1942 British Armoured Brigade

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  • November 21, 2018 at 8:54 pm #150654
    Orange Dave
    Participant

    Just a quick question of historical composition.
    Would an armoured platoon have a mix of tank types? I.e Stuart, Grant and Sherman fielded together?

    I now it’s a game and I can field what I like, but it would be nice to get it right. 🙂

    November 22, 2018 at 7:27 am #150658
    Alan Hamilton
    Participant

    Unlikely (not impossible) at troop/platoon level simply because regiments tended to have a single type for ease of maintenance. That said, in the desert Armoured Regiments within a brigade often cross attached squadrons so that each had at least some tanks with a good HE capacity.
    A troop might have one or more of the CS tanks from SHQ attached for a particular action.

    November 22, 2018 at 9:36 am #150662
    Stuart Harrison
    Participant

    Another exception that did occur was Sherman Fireflies in Cromwell regiments – even that only occurred until the Cromwell based equivalent became available. They even tried to keep the same Sherman variant across each Sherman regiment – Sherman Is and Sherman ICs in one regiment, Sherman Vs and Sherman VCs in another for example.

    November 22, 2018 at 10:48 am #150667
    Gareth
    Participant

    Looking at some of the desert battles in 1942 there are plenty of examples of British tank regiments being reduced to less than 10 tanks(Grants & Honeys mixed together) and I would expect them to form one platoon in such chaos ?

    November 22, 2018 at 7:39 pm #150709
    Orange Dave
    Participant

    Thanks chaps.
    I currently have a grant and a honey. I’ll probably get a 2nd grant then and run with that. 3 of the same tank is a little dull to collect.

    November 23, 2018 at 6:36 pm #150938
    Dr Dave
    Participant

    In May 1942 at Gazala British “Cruiser” regts had the same type in the sqns but different types across the regt. This was:

    Grant / Grant / Honey – RHQ in Grant

    Or

    Grant / crusader II / crusader II – RHQ in crusader II

    By Alamein it was (at best, but many regts still had older tanks)

    Sherman / Grant / crusader (inc now 2 troops of crusader III)

    As losses mounted sqns were often merged so a regt fielded just one sqn and then in turn brigades got down to sqn strength as well.

    Infantry tanks would be all Valentine or Matilda up to June 42, then just Valentine.

    King force at Alamein had 6x Churchill III

    I don’t think any regt fielded the Honey-Grant-Sherman combo you have, but I will check.

    November 26, 2018 at 5:22 pm #151009
    Dr Dave
    Participant

    From what I can find the Alamein regts are as I have said with a few exceptions:

    Staffs Yeomanry: Grant Grant Crusader

    41, 45 and 47 RTR: Sherman Sherman Grant

    So there are slight variations

    November 26, 2018 at 7:44 pm #151011
    Orange Dave
    Participant

    Excellent. Thanks for the added research. I’ll stick with fielding Grants then.

    November 26, 2018 at 8:38 pm #151012
    Dr Dave
    Participant

    Shermans are a bit, well… naff. Also they’re too good to my mind to reflect the feel of the desert war.

    Grants look funky, aswell as being quintessentially North Africa.

    November 27, 2018 at 7:13 pm #151034
    Orange Dave
    Participant

    Haha. That’s pretty much my rationale. A very iconic look.

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