By the outbreak of
World War II, the 1st and 2nd Life Guards had been amalgamated as the
Life Guards. In September 1939, the Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards formed the
Household Cavalry Composite Regiment and the
Household Cavalry Training Regiment.
1st Household Cavalry Regiment Mobilisation The Blues were at Windsor when war was declared on 3 September 1939. That month, the Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards formed the
Household Cavalry Composite Regiment and the
Household Cavalry Training Regiment.
King George VI was instinctively biased in the favour of the Household Cavalry expressing a wish to see both regiments involved in battle and doing ceremonial duties. From 30 September 1939 the king inspected the Composites and then each unit in turn. Remounts Depots were established to keep the regiments on horseback, but the Composite was short of horses. But it became clear from advice received from
Bernard Montgomery that Remounts would soon have to be abandoned. The Household Cavalry Composite Regiment served with the
4th Cavalry Brigade and joined the
1st Cavalry Division when it was formed on 31 October 1939.
Charles Kavanagh had complained that the Household Cavalry Regiment used up "a large number of horses" and was "not getting as good officers as the others." Humphrey Wyndham, who was with Life Guards, told Churchill that his preference was for Household Cavalry to become tank and not machine guns. "Then The Life Guards and Blues would have led the way in the mechanization of the cavalry, instead of being made to follow it." As it was they mobilized their horses in 1939; four of the officers in the Blues at that time were Masters of Fox Hound. Wyndham went on: "The horse, after serving as a medium of mobility in war from the earliest times, was in process of supersession by the internal combustion engine across the valley."
Palestine, Iraq and North Africa The Household Cavalry Composite Regiment departed the United Kingdom in February 1940, transited across France, and arrived in Palestine on 20 February 1940. It served as a garrison force under British Forces, Palestine and Trans-Jordan. A reserve regiment remained in London to do ceremonials, whilst training regiments took place at Windsor. It was overcrowded when Regimental HQ Life Guards and two squadrons made their way there from London. B Squadron found accommodation at the Royal Hotel, and C Squadron went to the Old Etonian Club at Combermere Barracks, Windsor. 100 Reservists were drafted from other regiments for a full complement. In November 1940 the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment became the
1st Household Cavalry Motor Battalion. The 1st Household Cavalry Motor Battalion arrived at
Haifa on 22 February 1941 under a new commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Reginald Heyworth. The final decision to become mechanized was not taken until later that month. In the Judean desert they were ordered to end their horse cavalry days: horses older than 15 years were put down. In March 1941, the 1st Household Cavalry Motor Battalion was redesignated as the
1st Household Cavalry Regiment. In April 1941, the 4th Cavalry Brigade, together with a battalion of infantry from the
Essex Regiment, a mechanised regiment from the
Arab Legion and supporting artillery was organised as
Habforce for operations in
Iraq as part of the response to pro-Axis
Rashid Ali who had seized power in
Baghdad and was besieging
RAF Habbaniya. On 9 May 1941, 1st Household Cavalry Regiment were ordered to prepare to move with 2-inch mortars,
Hotchkiss machine guns and, later,
Bren machine-guns (much as they had been armed in 1914): the operation across the desert by was one of the most illustrious in the earlier period of the war. There was a heatwave as they followed the oil pipeline to join Glubb Pasha's
Arab Legion at the Rutba Oasis. The column covered 700 miles in six days, led by Household Cavalry officers, who were awarded several
Military Crosses. C Squadron was stationed at Fallujah, to hold the Euphrates against any attack from Baghdad. The advance on the capital began on 27 May. Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Ferguson, the commanding officer, took the main force north, while C Squadron circled south of the city. Faced by an Iraqi division, and flanked by another regiment, the British Regimental HQ was attacked, but repulsed the enemy. B Squadron had a sharp fight at Al-Khadimain, and there was a display of singular courage in the face of the enemy by Corporal of Horse Charles Maxted, who was awarded the
Military Medal. But the Germans in Baghdad called a truce, and on 31 May, C Squadron was billeted in the city's railway station unopposed. Following this, in July 1941,
Habforce was placed under the command of the
Australian I Corps and was involved in operations against the
Vichy French in
Syria, advancing from eastern Iraq near the Trans-Jordan border to
capture Palmyra and secure the
Haditha -
Tripoli oil pipeline. The operation to seize a notorious German agent,
Fritz Grobba was carried out by B Squadron led by Major Eric Gooch. Gooch's unit occupied Mosul Airfield, taken from the Germans. It was thought Grobba was hiding at Kameschle in Vichy Syria but on 30 May, Grobba fled Baghdad. Strafed by enemy planes, they moved into the hills above Palmyra, partly on foot. Palmyra fell on 3 July 1941. Lieutenant John Shaw and Lieutenant
Valerian Wellesley of the Blues were awarded
Military Crosses. On 15 July they attacked a ridge occupied by the Foreign Legion at Djerboua. On 15 July 1941 they were lauded by Winston Churchill, at a time during the war when there were few victories, for the capture of the oasis and declaration of surrender by the French regime. They quickly moved into Aleppo. The commanding officer left a report to: "give further accounts to the public ... of Syrian fighting, marked as it was by so many picturesque episodes, such as the arrival of His Majesty's Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards, in armoured cars, across many hundreds of miles of desert, to surround and capture the oasis of Palmyra." The last mounted expedition took place at the
Plain of Esdraelon in October 1941; from their base at
Tiberias on the Vichy-Syrian frontier they reported on "the last great mounted exercise ever to be undertaken by British cavalry in the Plain of Esdraelon, which has a nice Biblical sound and involved about two thousands horses." The 1st Household Cavalry Regiment next saw action at the
First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942 and the
Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 before moving to
Syria to patrol the Turko-Syrian border. The 1st Household Cavalry Regiment landed in
Italy in April 1944 and then, after a break in the UK between October 1944 and March 1945, took part in the
North West Europe Campaign. The regiment was disbanded in 1945 and the personnel returned to their original units.
2nd Household Cavalry Regiment The Household Cavalry Training Regiment remained in
Home Forces until September 1941 when it was redesignated as the
2nd Household Cavalry Regiment and joined the
Guards Armoured Division.
Household Cavalry Reserve Regiment The Household Cavalry Reserve Regiment was formed in September 1939 and remained in the Home Forces until March 1941 when it was disbanded. ==See also==