Does anyone have definite information on the movements of 40th R.T.R (Royal Tank Regiment), R.A.C. during 1944 - 1946, please? So far as I am aware they were in the Middle East in June 1944. Thanks in advance if anyone has information on this unit.
They were in 23 Armd Bde. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23rd_Armoured_Brigade_%28United_Kingdom%29 As for 44-46. Here it says they were in Greece in 46. http://www.orbat.com/site/history/volume4/433/RTR_postwar.pdf
Here's the war diaries if you can get to Kew WO 169/15980 40 Royal Tank Regiment 1944 June- Sept. WO 170/859 40 Royal Tank Regiment 1944 Jan.- May, Oct.- Dec. WO 170/4639 40 Royal Tank Regiment 1945 Jan.-Dec. WO 170/7876 40 Royal Tank Regiment 1946 Jan.-May
Ritson as far as I am aware the 40 th RTR along with 46th and 50thRTR were in Italy - 46th being active in Anzio and were then transferred to Egypt where the 23rd AB was broken up many of the 46th RTR transferring to 5th RTR for the invasion of France… Cheers
Sorry, it is not very detailed after July 1943. 40th (The King’s) Royal Tank Regiment RHQ Litherland, near Bootle, Liverpool 23rd Army Tank Brigade – 3 September 1939 to 31 October 1940 The battalion was raised on July 22nd, 1938 from the 7th Battalion, The King’s Regiment (Liverpool). On September 1st, 1939 the battalion was located at Bootle. The battalion HQ moved from Park Street to St. Luke’s Hall, Crosby on September 4th with ‘B’ Company at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Hall in Crosby, ‘C’ Company at Crosby Congregational Church Hall and ‘D’ Company at the Northern Cricket Club. At the same time, the HQ 23rd Army Tank Brigade opened at “Springfield”, Morpeth Road, Hoylake. The battalion’s tracked vehicles were sent to Altcar for driving instruction on October 11th. On October 16th, the battalion officially changed names from the 7th Battalion King’s Regiment to 40th The King’s Regiment Royal Tank Regiment and ‘D’ Company became ‘A’ Company. It received one medium and one light tank on October 20th and sent both off to Altcar. During May 1940, the battalion moved to Caernarvon to train. After training, it moved to Kenilworth, Warwickshire on July 13th, 1940. It moved again to Chadwick Manor, Knowle on July 19th and then to Stoneleigh Park near Kenilworth two days later. The battalion moved to Warwick on September 27th, 1940. A party was sent off to Leeds to collect seven Bison Tanks on October 5th and on the 24th the advanced party of the battalion moved to Whitby. 23rd Armoured Brigade – 1 November 1940 to 20 August 1942 On November 5th, 1940, the road party left Warwick for Whitby followed by the main party the following day. During the winter the battalion equipped with Valentine tanks. After spending the winter in Whitby, the battalion left there on March 5th, 1941 and arrived at Marlborough the next day. On June 2nd, the battalion again moved to Elstead. It had spent the period from May 28th to June 7th at the AFV range at Linney Head. It moved to Crowborough Warren Camp on June 19th. During its stay at Crowborough, it went on an exercise at Shoreham from September 12th to the 23rd. Another round of gunnery practise took place at Linney Head from December 15th to the 23rd, 1941. Mobilisation orders arrived on March 27th, 1942. It embarked on May 8th for the Middle East. The battalion disembarked at Suez on July 5th, 1942. The following day it moved into Quassassin Camp (Camp 37) and then to No. 1 Repatriation Camp, Tel el Kebir on the 8th. The battalion had 40 tanks by the 13th, 16 being their own. Fourteen Valentines were loaded on a train at Quassassin on July 16th and, by the 18th, the battalion was complete at El Hamman. On July 22nd, the battalion along with the 46th Royal Tank Regiment attacked El Mireir. It went into the battle with 50 tanks and returned with only 8 remaining (only 4 fightable). Those four were turned over to the 5th Royal Tank Regiment. The battalion also had 6 killed, 40 missing and 11 wounded. On July 23rd, a combined squadron of the 40th and 46th Royal Tank Regiment had nine tanks in a defensive position in the area. It left the El Mireir area on July 29th and moved to El Alamein on the 30th. The battalion relieved the 50th Royal Tank Regiment on August 7th. It was withdrawn from the west of Alamein box to the east of the Alamein box on August 20th, coming under command of the XXX Corps to support the South African brigades. XXX Corps – 20 August 1942 to 23 August 1942 The battalion left the area east of the Alamein box near the South African brigades on August 23rd and moved to the El Aguri tomb, except for ‘B’ Squadron, which remained under the 9th Australian Infantry Division. 