The 12th Armoured Brigade Combat Team, formerly the 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade, is a regular brigade of the British Army which has been in almost continuous existence since 1899 and now forms part of 3rd (United Kingdom) Division.
British Army brigades had traditionally been ad hoc formations known by the name of their commander or numbered as part of a division. However, units involved in the Second Boer War in 1899 were organised into sequentially numbered brigades that were frequently reassigned between divisions. 6th Division, consisting of the 12th and 13th Brigades, was formed on 30 November and landed in South Africa during January 1900. It was moved up to Nauwpoort, from where 12th Brigade under the command of Major-GeneralR.A.P. Clements was pushed forward to reinforce the Cavalry Division. When the field force was reorganised after the capture of Bloemfontein, 12th Brigade returned to the command of 6th Division.[4][5][6][7] The brigade saw action at the Battle of Rensburg, Battle of Norval's Point, Battle of Biddulph's Berg and Battle of Slabbert's Nek.[8]
However, after the defeat of the main Boer field armies and the development of guerrilla warfare, all the divisions and brigades were broken up to form ad hoc 'columns' and garrisons. Battalions were detached from 12th Bde during operations in the Brandwater Basin in July 1900, and Maj-Gen Clements had detachments of Mounted infantry and Imperial Yeomanry attached to his command.[9] By the end of the year Clements was an important column commander, but none of his units came from his original 12th Brigade.[10]
After the Boer War, 12th Brigade became a permanent headquarters in 1902, stationed with 6th Division at Plymouth.[13] By 1907 it was still part of 6th Division, but now stationed at ColchesterinEastern Command.[14] In the Expeditionary Force established by the Haldane reforms, 12th Brigade at Colchester and later at Dover became part of 4th Division, and remained so until the outbreak of World War I.[15]
The brigade remained in the United Kingdom for the next two years, preparing and training to repel Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of England, although that never arrived. It moved to North Africa in February 1943 to take part in the later stages of the Tunisian Campaign and saw action at the Battle of Oved Zara, the Battle of Medjez Plain and the Battle of Tunis. It then took part in the Italian Campaign, moving to Naples in February 1944 and saw further action at the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino. By October 1944 the 4th Division was taking part in the British Eighth Army's battle on the Gothic Line but was withdrawn in November to spend the rest of the war in Greece, part of the Allied force tasked to prevent civil unrest as rival factions attempted to fill the political vacuum when the Germans withdrew from the country.[8][16]
The brigade was disbanded in March 1947, but reformed from 91 Lorried Infantry Brigade in April 1956.[8] During the 1970s, it was one of two "square" brigades assigned to 2nd Armoured Division.[18] After being briefly converted to "Task Force Delta" in the late 1970s, the brigade was reinstated in 1981,[19] assigned to 1st Armoured Division[20] and based at Quebec Barracks at Osnabrück.[21] It remained with 1st Armoured Division, apart from a spell under HQ 3rd Armoured Division during Operation Granby, until disbandment under Options for Change.[8] Following the Strategic Defence Review in 1998, the brigade was reformed in mechanized form under 3rd Mechanised Division at Aldershot Garrison: it relocated to Ward Barracks in Bulford Camp in February 2004.[8]
Under the Future Soldier programme, the brigade has been redesignated as the 12th Armoured Brigade Combat Team, and in the future will control a reconnaissance regiment equipped with the General Dynamics Ajax. The current armoured regiment (RTR) will be re-equipped with the Challenger 3 MBT and the armoured infantry battalions with the Warrior IFV re-equipped with the Boxer AFV.[22]
Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 1: The Regular British Divisions, London: HM Stationery Office, 1934/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN 1-847347-38-X.
Col John K. Dunlop, The Development of the British Army 1899–1914, London: Methuen, 1938.
Lt-Col H.F. Joslen, Orders of Battle, United Kingdom and Colonial Formations and Units in the Second World War, 1939–1945, London: HM Stationery Office, 1960/London: London Stamp Exchange, 1990, ISBN 0-948130-03-2/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2003, ISBN 1-843424-74-6.
