Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry - Post-WWII History

Post-WWII History

In 1947, the regiment again ceased to exist but the following year was re-established as a heavy tank unit in support of 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, equipped with Cromwell tanks and Charioteer tank destroyers.

In 1958 the regiment converted to a light reconnaissance role equipped with armoured cars such as the Daimler, Humber, Saladin and Ferret. By 1964 there were just three armoured regiments in the Territorial Army and in 1967 it was decided to reduce the TA even further and the regiment was disbanded as an independent unit. However a new TA unit, the Royal Yeomanry, was formed from five differing predecessor units and the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry was reborn as A Squadron, The Royal Yeomanry. During the Cold War its role in the event of war would have been as a medium reconnaissance unit for the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). During the 1970s a second RWY-based squadron was raised, as B squadron, Royal Wessex Yeomanry. This was initially a home defence unit trained as infantry but later equipped with stripped down Land Rovers to perform reconnaissance duties.

The Royal Yeomanry’s role changed in the 1990s to providing both main battle tank crews and soldiers for the Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiation and Nuclear Regiment. In January 2003 the Royal Yeomanry deployed two of its squadrons for the Iraq war as part of the Joint NBC Regiment. It was the first mobilisation of a Territorial Army unit as a formed body (TA soldiers under TA command) for combat operations since the Suez Crisis in 1956. Overall over 200 members of the regiment have deployed on operational tours to Iraq since 2003. In recognition of its service in the liberation of Iraq, the Royal Yeomanry was presented with the battle honour ‘Iraq 2003’ on 11 November 2005, the only battle honour presented to a TA unit since the Second World War. Since the Iraq war, the importance of the CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) role, as it is now called, has been acknowledged and in 2005 all five of the RY’s squadrons adopted it.

The Royal Wessex Yeomanry operates as an armour replacement regiment providing individual augmentees for Regular Army regiments operating the Challenger 2 main battle tank. B (Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry) squadron retains its Prince of Wales feathers capbadge and (with A squadron, Royal Yeomanry) its place as the senior Yeomanry unit of the Territorial Army. B Squadron, based in Old Sarum, opened a detachment at Trowbridge in 2012.