23rd Armoured Brigade – 23 August 1942 to 31 August 1945 The battalion left the El Aguri tomb area on August 31st, 1942 and took up the battle positions that it had previously recced. The next day ‘B’ Squadron supported the 2/15th Australian Infantry Battalion of the 9th Australian Division in Operation Buimba, a diversionary attack south of Tel el Eisa that was part of the Alam el Halfa battle. During this action some tanks were lost. ‘C’ Squadron relieved ‘B’ in support of the 9th Australian Division on September 10th. Six days later ‘C’ moved MR 879246 to be in a better position to support the 24th Australian Infantry Brigade. ‘C’ Squadron was relieved by ‘C’ Squadron 9th Australian Divisional Cavalry on September 22nd. ‘C’ Squadron then rejoined the rest of the battalion at MR 424900. ‘C’ Squadron still remained under the command of the 9th Australian Division for operations. The regiment continued to train with the division from October 1st to 7th then focused its training with the 2/13th Australian Infantry Battalion from the 8th to the 17th. The Valentine tanks were fitted with sunshields on October 20th. The battalion began the Battle of El Alamein on the night of October 23rd/24th in support of an attack by the 2/13th Australian Infantry Battalion and remained with the battalion through the 25th. The following day it supported the 26th Australian Infantry Brigade’s operations after which the tank state was down to thirty runners. The battalion returned to the 20th Australian Brigade area on the 28th. On October 31st it supported an attack by the 2/48th Australian Infantry Battalion with a detachment of the 295th Field Company, RE. The battalion, now down to a composite squadron of 16 tanks, was heavily engaged in the area south of ‘Orchards’ from November 1st to 4th at the end of the battle. On November 4th, the battalion withdrew to the Tel el Eisa Station brigade concentration area while the composite squadron helped mop up with the 51st (Highland) Division. It then moved to an area sixteen miles west of Daba. It received four tanks from the 8th Royal Tank Regiment on the 7th. Between November 8th and 17th, the battalion remained in an area north of Daba reforming. ‘C’ Squadron reformed with the aid of three tanks from the TDT and the composite squadron returned from operations with the 51st (Highland) Division to make the battalion up to strength. On November 18th, the 23rd Armoured Brigade moved up to Fuka and the battalion was located at MR 775307 from the 19th to the 23rd. The move forward began on November 24th and the 40th RTR reached its leaguer south of Mersa Matruh that night. On the 26th, it moved to an area southwest of Bir Abu Kheima and, on December 1st, it moved forward to MR 70153235. Sand shields were fitted there on December 8th. It left the following day for El Adem and arrived on the 11th. It then reached Antelat by the 16th and the next day leaguered at MR B4681. The battalion remained there through January 6th, 1943 for exercises with the 51st (Highland) Division. The reconnaissance group of the battalion left the area on January 7th and reached Sirte on the 9th, when the tanks on transporters arrived. The battalion then moved to an area of scrub at Wadi Mrah on the 13th in preparation to support an attack by the 153rd Infantry Brigade. The attack went in on the night of January 15th and the following day the battalion consolidated the position before advancing along the coast road. It reached Misuiata on the 18th, but ran into opposition west of Homs on the 20th. The battalion then supported the 152nd Infantry Brigade north of Corradini on the 21st. ‘A’ Squadron took up the advance with the 154th Brigade and were the first to reach Tripoli on January 23rd, 1943. The rest of the battalion arrived the following day. By January 26th, the 40th RTR was five miles short of Sorman. The 131st Infantry Brigade at Mellita was reached on the 29th. Two days later it entered Zuara, which had been abandoned by the enemy. The battalion retired from supporting the 131st Brigade on arrival and was to leave the line for rest and maintenance. On February 1st, 1943, the battalion went into leaguer one mile east of Zuara to recuperate. On the 6th, the tanks were once again loaded onto tank transporters and the battalion moved out. It reached the Zauia area the next day and remained there through February 21st on rest and maintenance. ‘C’ Squadron of the 50th Royal Tank Regiment left [It had been with the 40th since January 24th] and the battalion’s own ‘C’ Squadron was reformed during this period. Twenty-four tanks left on transporters on February 21st since ‘C’ Squadron had not yet been allocated tanks. It arrived