The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) was a mounted auxiliary unit of the British Army raised in 1794 to defend Great Britain from foreign invasion.

Its part-time soldiers from Staffordshire in the English Midlands acted in support of the civil powers during the 19th Century and supplied active service companies to the Imperial Yeomanry during the Second Boer War.

The War Office decided that only the 14 most senior Yeomanry regiments were to be retained as cavalry, the remainder being converted to other roles such as armoured cars or artillery.

By the later 1930s the policy was to mechanise all remaining cavalry units, but the TA was at the bottom of the priority list for modern equipment, and this had still not been done for the Yeomanry when the Second World War broke out.

Elements of 6th Cavalry Bde with its 15-cwt trucks and a few armoured cars took part in the Syria–Lebanon campaign, which ended after the fall of Palmyra and Damascus with the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre on 14 July.

[7][8][6][11][12][13][14] The 6th Cavalry Bde detachment then continued to Teheran as part of the pre-emptive Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: here they were the first troops to make contact with the advancing Soviet force.

By the time Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was ready to attack again, at the Battle of Alam el Halfa on 30 August, the British Eighth Amy had been reinforced and largely re-equipped under Gen Bernard Montgomery.

At first the tanks had to pick their way in the dark through the British minefield: 8th Armoured Bde advanced though the New Zealand Division's sector with all three regiments abreast, each following a narrow corridor.

At zero hour (22.00) the brigade was formed up to pass through the gap when it was caught by an enemy air attack: vehicles were set on fire, and the blaze attracted other bombers.

Here it was held up by A/T guns, but its infantry (1st Battalion, Buffs) forced a way through the minefield after dark, and at daylight the Staffordshire Yeomanry advanced up the coast, meeting the Sherwood Rangers who had driven through the town, finding it abandoned.

On 14 December the brigade fought a sharp action south of El Agheila against the Italian Ariete Armoured Division acting as the Axis rearguard.

[a] On 17 December a squadron of the Staffs Yeomanry helped the 2nd New Zealand Division in an enveloping operation against Nofilia, but the enemy columns driving across the desert escaped the trap.

After resting and refitting, 8th Armoured Bde crossed the Wadi Um er Raml with air support on 15 January 1943, the Staffs Yeomanry then leading the pursuit.

Eighth Army's operation against the Mareth Line beginning on the night of 20/21 March included a wide 'left hook' to penetrate the Tebaga Gap and outflank the defences, in which 8th Armoured Bde accompanied the New Zealand Corps under Lt-Gen Bernard Freyberg.

The New Zealanders began their approach march two nights later, 8th Armoured Bde advancing in nine parallel columns across rough ground to engage the enemy at 'Roman Wall'.

Although the advance was slowed by rearguards on 28 March and failed to reach El Hamma in time to cut off the enemy, the Battle of Tebaga Gap had forced the Axis out of the formidable Mareth Line.

The brigade advanced parallel to the coast, bypassing Sousse and heading towards Enfidaville, outside which it took up positions facing the German defences, with the Staffs Yeomanry on the main road.

Leaving their tanks, the men embarked on the transports Tegelberg and Nieuw Holland on 18 November 1943, landed in Scotland on 11 December and rejoined XXX Corps next day.

[43][44][45][46] 8th Infantry Brigade, preceded by the DD tanks of 27th Armoured Bde, made 3rd Division's initial assault landing on 'Queen' Beach at H-Hour on 6 June (D-Day).

185th Brigade's ambitious objective for the day was to move rapidly inland and seize Caen, led by a mobile column consisting of the 2nd Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), riding on the tanks of the Staffs Yeomanry.

Although the German counter-attack had been defeated, the KSLI/Staffs group had not reached Caen by nightfall, when Eadie withdrew his tanks to leaguer at Biéville; later the leading infantry company was withdrawn from Lébisey.

[47][48][49][50][51][52] The Battle for Caen was a drawn-out affair, but after several attempts against its flanks, Montgomery committed to a direct assault on the city by I Corps on 8 July (Operation Charnwood).

Lieutenant-Col Eadie, having been awarded a Bar to his DSO for his leadership on D-Day, left to become chief instructor at Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the command was taken over by Lt-Col Mike Farquhar.

The infantry crossed the 9 miles (14 km) wide estuary in Landing Vehicle Tracked 'Buffaloes', accompanied by B Sqn Staffs Yeomanry, which had completed its DD training.

The whole of the Staffs Yeomanry now had to land at this one point, but the carpet-laying men worked for 8 hours to fill the muddy ruts churned up by the DD Shermans, and the flow of tanks was uninterrupted, the rest of the regiment following C Sqn at first light.

The regiment lost three tanks sunk during the crossing, and Maj Charles Eardley led the last squadron to a different launching site to avoid the incoming shellfire.

One of the Buffaloes supporting the Staffs Yeomanry carried an airborne bulldozer, which was light enough to cross the mud and then able to reduce the slope of the floodbank and allow the DD tanks to climb over.

[63][67][75][76][77][78][79] Tank ferries later brought over the rest of 8th Armoured Bde, which supported 51st (H) Division and other elements of XXX Corps in a week-long battle to expand and break out from the bridgehead.

The counter-battery bombardment began at midnight on 28/29 April, and at 02.00 two brigades of 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division set out in Buffaloes, followed at 05.00 by A Sqn, Staffs Yeomanry, crossing from Artlenburg.

The DD Shermans suffered no casualties in the crossing, and were first used to clear felled trees blocking the only two exits from the riverbank, which had defeated an airborne bulldozer landed from a Buffalo.