Lend-lease The first Tetrarchs were delivered to the Army in November 1940, and were initially deployed with the
1st Armoured Division (which was being refitted after losing the majority of its previous tanks during the Battle of France) and the newly formed
6th Armoured Division. Despite these drawbacks in the Tetrarch's design, Soviet authorities believed it to be comparable to the
T-70 light tank in use at the time, and decided that it was suitable to be used in combat. A number of Tetrarchs were sent to Tank Training Schools which were subsequently sent into battle, and in September 1943 two were assigned to the 132nd Separated Tank Battalion, which was attached to the 5th Guards Tank Brigade; both tanks were destroyed in combat, one on 30 September and the other on 2 October, the latter a casualty of artillery fire. In mid-1941, the Royal Armoured Corps in Britain created three tank squadrons for special overseas operations, known as 'A', 'B' and 'C' Special Service Squadrons. Both 'A' and 'B' Squadrons were equipped with Valentine Infantry tanks and
Mark VIc light tanks, but 'C' Squadron was equipped with twelve Tetrarchs transferred from the 2nd Armoured Brigade, 1st Armoured Division. On 31 July 1941, 'C' Squadron was officially activated and immediately received orders to prepare for overseas service alongside 'A' and 'B' Squadrons in an unspecified tropical climate. All three squadrons were transported to
Inverary in
Scotland for intensive training that focused on embarkation and disembarkation from ships and landing craft to prepare them for action in potential amphibious operations. In early September, elements of 'C' Squadron, including six Tetrarchs, formed part of a force which sailed for
Freetown in West Africa; during this period of the war there were fears that the Spanish government might enter the conflict on the side of Germany, and the force was readied to capture a number of Spanish islands off the coast of Africa if this occurred. Spain remained neutral, so the units were redeployed. The next assignment, Operation Ironclad, was the May 1942 invasion of Madagascar, the third largest island in the world and then under
Vichy French control. The Prime Minister and the
Combined Chiefs of Staff decided that Madagascar should be occupied as rapidly as possible to deny the port of
Antsirane to Japanese naval forces, which had recently advanced into the
Indian Ocean. Operation Ironclad was under the command of Major General
Robert G. Sturges and consisted of
No. 5 Commando,
29th Independent Brigade Group, and the 17th and 13th
brigade groups from
5th Infantry Division. The 29th Brigade formed the core of the invasion force due to its training in amphibious operations, and under its command was 'B' Special Service Squadron, created by amalgamating six Valentines from 'B' Squadron and six Tetrarchs from 'C' Squadron into a single unit. The squadron was formed into four troops, one Headquarters troop of three Valentines and one Tetrarch, one of four Valentines, and two formed from the remaining five Tetrarchs. The landings began at 04:30 on 5 May, with 5 Commando landing at Courrier Bay and the three infantry brigades and 'B' Squadron landing at Ambararata Bay. The objective of the infantry brigades and their armoured support was to take control of Antsirane and a nearby town, but although the infantry landed successfully, 'B' Squadron had more trouble; the area of beach designated for its landing craft was blocked for several hours after a Tetrarch came loose from a landing craft and became stuck in the sand. The infantry brigades advanced toward Antsirane without the squadron, but eventually two Valentines and a single Tetrarch were dispatched in support, catching up with the lead elements of the infantry near the town of Anamakia. Here the invasion force encountered the first French defences, consisting of camouflaged trenches and
pillboxes dug in along a ridge. The tanks attempted to breach them, but the rocky ground made manoeuvring difficult and they could not close with the pillboxes and trenches; they engaged a number of targets with 2-pounder and machine-gun fire, but the line had to be cleared by an infantry assault later in the day. The commander of the Tetrarch made his report, and was then ordered to take command of four Valentines and two Tetrarchs which had recently arrived and once again attempt to breach the French defences. The tanks followed the road leading to the defensive line and then attempted to out-flank the line by advancing from the right-hand side, using several hills as cover; the artillery pieces were able to turn and face the assault, however, and one Valentine and one Tetrarch were hit and destroyed. The remaining tanks exchanged several volleys of fire with the artillery pieces before retreating back to their original positions. The French line was eventually broken by 29th Brigade, aided by an amphibious assault by
Royal Marines; the remaining tanks of 'B' Squadron, two Valentines and three Tetrarchs, remained in defensive positions until the afternoon of 6 May, coming under sporadic artillery fire which disabled another Valentine. The squadron played no further part in the battle, as the Vichy French authorities negotiated a formal surrender the following day, although French troops would continue to engage the British occupying force in guerrilla warfare until late November. 'B' and 'C' Squadrons were embarked onto
SS Ocean Viking for use during
these operations, but in the event they were not used. 'C' Squadron suffered heavy casualties during the invasion; only one Valentine and three Tetrarchs out of twelve tanks were functional by 7 May, and the squadron had suffered seven killed and six wounded. It remained in Madagascar until early 1943, when it was shipped to India and took part in the
Burma Campaign as part of 29th Brigade.