east of Medenine on the 22nd. The battalion remained east of Medenine through March 6th, when the battalion supported the 51st (Highland) Division during an enemy attack. It then remained in position through the 10th. The following day it started a period of maintenance. The attack on the Mareth line took place on March 21st and the 50th RTR support the 50th (Northumbrian) Division while the battalion waited in readiness for action. On the 23rd, the 51st Division took over from the 50th and the battalion moved into positions at Medenine with ‘A’ Squadron under the 152nd Brigade, ‘C’ Squadron with the 153rd Brigade and ‘B’ Squadron with the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade. On March 26th, ‘C’ Squadron joined the 131st Infantry Brigade in the advance to Toujane, which was attacked the following day. RHQ and ‘B’ Squadron joined the 4th Indian Infantry Division and, by the 30th, were two kilometres short of Gabes, where they were joined by ‘A’ Squadron. The battalion then leaguered from March 31st to April 4th in preparation for an attack on Wadi Akarit. In the attack they would support the 154th Infantry Brigade and tow the 6-pounder anti-tank guns of the 61st Anti-Tank Regiment. ‘B’ Squadron with thirteen tanks joined the 50th Division on April 5th while the RHQ, ‘A’ Squadron (15 tanks) and ‘C’ Squadron (12 tanks) joined the 154th Infantry Brigade. The attack at Wadi Akarit took place on April 6th and the following day the battalion began to advance after the attack. It reached MR 6814 by the 9th. On the 10th, a composite squadron only continued the advance and reached Sfax. There the battalion remained until it was brought up to a strength of 27 tanks. On April 15th, the battalion came under the command of X Corps. ‘B’ and ‘C’ Squadrons were amalgamated into a composite squadron that moved to X Corps near Kerker, although only 11 of the 14 tanks of the squadron arrived. The composite ‘BC’ Squadron moved to a new leaguer in the Fadeloun area on the 16th. ‘A’ Squadron left Sfax on the 17th and moved to Masarken. The whole battalion moved to the 50th RTR’s area on the 20th and was shelled all of the following day. On the 22nd, RHQ with ‘A’ and ‘BC’ Squadrons pulled back and were replaced by a battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. It came under the command of the 154th Brigade on April 23rd. It withdrew from the line on the 26th to the brigade concentration area and joined the 56th (London) Division. The following day it came under the 4th Indian Division. On the 29th, ‘A’ Squadron came under the 169th Brigade at MR 3287. On April 30th, the battalion did a reconnaissance of the Enfidaville area. It was now directly under the 23rd Armoured Brigade in support of the 56th Division. The battalion advanced through the Enfidaville area on May 1st and came under the 169th Infantry Brigade. Here, ‘B’ Squadron was able to reform from 9 tanks of the 50th RTR, which was in the process of refitting. By the 2nd, each squadron had 14 tanks with 3 at RHQ and 3 spares. The battalion continued to support the division in the area through May 7th. On the 8th and 9th, the battalion supported an attack on the ‘Hump’ by the 6th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. It remained in operations with the division from the 10th to the 12th. On the following day, it moved to MR 247744 for rest and maintenance. The battalion joined the 8th Armoured Brigade on May 16th and all of its tanks were handed into the ACP at Msaken. It left the brigade on the 21st. On the 24th, the battalion left for the 23rd Armoured Brigade area at Sfax to reequip. The first Sherman arrived from the 50th RTR on May 30th. A further 27 Shermans arrived on June 14th to give the battalion a total of 30 training Shermans. It left Sfax on July 7th and arrived at Monastir the following day. The 40th RTR did not re-equip with Sherman tanks in time for Sicily but was equipped with Sherman Tanks in Italy. It remained in North Africa until September 6th, 1943 then landed by sea at Salerno under the command of the 46th Infantry Division on September 9th, 1943. It served in Italy until May 27th, 1944, supporting the 4th Indian Infantry Division on the Adriatic front from March to May 1944. It then embarked and arrived in Egypt on June 1st, 1944. It served in Egypt until July 3rd, 1944, in Palestine until September 6th 1944, in Egypt until October 12th, 1944. It then embarked and was at sea until October 16th, 1944 when it landed in Greece. When it first arrived in Greece it was equipped as an infantry battalion, but reverted to a Sherman Tank battalion in January 1945. The battalion was placed in suspended animation in the autumn of 1945.
