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- 53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery



2nd Sep 1939 Equipment  location map

23rd Mar 1940 Field Return of Officers

5th Jun 1944 Preparations

6th Jun 1944 On the Move

7th Jun 1944 Orders

8th Jun 1944 On the Move

9th Jun 1944 On the Move

10th Jun 1944 On the Move

11th Jun 1944 Waiting

12th Jun 1944 On the Move

13th Jun 1944 Landing

14th Jun 1944 On the Move

15th Jun 1944 On the Move

16th Jun 1944 In Action

17th Jun 1944 Under Fire

18th Jun 1944 In Action

19th Jun 1944 In Action

20th Jun 1944 Shelling

21st Jun 1944 Quiet

22nd Jun 1944 Fire

23rd Jun 1944 Attack Made

24th Jun 1944 Shelling

25th Jun 1944 Quieter

26th Jun 1944 Attack Made

27th Jun 1944 Attack Made

28th Jun 1944 Enemy Guns

29th Jun 1944 Hostile Artillery

30th Jun 1944 Observation

1st Jul 1944 Registration

2nd Jul 1944 In Action

3rd Jul 1944 In Action

4th Jul 1944 In Action

5th Jul 1944 Hostile Artillery

6th Jul 1944 Church Destroyed

7th Jul 1944 In Action

8th Jul 1944 In Action

9th Jul 1944 In Action

10th Jul 1944 Attack Made

11th Jul 1944 Orders

12th Jul 1944 Communications  location map

13th Jul 1944 Targets

14th Jul 1944 Enemy Engaged

15th Jul 1944 Enemy Engaged

16th Jul 1944 OP's Relief

17th Jul 1944 Reorganisation

18th Jul 1944 In Action

19th Jul 1944 Targets

20th Jul 1944 Harassing Fire

21st Jul 1944 Rain

22nd Jul 1944 Observation

23rd Jul 1944 Prisoners

24th Jul 1944 In Action

25th Jul 1944 Targets Engaged

26th Jul 1944 Targets Engaged

27th Jul 1944 Bombing

28th Jul 1944 Rounds Fired

29th Jul 1944 In Action

30th Jul 1944 Communication

31st Jul 1944 Reorganisation

1st Aug 1944 Rounds Fired

2nd Aug 1944 Breakfast

3rd Aug 1944 New Positions

4th Aug 1944 Orders

5th Aug 1944 Ammunition

6th Aug 1944 Hostile Artillery

7th Aug 1944 Orders

8th Aug 1944 Orders

9th Aug 1944 Harrassing Fire

10th Aug 1944 Quiet

11th Aug 1944 Survey

12th Aug 1944 Reliefs

13th Aug 1944 Orders

14th Aug 1944 Orders

15th Aug 1944 Practice

16th Aug 1944 Intelligence

17th Aug 1944 Advance

18th Aug 1944 Advance

19th Aug 1944 Advance

20th Aug 1944 Advance

21st Aug 1944 Advance

22nd Aug 1944 Forwards

23rd Aug 1944 Forwards

9th Oct 1944 Visits

1st Mar 1945 Preparations

12th Mar 1945 Orders

18th Mar 1945 Preparations

20th Mar 1945 On the Move

23rd Mar 1945 Preparations

24th Mar 1945 In Action

25th Mar 1945 In Action

27th Mar 1945 Advance

28th Mar 1945 Advance

29th Mar 1945 Orders

30th Mar 1945 Advance

31st Mar 1945 Advance

1st Apr 1945 Bridgehead

2nd Apr 1945 Shelling

3rd Apr 1945 Attack Made

4th Apr 1945 Attack Made

5th Apr 1945 Bridges

6th Apr 1945 Enemy Active

7th Apr 1945 Advance

8th Apr 1945 Advance

9th Apr 1945 Consolidation

10th Apr 1945 Moving Forward

11th Apr 1945 Advance Resumes

12th Apr 1945 Forwards

13th Apr 1945 Forwards

14th Apr 1945 On the Move

15th Apr 1945 On the Move

16th Apr 1945 Advance

17th Apr 1945 Advance

18th Apr 1945 Advance

19th Apr 1945 Moves

20th Apr 1945 On the Move

21st Apr 1945 Area Cleared

22nd Apr 1945 Preparations

23rd Apr 1945 On the Move

27th Apr 1945 Orders

29th Apr 1945 Wood Cleared

30th Apr 1945 Advance

1st May 1945 Reorganisation

2nd May 1945 Reorganisation

3rd May 1945 Reorganisation

4th May 1945 Reorganisation

19th May 1945 On the Move


If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.



Those known to have served with

53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Walsh Thomas Anthony. Gnr.

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of 53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery from other sources.



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Want to know more about 53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery?


There are:556 items tagged 53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.