Operation Tonga Because of a lack of equipment training facilities in mid-1940, when the British airborne establishment was formed, the War Office was able to accept only 500 volunteers for training as airborne troops. Progress in setting up proper training facilities and acquiring suitable transport aircraft was so slow that the first British airborne operation,
Operation Colossus, was conducted by a retrained
Commando unit. By 1942, there existed specifically trained airborne units, including the 1st Airborne Division, and on 19 January 1942 the War Office decided that a light tank unit would be one of the support units attached to the division. This unit, designated the Light Tank Squadron, was to be formed of nineteen light tanks and would operate to the fore of the division, using their tanks' speed to capture objectives and then holding them until relieved by other units. The obvious unit for conversion was 'C' Special Services Squadron, as it was trained to act as an independent tank unit and, more importantly, was the only unit that was still using Tetrarchs; it had been re-designated as an airborne tank by the War Office. 'C' Squadron was officially transferred to the 1st Airborne Division on 24 June 1942, bringing with it seven Tetrarchs among its other vehicles. The unit immediately began training, but was not attached to the 1st Airborne Division for long; during mid-1943, the division was transported to the Middle East so it could participate in the
Allied invasion of Sicily. 'C' Squadron remained in Britain, as not enough Hamilcar gliders had been built by the time the division departed to transport its Tetrarchs; the squadron was transferred to the 6th Airborne Division, which had been raised in April 1943, and 'C' Squadron remained with it for the rest of the conflict. The squadron continued to train as an air-portable unit, and participated in a number of exercises to prepare for its new duties, including reconnaissance of enemy positions and counter-attacking enemy infantry and armour. On 13 December 1943, the War Office decided to expand the squadron into a regiment equipped with a combination of light tanks and conventional reconnaissance vehicles such as scout cars, and on 1 April 1944, it was re-designated as the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment. The regiment consisted of a Headquarters Squadron, a Light Tank Squadron and a Reconnaissance Squadron; two Tetrarchs, the Mark 1 CS variation, were attached to the Headquarters Squadron, but the Light Tank Squadron, also known as 'A' Squadron, received the majority of the Tetrarchs. 'A' Squadron had approximately nineteen Tetrarchs split between six troops, two of which were of the CS variation and the rest were armed with 2-pounders fitted with Littlejohn adaptors. On 24 May 1944, after participating in a further series of exercises and manoeuvres, 'A' Squadron moved from their training area to a transit camp at
Tarrant Rushton airfield, while the rest of the regiment moved to
RAF Brize Norton airfield the next day; from these two airfields, the regiment would be transported from to participate in
the British airborne landings in Normandy. The operation began on the night of 5 June, with the deployment of 6th Airborne Division to eastern Normandy. It was tasked with protecting the eastern flank of the Allied seaborne landings, securing strategically important areas east of
Caen, capturing several important bridges over the
Caen Canal and
River Dives, and destroying a coastal artillery battery. Insufficient transport aircraft were available to land all three of the division's brigades simultaneously; one would have to be landed in a second lift later in the day. Major General
Richard Gale had initially intended for the
6th Airlanding Brigade, to which the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment was attached, to be landed first; however, aerial photography revealed that anti-glider poles had been erected in the landing zone selected for the brigade. Therefore, Gale decided that the
3rd Parachute Brigade and
5th Parachute Brigade (which did not utilise gliders) should land in the first lift to clear the landing zones, allowing the 6th Airlanding Brigade to land in the second lift. The
Horsa and Hamilcar gliders of the brigade landed at 21:00 on 6 June in a landing zone cleared of obstructions by the 5th Parachute Brigade. The primary tasks of the brigade were to bring in reinforcements and supplies, and to aid the two parachute brigades in consolidating the area held by the division; the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron was to aid in the latter task, acting as a reconnaissance force to scout out German positions and impede the movement of German forces attempting to counter-attack. The Tetrarchs of 'A' Squadron were to play an integral part in this reconnaissance role due to their speed, but the squadron's strength of twenty tanks was severely depleted by the time it landed in Normandy. One tank was lost before the formation landed when the Tetrarch broke loose of its shackles and crashed through the nose of the glider carrying it, causing both to fall into the sea mid-flight. Two gliders collided with each other in the landing zone, destroying themselves and the Tetrarchs they carried. Another Hamilcar hit a Tetrarch that was being unloaded and flipped the tank upside down, rendering it unusable, although the crew escaped injury. The surviving tanks were then rendered temporarily immobile when parachute rigging lines became tangled in their suspensions, forcing their crews to cut the lines away with welding torches. The squadron retrieved all of the remaining Tetrarchs and advanced to the south of the landing zone to link up with the rest of the regiment. There, they received orders to support the 8th Parachute Battalion in the Bois de Bavent area and conduct reconnaissance duties. After linking with the battalion, the squadron began reconnoitering, and engaged German infantry and armour they encountered. By the end of 7 June, two Tetrarchs had been lost to enemy action, one destroyed by a German
self-propelled gun and the second by hitting a
mine. The division was reinforced by British troops who were advancing from the invasion beaches and it began to push through Normandy, while the squadron continued its reconnaissance duties. At this time, Gale decided to avoid, when possible, engaging the Tetrarchs with German armour, as they proved to be completely outclassed by the German tanks and self-propelled guns, such as the
Panzer IV and the
Sturmgeschütz III. Instead, when the division required armoured support, it summoned it from armoured units outside the division, and the Tetrarchs were used to support infantry patrols and provide fire support. By August, in the division's preparation for the planned breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, the majority of Tetrarchs in 'A' Squadron were replaced with
Cromwell fast
cruiser tanks; only three Tetrarchs remained, assigned to the Headquarters troop of 'A' Squadron.
Post-war Operation Tonga was the last that Tetrarchs saw of active combat. During the first week of October 1944, the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment underwent an extensive reorganization, in which it was completely restructured, and all the remaining Tetrarchs were retired. They were replaced with the M22 Locust, a purpose-built airborne light tank of American design; eight Locusts were used by the regiment in March 1945 during
Operation Varsity, the airborne operation to cross the river
Rhine. A small number of Tetrarchs remained in service with the
3rd Hussars until 1949; a Hamilcar glider
flight was stationed at
RAF Fairford, and a troop of Tetrarchs was kept by the regiment for training exercises with the gliders. However, glider training by the regiment was stopped in 1950 and the Tetrarchs withdrawn from service. ==Variants==