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3 unusual facts about Guards Armoured Division


Covenanter tank

Covenanters were also used to equip the Guards Armoured Division in 1942 and elements of the 1st Polish Armoured Division when it was formed in the UK; they were replaced before these units were sent to the front-line, except for a few bridgelayers both divisions retained and used in their advance through Belgium and the Netherlands.

Cromwell tank

The tank equipped the armoured reconnaissance regiments, of the Royal Armoured Corps, within the 7th, 11th, and Guards Armoured Divisions.

Humber Scout Car

They were used by British armoured units (e.g. the 11th Armoured Division and the Guards Armoured Division) for scouting and liaison and were generally considered less capable and reliable than the Dingo.


Jan van Hoof

On the 19th of September, van Hoof was riding on the top of a Guards Armoured Division British Humber Scout Car, guiding the vehicle from the allied column located at the central post office to the American soldiers and Guards Armoured Division tanks attacking the railway bridge, when Germans opened fire with a 2-cm gun on the vehicle, which caught fire.

Lord Michael Fitzalan-Howard

As majors, the brothers both fought in tanks in the Guards Armoured Division in the Second World War, fighting in the breakout from Caen after D-Day: Michael commanded a squadron of the 3rd Scots Guards, while Miles was brigade major of 5th Guards Armoured Brigade.

Robert Boscawen

In 1941, he joined the Royal Engineers, but the following year was commissioned in the Coldstream Guards (with which members of his family had served since 1769, including his brothers George and Evelyn, who had been killed during the withdrawal from Dunkirk) of the Guards Armoured Division and was sent to the cavalry wing of Sandhurst to train as a tank commander.


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