Gnr. Thomas Anthony Walsh 53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery

My father Thomas Walsh, was born in Brewery Lane, Ennis, Co Clare, on 18th April 1911. He was the youngest of four children, three boys: Christopher, John, himself and a girl, Myra. His mother and father were named John and Mary and his father was an attendant at the asylum in Ennis. As a child, he remembers the uprising in 1916 and the Civil War that followed. To him it was an adventure. He was a scout in Ennis (very different to the Baden-Powell scouts) and he and his fellow scouts would run with messages in their mouths for the old IRA and when stopped by British troops, they would swallow the message.

On 28th October 1939, at Acton, London, my father enlisted in the Territorial Army joining the Royal Artillery of the British Army. He became Gunner Walsh, Serial No. 929839. The date of birth on his Soldiers and Service Pay Book was inaccurately entered as 18th January 1912. In fact, he was born on the 18th April 1911 in Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. (He might have been trying to give the impression of being younger!) There was no mystery why he joined. He saw the freedom of Europe and democracy threatened by Hitler and German invasion so he joined up to fight in the British Army and against fascism. In fact, he would have fought for anyone against what he perceived as a common foe. He was posted to the 5th Field Training Regiment (5th Regiment Royal Artillery, RHA) on 15th November 1939 where he was trained and then sent to a General Base Depot in Dover. He was assigned to the British Expeditionary Force and posted to France on 27th April 1940, where he undertook despatch rider duties. This may have been as part of the Divisional Troops of the 44th Division of the British Army. I think he was evacuated from The Mole, Dunkirk via Armentieres and Oost Cappel to England on 31st May 1940.

Sometime after this date (it is not recorded in his paybook, maybe the 25th June 1940) he was posted to the 48th Division (South Midland) and to the 53rd Queens Own Worcestershire Yeomanry on the same day. The regiment known as the 53rd Anti-Tank Regiment subsequently became the 53rd Light Regiment and again the 53rd Airlanding Light Regiment also known as the 6th Airlanding Light Regiment. He was assigned to 210 Battery. Their main weapon was a 6-pounder anti-tank gun. At one stage, he was posted to coastal defences in Upsall. This may have occurred before he joined the previously mentioned regiment. He was passed fit for airborne duties and trained for glider drops.

On 14th June 1944, (D Day +8), he landed in Normandy, France as part of the Allied Liberation Force and the 6th Airborne Division's Divisional Troops, the 53rd Air Landing Brigade or the 6th Air Landing Brigade. (His paybook says the 9th June which is the embarkation date.) His 210 Battery were supposed to be dropped by glider on the first day but there were not enough gliders and the weather was bad, so he left Newhaven on the Empire Capulet, for France on 9th June, arriving outside Luc-sur-mer on the 13th, going ashore on the 14th at Sword beach and spending the night of the 14th at Colleville-sur-Orne (now Colleville-Montgomery), moving to the east bank of the Orne River at Benouville. On the 15th he moved to northwest of Longueville, northwest of the River Orne. The regiment became a support unit to the 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades of the 6th Airborne Division. He may have participated in Operation Goodwood - the second attempt by the British to breakout of the Normandy bridgehead and take Caen.

By 18th August he was near Cabourg in divisional support of the infantry troops of the 6th Airlanding Brigade, (1st Battalion of The Royal Ulster Rifles; 12th Battalion The Devonshire Regiment; 2nd Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment) and on the 21st he moved north of Dozule, on the 22nd Branville, on the 24th west of the River Touques, and on the 26th on the River Risle, Seine, Foulbec. This was part of Operation Paddle under Major-General Gale, the push towards the Seine River. On the 27th August, the Regiment retired to Equemonville between Honfleur and Pont Andemer, and on the 3rd September 1944, they embarked for England and Southampton from Arromanches.

On 21st April 1945 he returned to Europe as part of the British Liberation Army. From here on it is difficult to follow what happened. His Regiment was posted to France on 22nd December 1944. He may well have been wounded and unfit at the time. What happened is unclear. His paybook indicates - as does Ministry of Defence Records - that he went to Norway, possibly on 2nd June 1945. He could have been posted to 21st Army Group and 1st Airborne Divisions divisional troops as part of the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment. Following Arnhem, the remnants of the 1st Airborne were sent to Norway to round up German troops at this time. I know he took part in the liberation of Norway from German occupation as he received a letter from the King of Norway thanking him for his service. He was evacuated to England on 27th August 1945. He must have been wounded or injured in some way as he wasn't discharged from the British Army until the 11th July 1947.

He was decorated for his services and received the 1939/45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal 1939/45. In 2011, I acquired the unofficial medals that he was entitled to: The Dunkirk Medal initiated by the Mayor of Dunkirk in 1965 and the Normandy Medal commissioned by the Normandy Veterans Association in 1987. These now hang below his official Campaign Medals, as is standard practice, in our hallway. He died in 1998 in Blackwater, Co. Clare, Ireland.

Samuel Walsh









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