 1920 he received his permanent lieutenant's commission, with seniority backdated to 2 August 1918. On 29 September 1923 he

11094-471: The lines of the German armoured divisions – would be lured into the Low Countries by a feint attack with a lesser force, including three armoured divisions. In May 1940, during the Battle of France , the German feint resulted in a number of undecided armour engagements, among them the Battle of Hannut , the largest tank battle fought until that date. At the same time, German motorised infantry west of

11223-426: The majority of the German armour had redeployed after Goodwood, this attack switched back towards Villers-Bocage to support the Americans and to capture the road junction at Vire and the high ground at Mont Pincon . While the opposition was initially two weak infantry divisions ( 276th and 326th ), they were well dug in, having prepared minefields and other defences. The terrain was bocage , which also slowed down

11352-545: The mechanisation progressed, slowly the French armour doctrine began to reflect the increased capacity, evolving from direct infantry support, to independent breakthrough and eventually envelopment with the Infantry, and to deep strategic exploitation with the Cavalry. Despite the increase in tank numbers, in all countries financial constraints prohibited a full mechanisation of the entire armed ground forces. Necessarily, most of

11481-444: The official division reconnaissance element. This freed up the Welsh Guards tank crews for other duties, and formal battlegroups were formed. These were far more organized than the previous ad hoc affair, with each regiment's battalions being merged to form a battlegroup. The Grenadier battlegroup consisted of the tanks of the 2nd Battalion and the motor infantry of the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards. This required some rearranging of

11610-527: The operation to clear the Reichswald forest . Due to the weather and the Germans flooding the area, only the infantry ended up playing an active part. After this the towed batteries of the Royal Artillery anti-tank guns were converted to infantry for the lack of targets. The division then supported the push over the Rhine before breaking into Germany and fighting up towards the Netherlands and along

11739-520: The operation was the removal of the Crusader AA tanks , possible due to the lack of air opposition; their crews were used to man the replacement Shermans provided to the division. The Guards were not committed to the fighting in the Falaise pocket , but instead got a chance to rest and regroup. On the 27th they were transferred to XXX Corps under Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks and advanced on

11868-420: The path of the Guards advance. The attack quickly bogged down and losses became heavy, the guards losing 60 tanks to a single battery of four Luftwaffe 88mm AA guns . In addition to this, a group of Tiger I tanks of the 503, which had been completely knocked out in the bombardment, recovered enough over the course of the morning to stiffen the resistance against the Guards. In addition, the Guards were checked by

11997-537: The perimeter against German attacks during the Dunkirk evacuation . Lance Corporal Harry Nicholls from Adair's battalion was awarded one of the first Victoria Crosses of the war. The 1st Guards Brigade briefly served under the control of the 5th Infantry Division , commanded by Major-General Harold Franklyn . It was when Adair's battalion launched a counterattack which helped restore the British line which impressed Franklyn, who later wrote: I give this example of

12126-492: The police prevented a scout car having its wheels removed. The population were starving, having been deprived of food by the Germans, and supplies and chocolate were dished out to the grateful population. On 3 September Brussels was liberated by the Guards Armoured Division after a high-speed run, the division advancing 75 miles in one day. The division could not rest long however, pushing further into north-east Belgium against stiffening German opposition. After gaining support from

12255-528: The potential to completely halt tank assaults inflicting devastating losses to armoured units without infantry support. However, much of the AFV production was increasingly diverted away from the Panzertruppe . The Artillery formed its own Sturmgeschütz units and infantry divisions were given their own Panzerjäger companies. Despite lowering their formal organic strength, from the summer of 1943 onwards,

12384-645: The production of the U.S. heavy tank designs such as the M26 Pershing and concentrate resources on mass-producing the M4 Sherman and tank destroyers such as the M18 Hellcat . To be able get into position to counter-attack, the tank destroyers had to be fast. To achieve the desired mobility and agility from the engines available the armour protection was sacrificed, a measure of protection coming from being nimble and hopefully from being able to knock out

