The Guards Support Group was a
brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
Br ...
size formation within the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Guards Armoured Division
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 G ...
. The Support Group (or "pivot group") provided whatever support the division's armoured brigades needed for the operation in hand. It was able to provide motorised infantry, field artillery, anti-tank artillery or light anti-aircraft artillery as needed. It was formed in 1941 by the conversion of the
7th Infantry Brigade (Guards) which had served in the
Battle of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...
, and disbanded in 1942 (prior to seeing any active service) when it was converted into Headquarters,
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
, for Guards Armoured Division.
[Joslen, p. 214.]
Commanders
The following officers commanded the support group during its existence:
[
*15 September 1941 – 10 October 1941 ]Brigadier
Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...
A. de L. Cazenove
*10 October 1941 – 31 May 1942 Brigadier L. C. Manners-Smith
Order of Battle
*1st Battalion, Welsh Guards
The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V ...
* – ''from 10 October 1941''
*21st Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
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– ''from 10 October 1941''
*94th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery
The 94th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, (94th LAA Rgt) was an air defence unit of the British Army during World War II. Initially raised as an infantry battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in 1940, it transferred to ...
– ''from 27 January 1942''
See also
* List of British brigades of the Second World War
This is a list of British Brigades in the Second World War. It is intended as a central place to access resources about formations of brigade size that served in the British Army during the Second World War.
* List of British airborne brigades o ...
Footnotes
References
* Boscawen, Robert. ''Armoured Guardsmen: A War Diary, June 1944 – April 1945''. Barnsley, England: Pen & Sword, 2001.
*
*Sanders, J, British Guards Armoured Division 1941-1945, Osprey Vanguard, 1979
{{British mobile brigades of the Second World War
Support groups of the British Army
Military units and formations established in 1941
Guards Division (United Kingdom)
Military units and formations disestablished in 1942