British Tanks in Europe 1944 – 1945
by Peter Brown

Introduction
    While there are several accounts of German tank strengths in NW Europe, figures for British units are not as common. Some references say what type of tank they had, but more detailed records are harder to find.
    One source which does shed some light on this is the Half Yearly Reports on the Progress of the Royal Armoured Corps. This series of documents, charting events in the RAC which covered all armoured units in the British Army, has a mass of details on organisation, training, vehicle development and related subjects. Early reports were short, but by the war's end a report was several inches thick, with extensive appendices covering figures. Produced each June and December, they cover the previous six months. Copies of these reports are available in the library of the Tank Museum at Bovington, and also the UK official archives, the Public Record Office in Kew, London. The following article should show something of what British tank units had in the way of equipment. Comments have been added where I spotted areas where things are not what they seem. I have tried to repeat the figures accurately, but in all cases, their layout has been made as far as possible similar, so as to enable you to compare like with like. To do this I have altered the order in which both units and vehicle types were recorded. Hopefully I have not added any errors in the process. One problem is that the way each set of figures was compiled was different to any other set. The June 1944 ones are very detailed but laid out by vehicle type, later ones are listed by brigade or division but contain less detail.
    Note that only tanks are included here. A similar treatment on armoured cars appeared in Armoured Car magazine number 35 in June 1996, and anyone interested in those should contact David Haugh, 4520 Drake Ct NE, Salem, OR 97301-3058, USA with an sae or IRC, or email him on armcar@aol.com for details of availability. Other armoured vehicles, such as M7, Sexton, M10, Achilles and Archer are also not listed, as they came under the Royal Artillery and not Royal Armoured Corps, while armoured half-tracks and White scout cars were classed as B non-armoured-vehicles, so are not covered in the RAC Reports.

Unit Establishments
    U.E. Unit Establishment — ie full theoretical equipment June 1944 Figures are quoted for the end of June, and as they show units mostly at full strength, may well refer to the situation before units which were fighting in France were committed to action. For the Shermans, the original figures list RAC-OP or Royal Armoured Corps Observation Post — that is, command tanks separately when showing what units should and did have, but not in the total establishment and reserve figures.
    Note here an anomaly, the two IC Fireflies with the Polish Armoured Division. These were issued to help make up their shortage of VC tanks, they only had 23 of these instead of their full quota of 27, so were overall two Fireflies short. Of the VC’s isted in the Armoured Replacement Group, a note says that 6 were issued to 259 CDS for 'Concrete busting'. Another note states that the Unit Establishment of 75mm armed Sherman V is calculated on an interim figure of 12×17pdr tanks per regiment, not 15. Presumably the number of 75mm tanks would be reduced and replaced with 17pdr tanks at a later date.
    The figures for 30 Armoured Brigade list half of their Sherman V as being 'pilot' tanks, with a note saying 12 Roller equipments were issued for these 36 tanks. These I take to be the Anti Mine Roller Attachments or AMRA. Reserve pilots are listed as none held against an establishment of 9, my figures list all these vehicles under the one heading of Sherman V. As can be seen when comparing the total vehicles in service against establishments, not all units had all their vehicles. 1 Tank Brigade lacked 16 Sherman II’s of the 43 it should have had and also 5 of their 11 ARVs, the Polish Armoured Division were short of 3 OP tanks and the two Fireflies mentioned above. The 15th/19th Hussars had too many vehicles, with 75 Sherman V when then should have had 61, but they did not have any of the three ARVs they were entitled to.