12513-521: The purchase of a T3 chassis, using the Christie suspension , from US designer John Walter Christie , which served as the basis of the Soviet BT series of fast tanks. The Red Army tactics were influenced by the theoretical works of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky who advocated "large scale tank warfare" as part of the deep battle doctrine. In France, the second largest tank producer, mechanisation

12642-518: The relatively unimpressive rate of tank production and development. During the 1930s the United Kingdom gave priority to the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy . The British Army began the conversion of its cavalry from horse to tanks and all but a few regiments were fully converted by 1939. The British 1st Armoured Division was formed, as the "Mobile Division", in November 1937. Before the Second World War actual use of armoured fighting vehicles

12771-647: The rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany, German officers were sent to observe and participate in development of armoured doctrine in the USSR. Red Army and German experts collaborated in developing the use of tanks based on second generation vehicles with turreted main weapons, and experimenting to design different chassis configurations and drive trains. One important acquisition for the Red Army turned out to be

12900-525: The same time offering them armour protection against small arms as they were moving. Britain and France first developed tanks in 1915 as a way of navigating the barbed wire and other obstacles of no-man's land while remaining protected from machine-gun fire. British Mark I tanks first went into action at the Somme on 15 September 1916, but did not manage to break the deadlock of trench warfare. The first French employment of tanks, on 16 April 1917, using

13029-435: The shock army demanded "manoeuvre tanks" (fast tanks with medium guns) used in conjunction with motorised forces and "mechanised cavalry" that would operate in depth as "strategic cavalry" combined with nascent airborne troops. These ideas culminated in the "PU-36" or the 1936 Field Service Regulations. At the start of the Second World War much of the Red Army, including its armoured forces, was in transition and recovering from

13158-412: The situation. He captured the objectives without the assistance of tanks or artillery, and broke up a hostile counter-attack the following morning. With the acting rank of captain , Adair was Officer Commanding 2 Company from 22 September to 11 November 1918, receiving his second MC after the war on 2 April 1919 "for conspicuous gallantry and skill at Preux-au-Sart , on 4 November 1918. In command of

13287-399: The speed of the attack. Initially the Guards supported the 11th Armoured Division who were the spearhead of the attack by protecting their flank, however they took over the spearhead duties themselves on 1 August, fighting in the bocage until 15 August against elements of the 276th and 326th Infantry, 21st Panzer and 1st , 9th and 10th SS-Panzer Divisions . This was to prove challenging to

13416-722: The summer of 1939 combined mass tank manoeuvres with artillery and air attacks, to defeat the Japanese Imperial Army at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol at Nomonhan in Mongolia . Partly as a result of the experiences in Spain, the Soviet Union began the development of a new generation of medium and heavy tanks, sporting much stronger armour and armament. In their Invasion of Poland during September 1939, German forces applied

13545-400: The tank, such as Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne , B. H. Liddell Hart and J. F. C. Fuller , theorised about a possible future use of independent armoured forces, containing a large concentration of tanks, to execute deep strategic penetrations. Especially Liddell Hart wrote many books about the subject, partly propagating Fuller's theories. Such doctrines were faced with the reality that during

13674-561: The time. This organisation was not unique to the Guards, the 11th Armoured also adapted the formation for Bluecoat, apparently on Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor 's orders. After this reorganisation, the Guards Armoured Division took part in Operation Bluecoat . Operation Bluecoat was launched on 30 July in support of the Americans taking part in Operation Cobra. Rather than continue to try to push past Caen where

13803-434: The track and running gear. Thaysen said the round penetrated and just missed him under his backside. The next day enough progress was made to allow the Guards to reach Bourgebus Ridge and support the 7th and 11th Armoured Divisions, German reinforcements started to arrive and the attack ground to a halt. Fighting continued until 20 July, when the gains were consolidated by infantry and the attack died off. The battle, while not

13932-529: The undermanned Commonwealth formations were proving inadequate. Between 1941 and 1942, the Allies struggled in armoured battles in the North African desert due to improper tactics; in particular, running armoured formations into opposing anti-tank positions; however, they achieved some notable successes at Crusader , 1st Alamein and under Montgomery finally achieved decisive victories, in particular at

