The 23rd Hussars was a

cavalry regiment Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry in ...

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 Gur ...

raised during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and in existence from 1940 to 1946. It had no lineal connection with the earlier

23rd Regiment of (Light) Dragoons The 23rd Light Dragoons was a cavalry regiment of the British Army which existed several times. 1st existence It was created in 1781 as the 23rd Regiment of (Light) Dragoons by Sir John Burgoyne, Bt. at Bedford but renumbered in 1786 as the 1 ...

(1794–1802).

History

The regiment was raised in December 1940 from a cadre of personnel taken from the

10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) The 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army raised in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 11th Hussars (Prince Al ...

and the

15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars The 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed by the amalgamation of the 15th The King's Hussars and the 19th Royal Hussars in 1922 and, after service in the Second World War, it was ama ...

. It was assigned to 29th Armoured Brigade of 11th Armoured Division. The British Army in Normandy 1944 B6525

The 11th Armoured Division landed in France in June 1944, taking heavy casualties in the

Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

. It spearheaded Operation ''Epsom'', reaching the

Odon Odon may refer to: ;People * Odon Bacqué, American politician and non-fiction writer * Odon of Greater Poland, duke of Greater Poland * Odon de Pins, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller * Jorge Odón, Argentine mechanic and inventor ;Places ...

river between

Mouen Mouen () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. Population See also *Operation Epsom Operation Epsom, also known as the First Battle of the Odon, was a British offensive in the Second Wor ...

and

Mondrainville Mondrainville () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy région in northwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Calvados department The following is a list of the 528 communes of the Calvados department of Fr ...

. It was embroiled in Operation ''Goodwood'', where its assault on Bourguébus Ridge on the first day was brought to a halt. After ''Goodwood'', the losses of armour within the division were so high that the

24th Lancers The 24th Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army that existed from late 1940 to mid-1944. Assigned to the 8th Armoured Brigade, the regiment fought during the Invasion of Normandy before being disbanded in July 1944. After disbandmen ...

were disbanded and its remnants absorbed by the 23rd Hussars. The Regiment then took part in Operation ''Bluecoat'', intended to secure the key road junction of Vire and the high ground of Mont Pinçon, which would allow the American exploitation of their breakout on the western flank of the Normandy beachhead. The 11th Armoured Division was subsequently attached to XXX Corps, which captured

Flers Flers may refer to several communes in France: * Flers, Orne * Flers, Pas-de-Calais * Flers, Somme * Flers-en-Escrebieux, Nord * Flers-lez-Lille Flers-lez-Lille is a former commune in the Nord department in northern France, merged into Villeneu ...

, Putanges and

Argentan Argentan () is a Communes of France, commune and the seat of two Canton in France, cantons and of an arrondissement in France, arrondissement in the Orne Departments of France, department in northwestern France. Argentan is located NE of Rennes ...

in the battle of the Falaise pocket. Once the Falaise pocket was sealed, the Regiment remained with the 11th Armoured Division as it liberated

L'Aigle L'Aigle is a commune in the Orne department in Normandy in northwestern France. Before 1961, the commune was known as ''Laigle''. According to Orderic Vitalis, the nest of an eagle (''aigle'' in French) was discovered during the construction o ...

on 23 August. It crossed the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plate ...

on 28 August and, after an advance of 60 miles in one day, liberated

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 ...

on 1 September and Antwerp on 4 September. It was not directly involved in the ground actions of Operation ''Market Garden'', but covered the right flank of the advancing XXX Corps. The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 BU3194

The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 BU3194

It was in reserve, being re-equipped with

Comet tank The Comet tank or Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34) was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of the Second World War, during the Western Allied invasion of Germany. The Comet was developed from the earlier Cromwell tank and mou ...

s, at the time of the

Ardennes Offensive The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

, but was rapidly deployed into a defensive line along the

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a ...

with its old tanks. In 1945, it took part in Operations ''Veritable'' and ''Blockbuster'' and liberated

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentr ...

before crossing the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...

and capturing

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

.Memorial Montormel - 11th Armoured Division “Taurus Pursuant”
It was disbanded at the end of January 1946.

Battle Honours

The Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

'': The Odon, Bourguébus Ridge, Le Perier Ridge, Amiens 1944, Antwerp, Venraij, Venlo Pocket, Ourthe, North-West Europe 1944-45

Notable members

John Addison John Mervyn Addison (16 March 19207 December 1998) was a British composer best known for his film scores. Early life Addison was born in Chobham, Surrey to a father who was a colonel in the Royal Field Artillery, and this influenced the ...

, film music composer *

Cecil Blacker General Sir Cecil Hugh Blacker (4 June 1916 – 18 October 2002) was a senior British Army officer and a former Adjutant-General to the Forces. Military career Educated at Wellington College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, C ...

, later

Adjutant-General to the Forces The Adjutant-General to the Forces, commonly just referred to as the Adjutant-General (AG), was for just over 250 years one of the most senior officers in the British Army. The AG was latterly responsible for developing the Army's personnel polic ...

John da Cunha John Wilfrid da Cunha (6 September 1922 – 12 May 2006) was a British barrister and circuit judge. He was a member of the British delegation to the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Born in Manchester, da Cunha's father, Frank da Cunha, was a GP ...

, barrister and later judge. Part of the British delegation to the

Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded ...

* Sir Alan Glyn, Member of Parliament

References

Sources

* * * {{Joslen-OOB Cavalry regiments of the British Army Hussar regiments of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1940 Hussars 023 Military units and formations disestablished in 1946