Heavy Armoured Brigade (Egypt) 4th Armoured Brigade 4th Armoured Brigade Group 4th Mechanized Brigade 4th Infantry Brigade and Headquarters North East 4th Light Brigade Combat Team
Current insignia of the 4th Infantry Brigade & HQ North East.
More recently, the Brigade took part in the
First Gulf War and completed a number of tours to the Balkans during the 1990s. The Black Rats have also since deployed twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan as the lead formation.
The 4th Armoured Brigade left the 7th Armoured Division in North Africa in 1943, to return to join the Allied invasion force for Normandy. In June 1944, the brigade
landed in Normandy as an independent brigade and fought during the
Battle of Normandy during the
Battle for Caen.[4]
The 4th Armoured Brigade was the first to
cross the Rhine into Germany.[3]
Former BBC motorsports commentator
Murray Walker served with 4th Armoured Brigade during the Second World War as a member of The
Royal Scots Greys. After the war he started a motorcycle club, organising trials and scrambles for the soldiers within the Brigade.[5]
Cold War era
The brigade spent many years in Germany as part of the
British Army of the Rhine. The brigade was one of two "square" brigades assigned to
2nd Division when it converted into an armoured formation in 1976.[6] After being briefly converted to "Task Force Charlie" in the late 1970s, the brigade was reinstated in 1981, assigned to
3rd Armoured Division[7] and was based at York Barracks in
Münster.[8] The Brigade deployed to the First Gulf War on Operation Granby in 1990/91 and was involved in the liberation of Kuwait. It moved to Quebec Barracks at
Osnabrück in 1993 to replace 12th Armoured Brigade as part of
1st (UK) Armoured Division.[9]
Post-Cold War
4th Armoured Brigade deployed to Bosnia in October 1995 as UNPROFOR
HQ Sector South-West and subsequently as the leading UK element of the
NATOImplementation Force (IFOR).[10] The Black Rats have since deployed twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan, first on
Operation Herrick 12 in 2010; and again in October 2012 for Operation Herrick 17, during which it was working in support of the Afghan Army's 3/215 Brigade and elements of the Afghan National Police.[11]
Structure circa 2020
4th Infantry Brigade
Under
Army 2020, the brigade lost its armour and converted to an infantry brigade. The structure of the brigade in 2020 was as follows:[12][13]
4th Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (Army Reserve), at
Kimberley Barracks,
Preston (Light Infantry) – paired with 1st Battalion, Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (1 LANCS)