14061-682: The undesirable effects of not having supporting infantry with the tanks. Consequently, the two Grenadier battalions were formed into a battlegroup, with the Coldstream infantry attached to the Irish Guards Tanks and the Coldstream Guards tanks split into two groups and used to support the Irish and Welsh Guards battalions. The units were not organized in any formal way at this point, but rather by who happened to be closest at

14190-400: The use of conventional high velocity anti-tank artillery, this proved increasingly difficult in the post-war period due to increased armour protection and mobility of tanks. Allan Adair Major-General Sir Allan Henry Shafto Adair, 6th Baronet , GCVO , CB , DSO , MC & Bar , JP , DL (3 November 1897 – 4 August 1988)

14319-506: The war, which influenced Soviet armoured doctrine and tank design for a decade: the creation of the T-34 . Developed on the Christie suspension chassis and using sloped armour for the first time, the T-34 proved a shock to the German forces in the first German encounter of Soviet T-34 and KV tanks . The T-34 had an excellent combination of mobility, protection and firepower. Using wide tracks,

14448-425: The war. Tactically, deployment plans for armour during the war typically placed a strong emphasis on direct support for infantry. The tank's main tasks were seen as crushing barbed-wire and destroying machine-gun nests, facilitating the advance of foot soldiers. Theoretical debate largely focused on the question of whether to use a "swarm" of light tanks for this, or a limited number of potent heavy vehicles. Though in

14577-816: Was General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Guards Armoured Division , taking over from Major-General Oliver Leese , receiving promotion to colonel on 30 June 1943, while serving as an acting and then temporary major-general from 21 September 1942. After training the division throughout the United Kingdom for the next 21 months, the Guards Armoured Division arrived in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord on 28 June 1944 as part of Lieutenant General Sir Richard O'Connor 's VIII Corps , first seeing action during Operation Goodwood in July, and then in Operation Bluecoat in July/August. Following

14706-474: Was a senior officer of the British Army who served in both World wars ; as a company commander in the Grenadier Guards in the First World War , and as General Officer Commanding of the Guards Armoured Division in the Second World War . Adair was born in London, the only son of Sir Robert Shafto Adair, 5th Baronet, and Mary Bosanquet. He attended Harrow School between 1912 and 1916. Adair fought in

14835-465: Was also established. Under this doctrine, U.S. tank crews of both armoured divisions and GHQ tank battalions were taught to fight tanks in tank on tank engagements. Armoured force personnel during and after the war criticised the infantry for using the GHQ tank battalions assigned to infantry divisions strictly as infantry support. The U.S. combined arms team included air support, artillery, engineers, and

14964-505: Was appointed Exon in the Yeomen of the Guard , the ceremonial bodyguards to the monarch, on 21 November 1947, receiving promotion to Ensign on 30 June 1950 and then to Lieutenant on 31 August 1951, before finally retiring on 14 November 1967. He served as a Governor of Harrow School from 1947 until 1952, was Colonel of the Grenadier Guards from 1961 to 1974, and a Deputy Grand Master of

15093-482: Was born on 10 July 1940, with the Headquarters, Armor Force and the Headquarters, I Armored Corps established at Fort Knox . On July 15, 1940, the 7th Cavalry Brigade (Mechanised) became the 1st Armored Division ; the 7th Provisional Tank Brigade, an infantry tank unit at Fort Benning , became the 2nd Armored Division ". The Tank Battalion was established at Fort Meade , Md., and a small Armored Force School

15222-413: Was developed to break the static nature of World War I trench warfare on the Western Front , and return to the 19th century school of thought that advocated manoeuvre and decisive battle outcomes in military strategy . Modern armored warfare began during the First World War of 1914–1918. Strategists wanted to break the tactical , operational and strategic stalemates forced on commanders on

15351-410: Was even true for Germany itself, that only now officially adopted Blitzkrieg tactics. In the deserts of North Africa, the British developed the alternative approach of combining the armoured, infantry and artillery together to form a 'balanced, combined arms team'. The 10th Italian Army of Maresciallo (Marshal) Rodolfo Graziani , being ill-armed and inadequately led, soon gave way to this approach by

