49th Royal Tank Regiment 49th Royal Tank Regiment ( 49 RTR ) , later 49th Armoured Personnel Carrier Regiment , was a regiment of the British Army ' s Royal Armoured Corps during World War II that operated specialised Armoured Fighting Vehicle s in North West Europe . Origin and training . As part of the rearmament of the British Army before World War II , the 6th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers , a Territorial Army infantry battalion , was converted to the armoured role on 1 November 1938 , under the designation 43rd ( 6th City ) Battalion , The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers , Royal Tank Regiment , or ' 43 RTR ' for short . During 1939 it formed 49 RTR as a duplicate regiment . The regiments shared St George ' s Drill Hall in Newcastle upon Tyne as their depot . While 43 RTR used the conventional ' A ' , ' B ' and ' C ' squadron designations , 49 RTR adopted ' X ' , ' Y ' and ' Z ' for its squadrons . Both regiments were part of 25th Army Tank Brigade . In August 1939 49 RTR had still not received any tanks , so it mobilised as an infantry unit , and spent the Phoney War on guard duty in North East England . In April 1940 it finally received a few old tanks for instruction ( one Vickers Medium per squadron , and one Matilda for Regimental HQ ) plus some old cars . In May the regiment moved to Catterick Camp to begin armoured training . At the end of May 1940 , with the British Expeditionary Force being evacuated from Dunkirk and the imminent threat of German invasion of England , 25th Army Tank Brigade was redesignated 2nd Motor Machine Gun Brigade and its regiments reorganised accordingly . Each MMG squadron consisted of three troops , each with six Austin Utility ( ' Tilly ' ) two - seat cars , two carrying Vickers medium machine guns , two Bren light machine gun s and two Boys anti - tank rifle s . In July 1940 , volunteers from the units of 25th Army Tank Brigade formed No 5 Troop of No . 5 Commando at Bridlington . In August , 49 RTR and the rest of the brigade moved to Northumberland to guard the coastline with machine gun posts along the cliffs and sand dunes . In November 1940 , the brigade moved to the Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire for armoured training ; 49 RTR was posted to Rufford Abbey but soon afterwards left the brigade and joined 1st Army Tank Brigade at East Grinstead in Sussex . Now 49 RTR returned its ' Tillies ' to store and began intensive infantry tank training on the South Downs with new Matilda II tanks . It finally adopted the usual ' A ' , ' B ' and ' C ' designations for its squadrons . Later in 1941 the regiment came once more under 25th Army Tank Bde , which had reconverted from the MMG role and moved to the South Coast . Specialised armour . In January 1942 , 49 RTR moved to Lowther Castle , near Penrith , to train in a new role as a night fighting tank battalion equipped with Canal Defence Light s ( CDLs ) . These carried a powerful searchlight fitted to a Matilda tank , replacing the turret and main armament . In July 1943 the Matilda CDLs were replaced by Grant tank CDLs , which retained the 75 mm main gun in a sponson . During this period 49 RTR joined 35th Army Tank Brigade , which later formed part of 79th Armoured Division , which concentrated all the specialised armour units training for the Invasion of Normandy . 49 RTR landed in France on 12 August 1944 as part of 1st Tank Brigade in 79th Armoured , but there was no call for CDLs in the Normandy campaign . The regiment was issued with conventional Sherman gun tanks in addition to their Grant CDLs , and during October , 49 RTR supplied Sherman crews to other regiments that required reinforcements ( 20 crews to the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry on 7 October ; 10 crews to the Royal Scots Greys and 12 drivers to the 3rd / 4th County of London Yeomanry ( Sharpshooters ) on 17 October ) . Next the Grant CDLs were returned to the training unit at Lowther . The whole of 1st Tank Brigade was being broken up to provide drafts to other regiments , and it appeared that 49 RTR was to share that fate . However , reduced to two squadrons ( ' A ' and ' C ' ) , the regiment was redesignated 49th Armoured Personnel Carrier Regiment ( 49 APCR ) and re - equipped with Ram Kangaroos ( obsolete Canadian - built Ram tank s , similar to Shermans , with their turrets removed to transport an infantry section ) . Each squadron could carry one battalion . First Canadian Army already had an APC regiment ( 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment ) , and 49 APCR would perform the same role for Second British Army . Operational career . 49 RTR finally went into action on the night of 13 / 14 November 1944 , ferrying forward troops of 51st ( Highland ) Infantry Division . The value of the new vehicles was soon appreciated . Lieutenant - General Brian Horrocks , commanding XXX Corps , later wrote that Kangaroos ' proved a great boon in the closing stages of the war . . . I once saw a whole brigade of the 51st Highland Division in these vehicles being heavily shelled by the Germans . I thought their casualties were bound to be high , but they had only two men wounded ' . On 3 December , 49 APCR took part in Operation Guildford , the assault on Blerick , a heavily defended suburb of the Dutch town of Venlo . The Kangaroos advanced behind a creeping barrage along lanes cut through the minefields and anti - tank ditch by flail tanks and bridgelaying tanks . They delivered the attacking infantry ( 8th Battalion Royal Scots and 6th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers ) close to their objectives and , although some Kangaroos were disabled by mines , the squadrons returned for two more battalions . In the words of the Official History , ' from that point the taking of the town proved to be a walk - over ' . During February 1945 49 APCR was kept busy during Operation Veritable , the advance on Kleve , and made newspaper headlines by the manner in which they forced their way into Goch . For the assault crossing of the Rhine , Operation Plunder , 49 APCR formed ' B ' Independent Sqn . This was equipped with Grant CDLs , brought back from Lowther . The operation was carried out under ' artificial moonlight ' ( searchlights shining onto the cloud cover ) and during the assault on Rees by the 51st ( Highland ) Division the Grants both illuminated the crossing and engaged the enemy on the far bank with their 75mm guns . Meanwhile A and C Sqns ferried Highlanders forward to the crossing points . Once over the Rhine and until the end of the campaign , Kangaroos were used extensively to move infantry forward rapidly over territory recaptured from the enemy . 49 APCR formed ' F ' Sqn to increase the number of vehicles available . As a hostilities - only unit , 49 RTR was quickly disbanded after the end of World War II , a process that was complete by 13 December 1945 .