Cap badge the Lothians and Border Horse Yeomanry

€ 14,00

SKU

B97395

both lugs intact

The 1st Lothians and Border Horse was part of the 51st Highland Division, which had been sent to reinforce the French Maginot Line and was serving there when the Germansstarted their offensive. Together with the rest of the Division, the regiment attempted to rejoin the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Moving around the south of Paris, the regiment engaged the German Army south of the River Somme near Abbeville. Outnumbered, it fought a retreat of sixty miles in six days to the fishing port of St. Valery-en-Caux, where, having run out of food, ammunition and other supplies, they surrendered on 12 June.

Prior to this, some of the regiment's personnel were evacuated during Operation Ariel, and went on to re-form the 1st Lothians and Border Horse, which was attached to the 30th Armoured Brigade, 79th Armoured Division and returned to France on D Day, 6 June 1944. The regiment remained with 79th Armoured in North West Europe until the end of the war. Casualties, from D-Day up to the end of the war, consisted of 17 men killed, 90 officers and other ranks wounded, and 16 officers and other ranks missing in action. Equipment losses were four Sherman Gun Tanks and 36 Sherman Crab Tanks destroyed.

The 2nd Lothians and Border Horse was from June 1940 - October 1940 part of the British 1st Motor Machine Gun Brigade, an interim formation formed due to the shortage of Tanks and Armoured Vehicle after the retreat from Dunkirk. In October 1940, the brigade was renamed the British 26th Armoured Brigade, which went on to form part of the British 6th Armoured Division