159th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (159 RAC) was a short-lived

armoured Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

Royal Armoured Corps The Royal Armoured Corps is the armoured arm of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 and the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle. It includes most of the Ar ...

serving in India during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Origin

159 RAC was formed on 15 July 1942 by the conversion to the armoured role of the 10th Battalion,

Gloucestershire Regiment The Gloucestershire Regiment, commonly referred to as the Glosters, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. It traced its origins to Colonel Gibson's Regiment of Foot, which was raised in 1694 and later became the ...

, a hostilities-only battalion raised two years before in July 1940, and had been assigned to the 212th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home), which also included the 6th

South Wales Borderers The South Wales Borderers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for 280 years. It came into existence in England in 1689, as Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot, and afterwards had a variety of names and headquarters. In ...

, 18th

Welch Regiment The Welch Regiment (or "The Welch", an archaic spelling of "Welsh") was an infantry regiment line infantry, of the line of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1969. The regiment was created in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the am ...

(which left in May 1941) and the 9th

Royal Sussex Regiment The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foo ...

, all of which had also been formed around the same time. In common with other infantry battalions transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps, the personnel of 159 RAC, those not weeded out by psychiatrists, would have continued to wear their Glosters cap badge on the black beret of the RAC.

Service

159 RAC embarked for passage from the United Kingdom to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

on 26 October 1942, arriving on 20 December and moving to Nira Camp near

Poona Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

. There it came under command of 255th Indian Tank Brigade. However, there was a change of policy, and on 1 April 1943 the regiment was re-converted to infantry, reverting to its previous title of 10th Glosters and coming under command of 72nd Indian Infantry Brigade and still serving with the 6th SWB and 9th Royal Sussex (both of which had been converted, into 158 RAC and 160 RAC respectively).Joslen pp. 497, 534.

Notes

References

* George Forty, "British Army Handbook 1939-1945", Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1998, . * {{RAC armoured regiments of the Second World War Military units and formations established in 1942 Regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps Royal Armoured Corps 159 Military units and formations disestablished in 1943 1942 establishments in the United Kingdom