Cap badge Grenadier Guards

The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to The Life Guards. Although The Coldstream Guards were formed before The Grenadier Guards, the regiment is ranked after the Grenadiers in seniority as, having been a regiment of the New Model Army, the Coldstreams served the Crown for four fewer years than the Grenadiers (the Grenadiers having formed as a Royalist regiment in exile in 1656 and the Coldstreams having sworn allegiance to the Crown upon the Restoration in 1660).

The grouping of buttons on the tunic is a common way to distinguish between the regiments of Foot Guards. Grenadier Guards' buttons are equally spaced and embossed with the Royal Cypher reversed and interlaced surrounded by the Royal Garter bearing the royal motto Honi soit qui mal y pense (Evil be to him who evil thinks).^[1] Their "Buff Belt" brass clasps also carry the Royal Cypher. Modern Grenadier Guardsmen wear a cap badge of a "grenade fired proper" with seventeen flames. This cap badge has to be cleaned twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, as it is made from brass and a tarnished grenade is frowned upon by all in the regiment.

During the Second World War the regiment was expanded to six service battalions, with the re-raising of the 4th Battalion, and the establishment of the 5th and 6th Battalions. The Grenadier Guards' first involvement in the war came in the early stages of the fighting when all three regular battalions were sent to France in late 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. As the BEF was pushed back by the German blitzkrieg, these battalions played a considerable role in maintaining the British Army's reputation during the withdrawal phase of the campaign before being themselves evacuated from Dunkirk. After this they returned to the United Kingdom where they undertook defensive duties in anticipation of a possible invasion. Later, in 1941, there was a need to increase the number of armoured and motorised units in the British Army and as a result the 2nd and 4th Battalions were re-equipped with tanks, while the 1st Battalion was motorised. They subsequently served in the Guards Armoured Division and 6th Guards Tank Brigade in Western Europe in 1944–45. The 3rd, 5th and 6th Battalions also served in North Africa, where they fought significant battles in the Medjez-el-Bab and along the Mareth Line, and in Italy at Salerno, Monte Camino, Anzio, and along the Gothic Line. Throughout the course of the conflict two Grenadiers received the Victoria Cross