The 6th Royal Tank Regiment (6 RTR) was a regiment of the

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as th ...

, of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, until 1959. It originally saw action as 6th Battalion Tank Corps in 1917.

First World War

When

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...

s were first used in action in 1916, they were operated by the Heavy Branch of the

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tank ...

. This constituted six companies, A through F. With the rapid growth of the tank forces, these companies were used as the cadre of new battalions, which were quickly transferred to the newly formed

Tank Corps An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armo ...

, and then changed from letters to numbers. F Company thus became F Battalion of the Heavy Branch in November 1916, then F Battalion of the Tank Corps, then redesignated as 6th Battalion of the Tank Corps in January 1918. During this time, the unit saw heavy action; it fought at the Battle of Messines, Passchendaele,

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; pcd, Kimbré; nl, Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department and in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, regio ...

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

(using

Whippet Mk A The Medium Mark A Whippet was a British tank of the First World War. It was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines. Development and production hi ...

light tanks),

Bapaume Bapaume (original Dutch name Batpalmen) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. The inhabitants of this commune are known as ''Bapalmois'' or ''Bapalmoises''. Geography Bapaume is a far ...

, 2nd Arras and Cambrai-St Quentin. During this time, a

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

was awarded to Captain

Richard Annesley West Richard J Annesley West, (26 September 1878 – 2 September 1918) was a British Army officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwea ...

of the

North Irish Horse The North Irish Horse was a yeomanry unit of the British Territorial Army raised in the northern counties of Ireland in the aftermath of the Second Boer War. Raised and patronised by the nobility from its inception to the present day, it was on ...

, at the time an acting Lieutenant-Colonel commanding 6th Battalion Tank Corps. This was one of only four VCs awarded to the Corps during the Great War.

Inter-war period

After the Armistice, the Tank Corps was severely cut down; from twenty-six battalions in 1919 to four by the early 1920s. The 6th Battalion was one of those disbanded, with its remaining personnel being transferred to the 3rd Battalion in November 1919. In the 1930s, the decision was taken to expand the Royal Tank Corps ("Royal" had been added to the regimental title in 1923). Two Royal Tank Corps armoured car companies in Egypt, the 3rd and 5th, were brought together and reformed as 6th Battalion, Royal Tank Corps. However, this unit was understrength - it only consisted of two companies - and was not brought up to full strength with a third company until early 1939, by which time it had been renamed the 6th Royal Tank Regiment.

Second World War

6 RTR Sherman tank Italy Sept 1944 IWM NA 18734

When the war broke out in 1939, 6 RTR was based in Egypt with the Heavy Armoured Brigade (Egypt), part of the

Armoured Division (Egypt) The 7th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army that saw distinguished active service during the Second World War, where its exploits in the Western Desert Campaign gained it the ''Desert Rats'' nickname. After the Muni ...

. It was equipped with a mixture of Mk VIb light tanks, Mark II medium tanks, and Mk I Cruiser tanks. It provided a squadron of tanks for Malta in 1942, which made up an armoured force called Malta Tanks.

Postwar

6 RTR saw action during the

Suez crisis The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...

in 1956, where HQ, B and C Squadrons were landed to support Operation Musketeer. In 1948, the Regiment was located at

Scofton Scofton is a hamlet in the Bassetlaw district of northern Nottinghamshire, England. It is north west of London, north of the county town and city of Nottingham, and east of the nearest town Worksop. Having a shared modern history with nearb ...

aerodrome (

RAF Worksop Royal Air Force Worksop or more simply RAF Worksop was a former Royal Air Force station located at Scofton, north east of Worksop, Nottinghamshire and west of Retford, Nottinghamshire, England. Station history * No. 18 Operational Training ...

), in Nottinghamshire, training TA's from 45 Leeds Rifles. In 1959 it was amalgamated with 3rd Royal Tank Regiment

References

* * * * {{cite web, url=http://www.merseysidertr.com/ , title=Merseyside RTR , first=Brian , last=Gill , work=merseysidertr.com , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804060246/http://merseysidertr.com/ , archive-date=4 August 2009 , url-status=dead 6-006