Equipment shortages prevented it from receiving any significant numbers of modern tanks; obsolete Vickers Medium Mark II and Mk II Light Tanks comprising most of the armour on hand until after the Battle of Dunkirk.

Shortly after that battle, the brigade HQ was pulled back to the Salisbury Plain Training Area, although each tank battalion was detailed as a mobile reserve for the infantry divisions holding the coastline.

Valentine IIs were received from April 1941 and the brigade had about a hundred Churchill tanks on strength by the end of the year.

The 4th Division, with the brigade, did not arrive in North Africa until the end of March 1943, although it helped to break open the approaches to Tunis in April.

In December, 48th RTR was temporarily detached to support the 43rd Gurkha Infantry Brigade while 145th RAC was disbanded and replaced by the North Irish Horse.

In February, it came under the command of the V Corps and supported its various units during Operation Grapeshot, the Allied offensive in the Po Valley.