15480-571: Was formed in May 1941 as a result of the shortage of armoured troops in England to face a German invasion . There was opposition to this move, as it was felt by the establishment that the height of the Guards—selected for height, amongst other criteria, as elite soldiers—would make them poor tank crew. The division originally consisted of two armoured brigades, the 5th and the 6th . These consisted of three tank regiments of Covenanter V tanks and

15609-618: Was limited. Both sides used Italian, German and Soviet tanks during the Spanish Civil War but these proved to be vulnerable to antitank guns due to their thin armour. Traditionalist elements within the Red Army used this to diminish the influence of proponents of mechanisation. Tukhachevsky himself was executed in 1937. Nevertheless, during the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars of 1938 and 1939, the Soviet forces tested modern armoured warfare tactics. General Georgy Zhukov in

15738-463: Was motivated by a need to compensate for severe manpower shortages due to a collapsed birth rate during World War I. This led to the development of a vast range of specialised armoured vehicles, not just tanks but also armoured cars , self-propelled guns , mechanised artillery , armoured tractors, armoured supply vehicles, armoured artillery observation vehicles, armoured command vehicles, half-tracks , and fully tracked armoured personnel carriers . As

15867-627: Was not initially accepted by German High Command. Nevertheless, the final plans for the invasion of France in 1940 hinged on the element of a Schwerpunkt at Sedan, and was assigned to such forces. The great success of this operation led to Blitzkrieg being integrated with strategic planning for the rest of the war. German tanks could carry with them enough fuel and supplies to go almost two hundred kilometers, and enough food to last three to nine days. This relative independence from supply lines proved effective, and allowed them to advance on critical targets much faster and without hesitation. Another factor

15996-412: Was now generally along a road, with the lead elements and Typhoon air support brushing aside most opposition before it could delay the column. The population was grateful for their liberation; the 2nd Household Cavalry , who were generally first into the town, had to keep a sharp eye on stowage and aerials on the exterior of the vehicle lest it be taken as a souvenir. In one town, only the intervention of

16125-414: Was promoted to captain in the 2nd Battalion. He was promoted to major on 22 May 1932, and returned to the 3rd Battalion to serve as second-in-command until April 1940, seven months after the Second World War broke out. After a short time as Chief Instructor at 161 Infantry Officer Cadet Training Unit at Sandhurst, he returned to his regiment on 8 May 1940 where he was appointed Commanding Officer of

16254-684: Was reached within a week. The French reserve of four Infantry armoured divisions, the Divisions cuirassées , lacked sufficient strategic mobility to prevent this. The strategic envelopment surrounded the Belgian army, the British Expeditionary Force and the best French troops. It led to the Evacuation of Dunkirk and the ultimate fall of France in operation Fall Rot . The spectacular and unexpected success not only caused

16383-526: Was seen as the result of an armoured Blitzkrieg. However, later it has been argued that the campaign was largely an instance of the classical nineteenth century German concept of the "Annihilation Battle", in which the role of deep strategic armoured penetrations was limited. In the wake of the Polish campaign, during the Phoney War French, British and German tank production sharply increased, with both western allies out-producing Germany. However,

16512-635: Was the ability of commanders to make strategic decisions in the field and without much consultation with their headquarters, the orders of which were often simply ignored. A prime example is Erwin Rommel 's lead-from-the-front approach while commanding 7.Panzer-Division which allowed him a flexible response to the battlefield situation, an instance of the Auftragstaktik (reliance on subordinates to make their own decisions). The effect of German Panzer 's speed, mobility, and communication shocked

16641-431: Was used to test the new Centurion universal tank , six of which had arrived in Germany, too late to be used in the conflict. Eventually the division was selected for conversion back to infantry, and held a "farewell to armour" parade on 9 June 1945; Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery took the final salute. Although its paper organisation remained one armoured brigade and one mechanised infantry brigade, after Normandy

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