40th Division: 3rd Royal Tank Regt & 3 Commando Brigade

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has come across any reference to 3RTR using a few Archers (!) in Hong Kong. The relevant facts I have are as follows:

- In September 1949, 27th (Strange's Company) Anti-Tank Regiment arrived. They were equipped with 17-pounder guns and 3 Archers, plus mortars as alternate weapons. Then in November they were converted to a Mortar Battery. The one troop sent to Korea was I assume using towed guns.
- The Archers were handed over to 'C' Squadron of of 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars who did some tracked vehicle driving training in November and took them on plus a Cromwell for command tank. They were organized like a part of a divisional regiment RAC of the time - some APC troops, some armoured car troops, and the Archer troop. (Actually I don't think a troop of SPs was ordinary equipment but I have seen a proposed org for the divisional regiment which included some Archers even when Archers were RA vehicles. Seems rather cheeky!)
- In February 'C' Squadron was sent back to Malaya, leaving behind their equiment.

I have no idea what happened to the Archers at this point, but I have seen reference to whichever regiment was in HK in 1955 as a "Divisional Regiment RAC". It actually seems unusual to me now that 3RTR was only equipped with Comets and Cromwells, because from March 1950, the role of the Divisional Regiment RAC was anti-tank defence. And previous to that it was reconnaissance with a very mixed war establishment as I described above. But 3RTR may have simply be sent over as an individual armoured regiment.

So the Archers simply may have been considered surplus to requirements and put in a depot.

 

As you all know by now, I am completely unable--in spite of brave attempts at instruction--to distinguish one tank from the next, so whether this is a Cromwell, Centurion, Comet or something else beginning with 'C', I'm not sure, but context suggests that this photo was taken in the early 50s in either Hong Kong or Malaya (although they all look overdressed for the climate).

More importantly, the name rings a distinct bell: "Castor".

Has this particular tank come up in my discussions with Chris C , Don Juan, Tolbooth or SDP perhaps?

 

That is a very fine photo of a Churchill Crocodile, with a flamethrower instead of a bow machine-gun, and the trailer holding fuel.

This is my not-great photo of the trailer at the Tank Museum.



edited PS. Tagging KevinT because of the tank name.

 

A nice chap who was selling an annotated map for a comparatively huge amount of money kindly culled the following information from it for me before sending it on to another chap with deeper pockets that I have.

The map was said to be from 1949, but I suspect the information (on the locations and composition of 40 Infantry Division) pertains to late 1950, after 26 Gurkha Brigade had departed for Malaya and two battalions of 27 Infantry Brigade plus the HQ had gone to Korea (so post-August); X-Brigade was thrown together to replace the latter (The Leicestershire Regt having remained and been joined by the Wiltshires).

I can probably confirm many of these with the paperwork I have and add the names of camps and barracks, but most of the 'diaries' end in March 1950, so there'll be a little uncertainty.

I'm not 100% sure, in fact, that this iteration of the formation can properly be called 40 infantry Division, the HQ for that having been disbanded in August 1950, and the units in the colony taking their places in HKLF.

There also seem to be some 'lower' numbers on the very bad photos I have; a few seem to correlate with police units on the 1949 defence plans??

Arm of Service No. - Unit Name (Location):

31 ‘A’ SQN 4H. (Long Road West)

41 3 R.T.R. (Shui Tau)

42 14 FD REGT (Shui Tau)

43 23 FD REGT (Long Road - West)

44 25 FD REGT (Kowloon)

54 27 HAA REGT (HK Island)

55 34 LAA REGT (Kowloon)

53 58 MED REGT (Gun Club) ??

48 15 FD PK SQN (Kowloon)

50 11 FD SQN (Fanling)

49 54 FD SQN (Shui Tau)

51 56 FD SQN (Nr Tai Lam)

82 67 FD SQN (Fanling)

83 68 FD SQN (Haddon Hill)

17 HK SIG REGT (Victoria)

87 HQ ‘X’ BDE (Shui Tau)

60 1 R. LEICESTERS (Snowdon)

61 1 WILTS (Snowdon)

94 HQ 28 BDE (Fanling)

67 1 K.O.S.B. (Fanling)

68 1 S. STAFFORDS (NE of Fanling)

66 1 K.S.L.I. (NE of Fanling)

76 17 FD AMB (Shui Tau)

77 18 FD AMB (Taipo)