49th Royal Tank Regiment - Specialised Armour

Specialised Armour

In January 1942, 49 RTR moved to Lowther Castle, near Penrith, to train in a new role as a night fighting tank battalion equipped with Canal Defence Lights (CDLs). These carried a powerful searchlight fitted to a Matilda tank, replacing the turret and main armament. In July 1943 the Matilda CDLs were replaced by Grant tank CDLs, which retained the 75 mm main gun in a sponson. During this period 49 RTR joined 35th Army Tank Brigade, which later formed part of 79th Armoured Division, which concentrated all the specialised armour units training for the Invasion of Normandy.

49 RTR landed in France on 12 August 1944 as part of 1st Tank Brigade in 79th Armoured, but there was no call for CDLs in the Normandy campaign. The regiment was issued with conventional Sherman gun tanks in addition to their Grant CDLs, and during October, 49 RTR supplied Sherman crews to other regiments that required reinforcements (20 crews to the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry on 7 October; 10 crews to the Royal Scots Greys and 12 drivers to the 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) on 17 October).

Next the Grant CDLs were returned to the training unit at Lowther. The whole of 1st Tank Brigade was being broken up to provide drafts to other regiments, and it appeared that 49 RTR was to share that fate. However, reduced to two squadrons ('A' and 'C'), the regiment was redesignated 49th Armoured Personnel Carrier Regiment (49 APCR) and re-equipped with Ram Kangaroos (obsolete Canadian-built Ram tanks, similar to Shermans, with their turrets removed to transport an infantry section). Each squadron could carry one battalion. First Canadian Army already had an APC regiment (1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment), and 49 APCR would perform the same role for Second British Army.