Hi 40 RTR arrived in Qassasin, Egypt on 2nd June 1944 after near continuous operational service in North Africa, Malta, Sicily and Italy. On the 29th June the advance parties of 23rd Armd Bde went to Camp 521, 10 miles north of Gaza, Palestine. The brigade's Sherman Tanks arrived some days later after their rail journey from Beni Yusef, Maadi and Helwan in Egypt. There they trained in Palestine for all of July. For the first three weeks in August, the tank regiments carried on their work up training around Aslou and Gaza. On the 17th August 1944, signals were received ordering the Brigade back to Egypt and advance parties left for Mena (near Cairo) straight away. Most of the brigade left Palestine on 21st August 1944 arriving at camp cowley on the 23rd August 1944. At this point General Paget gave orders for the brigade to re-organise as 2 battalions of infantry with limited armoured car support and they undertook infantry refresher training under the instruction of 11th KRRC. On the 24th August 1944, the Brigade was moved to 158 Transit Camp near RAF Amiriya. Initially told 68 C-47 a/c had been made available for next move. Then cancelled. Then 3rd Port Workshops Company were attached to the Brigade. On the 11th September 1944, the ‘B’ echelon vehicles were transported to the port at Alexandria where they were loaded on ships of Greek Navy and 15th Cruiser Sqn. At midnight on the 13th September 1944, the Brigade was placed on 48 hrs notice to deploy. 23rd Armoured Brigade held a week long ‘Battle Camp’ at a nearby location designated, KILO 45 and hosted by OC 11th KRRC, Lt-Colonel J. Hunt. Designed to help the now dismounted Armoured Regiments to hone their infantry skills and field craft, On the 10th October 1944 all leave was cancelled and all personnel were confined to camp. On 13th OCtober 1944, 40 RTR (666 troops) were loaded onto the following ships: HHMS Kriti=194, HMS Zetland=152, HHMS Adrias=67, HHMS Ierax=144, HHMS Averof=86, SS Fort Nashwaak=4, HHMS Ionia=19. At 0930 on 17 October 1944, 40 RTR disembarked on board Z Lighters and caiques (small greek fishing boats) in St Georges Bay, near Pireaus, 2 troops of 40 RTR went to protect the Marathon Dam as part of DAMFORCE. Rest of 40th RTR set themselves up at the Military Academy not far from Averof Prison. As flag patrols commenced, reports were coming of lawlessness in the outlying areas. To suppress this, a detachment of 50th RTR was despatched to Salamis whilst a detachment of 40th RTR went to Amfissa. At the end of October 1944, B Sqn 40th RTR was moved 77 miles to the town of Corinth. In November 1944, 23rd Armoured Brigade Group had orders to establish ‘Ardante disbandment centres’ all over Greece, with the intention of relieving them of their arms, ammunition and transport. 40 RTR however were busy creating headquarters and training centres for the new ‘Greek National Army’, namely the 107th Btn in Corinth, 111th Btn in Tripoli and 112th Btn in Sparta. Civil war broke out between the Greek militias in Athens on 3rd December 1944, as a result 40RTR were recalled to the capital on 7th December 1944. If you are unfamiliar the fighting in Greece of December 1944, I have attached Field Marshall Alexander's report at http://ww2talk.com/f...her-in-law-sas/ My father was a driver with 23rd Armoured Brigade from June 1944 to August 1945. Hope this helps Gus
Hi Dryan, I don't suppose you have the war diary for the 5,6,7th of April 1943 40th RTR? Like you mentioned my grandfather was on the back of a Valentine 40thRTR when he was shelled. He was a L/Sgt at the time with battery 241 61st Highland Anti-Tank Regiment. 40th RTR were towing their guns over the Wadi Akarit anti tank ditch around the time he was injured. I have the complete war diaries from the 61st although on that day 06/04/43 the wounded and killed is quite vague. From his own account shrapnel from a mortar shell sprayed through both his legs leaving him unable to walk. He was hospitalized missing the Italian campaign.
Dryan, I'm sorry to be a pest but is there anyway you could supply the whole of the war diary for the 9th and 10th of April 43. I have a friend in our group who's grandfather was unfortunately killed over these dates and asked me if I could obtain these dates. I said I would ask you if it isn't an inconvenience. Kindest Regards Ed
