22nd Dragoons

[Mikal]

Hi,

This is my regiment of interest and I'll be dropping stuff in here periodically.

I was privileged to transcribe their war diary on behalf of the Tank Museum which received a windfall of nearly every WW2 RAC War Diary when RAC MRO Chester was closed some years ago.

Here are the basics of their formation history:

1 Dec 1940 - 11 Jan 1941, 29 Armd Bde, 11 Armd Div
11 Jan 1941 -12 May 1942, 30 Armd Bde, 11 Armd Div
12 May 1942 - 17 Oct 1943, 30 Armd Bde, 42 Armd Div
17 Oct 1943 - 30 Nov 1945, 30 Armd Bde, 79 Armd Div

[Mikal]

So how did 22nd Dragoons end up as the senior regiment in 30 Armd Bde?

This all came about due to Lancer and Dragoon loyalties of the Brigade Commanders.

Brig. Peto, 29 Armd Bde, was a Lancer whereas Brig. Anstice, 30 Armd Bde was a Dragoon. So a little shuffling around was agreed and 22D were swapped with 24L(24th Lancers). This was only possible because both Brigades were still forming up.

This is described in more detail in the footnote on p12 of Raymond Birt's XXII Dragoons 1760-1945: The Story of a Regiment.

It's possible to find this book, at a price, via AbeBooks: New Books, Secondhand Books, Rare Books, Out-of-Print Books