45th ( Leeds Rifles ) Royal Tank Regiment 45th ( Leeds Rifles ) Royal Tank Regiment ( 45 RTR ) was an armoured regiment of the British Territorial Army that fought at the Battle of Alamein during World War II and continued to serve during the 1950s . Origin . In April 1938 the 7th ( Leeds Rifles ) Battalion of The West Yorkshire Regiment converted to the armoured role as 45th ( Leeds Rifles ) Bn , Royal Tank Regiment . The Leeds Rifles was a long - standing Territorial Army ( TA ) infantry unit , founded by volunteers from the city of Leeds in 1859 . In June 1939 , the company based at Morley was split off to form the cadre for a duplicate unit , the 51st ( Leeds Rifles ) Bn , Royal Tank Regiment . World War II . On the outbreak of war in September 1939 , 45th ( Leeds Rifles ) RTR formed part of 24th Army Tank Brigade , a Second Line Territorial formation in Northern Command , in which it served alongside the Oldham - based TA regiments , 41 RTR and its duplicate , 47 RTR . At this time 45 RTR was commanded by Lt - Col Noel Tetley , a member of the Tetley brewing family that had helped raise the original Leeds Rifles and subsequently provided many senior officers for the regiment . There were almost no armoured fighting vehicles available for the TA regiments , and the few possessed by 45 RTR were deployed for airfield defence in North East England during the Battle of Britain . Later in the year , 24th Army Tank Brigade was redesignated 24th Armoured Brigade and became part of a new 8th Armoured Division . During 1941 the regiment moved to the South of England to continue its training . In December 1941 Lt - Col Tetley was promoted out of the regiment to command a tank brigade , and was replaced by Lt - Col S . C . Dumbreck of the Royal Dragoons . In May 1942 , 45 RTR embarked at Liverpool for the Middle East , sailing round the Cape and reaching Egypt in July . There the crews began training on Grant tank s , but by September they were equipped with a mix of Sherman tank s ( codenamed ' Swallows ' ) and Crusaders , but was not apparently brought up to full establishment ) . 8th Armoured Division was not yet complete , so 24th Armoured Bde was attached to 10th Armoured Division for the forthcoming Second Battle of El Alamein . 45 RTR went into action alongside 41 and 47 RTR on the second day of the battle ( D + 1 , 24 October ) , as 10th Armoured pushed towards Miteira . Its tanks engaged enemy anti - tank guns and entrenched infantry before withdrawing at dusk . The next day ( D + 2 ) 45 RTR moved into battle positions , supporting 41 and 47 RTR with gunfire . The enemy anti - tank guns were well dug in and had to be engaged by observing their flashes . One German infantry post was overrun by a troop of tanks firing their machine - guns into the trenches . The regiment withdrew again at dusk , leaving one defence squadron on the ridge . On D + 3 there was confused fighting ahead of the regiment . During D + 4 , 45 RTR remained on the ridge all day , covering 41 and 47 RTR as they advanced through the gaps in the minefields . On the night of 27 / 28 October , the CO was ordered to advance at first light on D + 5 to support an infantry brigade , but as the regiment only had about 20 tanks , 41 RTR was ordered to make up the numbers . The Crusader squadron had only gone a few hundred yards when they came upon some infantry digging in , and stopped . But Dumbreck had been told that the infantry he was supporting had definitely reached their objective , so one of the Sherman squadrons pushed on towards the ridge SE of the feature known as ' Snipe ' , supported by the other , which engaged German tanks coming from Snipe . It emerged that the infantry had not achieved their obective , and 45 RTR withdrew under shellfire . During this unsatisfactory action , the regiment lost 10 tanks and suffered 11 men killed or died of wounds , 10 missing believed dead , and 34 wounded , mainly from mines and shellfire . At the end of the day , 45 RTR handed its remaining tanks over to other regiments and was withdrawn into reserve . After the battle , 45th ( Leeds Rifles ) RTR was sent a message of congratulations from the Lord Mayor of Leeds , but the regiment had fought its only battle . Over succeeding months 24 Armoured Bde ' s officers and men were progressively posted away to other units . However , the planned dispersal of 45 RTR was cancelled , and it took in the remaining details of 41 and 47 RTR to became a holding unit . In this role it received large drafts of reinforcements from the UK before they were posted to other regiments . Nevertheless , on 8 March 1943 , 45 RTR was finally disbanded and replaced by a Royal Armoured Corps holding unit . Postwar . When the Territorial Army was reformed after the war , it included a combined 45th / 51st ( Leeds Rifles ) RTR . The personnel received their tank training from ' A ' Sqn of 6 RTR at RAF Worksop . Brigadier Noel Tetley was the Honorary Colonel . In 1956 the 45th / 51st ( Leeds Rifles ) RTR returned to the infantry role under its old title of 7th ( Leeds Rifles ) Bn West Yorkshire Regiment . It carried the honorary distinction on its colours and appointments of the badge of the Royal Tank Regiment with dates ' 1942 - 45 ' and two scrolls inscribed ' North Africa ' and ' Italy ' ( 51 RTR fought in the Italian campaign ) .