Royal Scots Dragoon Guards - History

History

The regiment has deployed on four tours of Northern Ireland in 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1980, suffering one fatality in 1972, when Trooper Ian Hunter Caie, was killed by a bomb in a beer barrel that exploded in the path of his Ferret scout car in Moybane, near Crossmaglen County Armagh.

It saw active service during OP GRANBY (the Gulf War in 1991), in Bosnia as part of SFOR in 1996–97 and deployed to Kosovo twice, in 2000 and 2001, as part of KFOR.

It recently deployed to Iraq, first during the Iraq War of 2003, (Britain's contribution being known as Operation Telic). The bulk of the regiment deployed as part of the Scots Dragoon Guards Battle Group (SCOTS DG BG) with a single squadron (A Squadron) detached to the First Battalion The Black Watch Battle Group (1BWBG). All deployed elements of the regiment took part in the advance on Iraq's second largest city, Basra. Prior to reaching Basra, A Squadron (with 1BWBG) fought in and around Az Zubayr and C Squadron was detached from the SCOTS DG BG to fight with 3 Commando Brigade (3 Cdo Bde) south of Basra that included Britain's largest tank engagement since the Gulf War, when 14 Challenger 2 tanks, engaged and destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks (the so-called '14–0' engagement). A and B Squadrons each conducted raids into Basra prior to the city being taken on 6 April, an action in which all SCOTS DG Squadrons were involved. All elements of the regiment left Iraq shortly after the war was officially declared over on 1 May.

More recently in 2006–7 and again in 2008 the majority of the regiment has returned to Iraq (in 2008 one squadron was detached from the regiment and deployed to Afghanistan). In 2010 the Regiment deployed three squadrons to Afghanistan.