5th Royal Tank Regiment (5 RTR) was an armoured

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 ...

in existence for 52 years, from 1917 until 1969. It was part 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 World War I, First World War. Today, it is an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks ...

, itself part of the

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 ...

. It originally saw action as E Battalion, Tank Corps in 1917. At the Battle of Cambrai in late 1917, during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the squadron of tanks led by Arthur George Griffiths made a huge impact on the battle. The commanding general asked for the squadron of tanks to be doubled in size, and so Griffiths's squadron evolved into the 5th Tank Regiment. The regiment saw wide-ranging service in the

Second World War 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 ...

, and fought in nearly all of the major allied campaigns from the 1940 retreat from France through the

Western Desert Campaign The Western Desert campaign (Desert War) took place in the Sahara Desert, deserts of Egypt and Libya and was the main Theater (warfare), theatre in the North African campaign of the Second World War. Military operations began in June 1940 with ...

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

and on into Germany. It became part of the 22nd Armoured Brigade, of the 7th Armoured Division. In December 1946, the regiment was the first to use

Centurion tank The FV4007 Centurion was the primary main battle tank of the British Army during the post-World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing comba ...

s in regular service. In 1960, under the command of Hugo Ironside, it amalgamated with 8th Royal Tank Regiment without change of title. It was disbanded in 1969. The 5th Royal Tank Regiment Reunion Association holds annual reunions. In 2007, an image of a 1944 tank commander in the 5th Royal Tank Regiment uniform was used on one of a series of

Royal mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

stamps featuring British Army uniforms.

Commanding officers

The commanding officers included: *1959–1960: Lt.-Col. Allan Taylor *1960–1961: Lt.-Col. Hugo Ironside *1961–1963: Lt.-Col. Edward Anstey *1963–1966: Lt.-Col. Peter E. Dey *1966–1968: Lt.-Col. Roy L.C. Dixon *1968–1969: Lt.-Col. Richard Lawson

References

External links

5th Royal Tank Regiment at regiments.org5th Royal Tank Regiment Reunion Association website Merseyside RTR
Brian Gills website) 5-005 {{UK-mil-unit-stub