Tank Categories
    At least the various types of Sherman with different engines were grouped as far as possible in the same units. Those with diesel engined Sherman III or M4A2 also had their Armoured Recovery Vehicles or ARVs based on the same type. The armoured divisions had mostly M4A4 or Sherman V while M4 Sherman I and M4A2 Mk IIIs were in the independent armoured brigades. The only problem with mixing of types was the Fireflies, apart from the two odd IC in Polish use, all the 17pdr tanks were based on the Sherman V or M4A4 which would have caused some logistical problems. Note also that the mainly Cromwell equipped 7th Armoured Division used Sherman VCs as mentioned below.
    The other major gun tank in armoured divisions was the Cromwell series. These were the main type used by 7th Armoured Division, and were used by the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment in the 11th, Guards and Polish Armoured Divisions. Most had 75mm guns, and these units were supposed to have been issued with the A30 Challenger with the 17pdr to give them greater firepower. These were not available, so Shermans were issued instead, as can be seen by those held by 7th Armoured Division in Table 1. It was due to have 9 of its Cromwells replaced with Challengers. The figures also add one small fact. Guards Armoured Division has three Mk I Command tanks issued to make up its full quota of vehicles. Also due to have Cromwells was the Czech armoured brigade. Their establishment is listed as shown, with 24 of its Cromwells due to be replaced with Challengers, but they only had three ARVs at this date. The original table has a section for Comet but with no vehicles held by units, in reserve or expected in the near future.
    Churchill tanks were not used by armoured divisions but by Tank Brigades, which were formerly known as Army Tank Brigades. The 6th Guards Armoured Brigade was at that time known officially as such but was in all but name a Tank Brigade. These units had a mixture of 6pdr armed Mk III and IV vehicles and 75mm armed Mk VI and VII, but conversion sets to modify 6pdr tanks into 75mm were issued and the number of these was listed. Note that Mk IIIs were no longer listed as being ready for issue, supposedly existing vehicles would be replaced with Mk VII’s when they were disabled or worn out. The Close Support versions, armed with the 95mm gun, are not listed separately by mark but I expect them to be Mk V. 141st Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps (The Buffs) were part of 31st Tank Brigade but their vehicles were listed separately, and I have done that here. 141RAC were a Crocodile unit so had a large number of Mk VII tanks listed. Churchill ARVs and Bridgelayers are listed here for completeness, note that the number of Armoured Vehicles Royal Engineers or AVREs is not included, probably as these were not under RAC control. American Stuart tanks were used by many units for scouting and liaison duties. Three types, the Stuart III which was the M3A1, the V or M3A3 and the VI or M5A1 were all in use in varying numbers by different units. All those who should have Stuart IIIs had their full number of vehicles, and there were 10 Stuart V held by the two Canadian units surplus to their official establishment. The situation for the VI was not as good, with only the Guards Armoured having all their vehicles. The 6th Guards Tank Brigade should have had 33 tanks but only had 4 of the Mk VI with some of the shortfall made up by Mk V. 15th/19th Hussars should have had 11 Stuart VIs but were at least better off than the Polish Armoured Division and Czech Armoured Brigade who had none of these vehicles at a time when they should have had 44 and 26 respectively.
    The final listing covers the Valentine bridgelayer, with the 30 foot scissors bridge issued to armoured divisions and independent armoured brigades. All units had all they were entitled to, apart from the Czech Armoured Brigade who had none.
    Crusader Mk III anti aircraft tanks mounting two 20mm cannons in a new turret were issued to various units, with allied air superiority they were not used in their intended role. Not all units had all they should have had, the Poles had none of the 28 the official establishment stated they needed, while the 4th Canadian Armoured Division were short one vehicle, the 6th Guards Tank Brigade should have had 20 vehicles and the 1st Tank Brigade was due two. There were no reserve vehicles available to make up these shortages.
    The 1st Tank Brigade did at least have all the Canal Defence Light searchlight equipped tanks it was due.

What is not there
    Despite looking comprehensive, not all units are listed. Two that spring to my mind are the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment who used Tetrarch on D Day and M22 Locust crossing the Rhine, and were issued with Cromwell and Sherman at various times which they may or may not have used in action. The Royal Marines Armoured Support Regiments with their Centaurs and Sherman OPs is also not included, perhaps as they were not an RAC unit.

Losses
    Tables in the Half Yearly Reports for December 1944 list Battle Losses by month of cruiser and infantry tanks for 1944 and total losses to the end of January 1945, while the June 1945 list total losses to the war’s end. The figures in Table C shown for 1944 are the totals of the monthly ones for all apart from the Stuarts where I can only give the figures to end of January. 1945 ones are the difference between the total figures for June 1945 and the cumulative to December ones with Stuarts from January. These only show a part of the overall story, and do not include the most important figure, the human loss. While many were able to escape from knocked-out tanks, many more did not. Those who escaped may have been wounded, and others carried mental scars as bad or worse than physical injuries, for many years. Some are still suffering even today in one or more ways, and those they left behind also paid a high price. If anything comes from these figures, may they help you remember those who fought, and especially those who died and were injured.

Bibliography
    The RAC Reports in the Public Record Office are references WO165-135 for January – June 1944, WO165-135 July-December 1944 and WO165-136 for January-June 1945. WO205-141 is the 21 Army Group Equipment Availability report.
    "Datafile 8 – 21st Army Group Order of Battle" and "Datafile 9 —21st Army Group Organisation and Markings" by Malcolm Bellis are both privately printed. They contain breakdowns of which regiments were in which brigades and divisions along with tables of organisation. Both are recommended for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of British units of the period. Contact Malcolm at 10 White Hart Lane, Wistaston, Crewe CW2 8EX, England with IRC or SAE for details of availability and prices. For other organisational details and markings, see "British Military Markings 1939-1945" by Peter Hodges and Michael D Taylor. The old edition by Peter Hodges published by Almark in 1971 is long out of print, the new edition expanded by Michael Taylor is available from Athena Books, 34 Imperial Crescent, Town Moor, Doncaster, DN2 5BU, England. "Orders of Battle -United Kingdom and Colonial Formations and Units in the Second World War 1939-1945", prepared for the Historical Section of the Cabinet Office by Lieut-Colonel H F Joslen, Rtd (late DCLI) published by HMSO London in 1960 and no longer in print. This lists which regiments were in each Brigade, what Brigades were in which Division etc, as well as giving organisation details for divisions. It was reprinted by a company called the London Stamp Exchange fairly recently.

Acknowledgements
    I would like to thank David Fletcher, Tank Museum librarian, and also Lynn of his staff, for their help with this article and making photocopies of the lists which in most cases involved fragile originals in various sizes being copied onto modern A4 sheets. Without their help, none of this would have been possible. Ultimate thanks must go to those who compiled and typed up these figures over half a century ago.
    Peter Brown
    November 1996