Post by Tiger505 on Jul 8, 2009 6:08:12 GMT -5
“Evil be to who Evil thinks”
In 1665 Lord Wentworth’s Regiment merged with John Russell’s Regiment to create the 1st Regiment of the foot Guards. At Waterloo on the 18th of June in 1815 they would earn the title the Grenadier Guards for their part defeating Napoleon. They would arrive back in France for WWI and return as part of the Guards Armored Division during WWII. The 2nd Bn. Grenadier Guards was equipped as an armored unit with both Sherman and Sherman Firefly VC tanks. The 1st was assigned to 5th Guards Tank Brigade as its Motor Rifle Battalion thanks to the some what large stature of their King’s Company. They would find themselves landing in Normandy at the end of June 1944 to take part in the liberation of Europe.
The division would undergo several adjustments during the campaign in Europe to cope with the terrain, shortages of man power, and lessons learned in battle. It would start in Normandy by operating as two mixed units. Each brigade swapped a battalion creating two units with a mixture of armor and infantry. This would be tested during Goodwood and up until the closing of the Falaise Pocket. After the initial trial by fire it would be refined to create 4 battle groups each with 1 armored and 1 infantry battalion. The Grenadier Guards as the senior regiment of the division would form one of these groups. The Grenadiers themselves adapted disbanding part of their anti-tank guns to create more infantry and regulating their half tracks to a purely transport status.
This unit would be bloodied by the 12th SS in Normandy and the entire division would début in Operation Good Wood. They would take part in the pursuit across France and through the Low Countries liberating Brussels. After that they would take part in Market Garden fighting the road as well as the Germans to relive the airborne forces. They where thrown into the Rechswald and drove across the Rhine through Germany. Their war would end in the town of Stade near the Elbe.