The 1st Battalion, Tower Hamlets Rifles, was a Territorial Army (TA) unit of the British Army during World War II. It fought as a motor battalion in the Western Desert campaign, 1941–42, including the Battles of Mersa Brega, Gazala, Mersa Matruh and First Alamein.
Origin
The origin of the Tower Hamlets Rifles lay in an invasion scare of 1859, when large numbers of Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs) were formed across Britain. Among these were the 15th Middlesex (The Customs and Docks) and the 2nd Tower Hamlets RVCs, which were raised in London's docklands and East End. Both battalions were affiliated to the Regular Army's Rifle Brigade. When the Territorial Force was formed in 1908, they combined to form the 17th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney), with its drill hall at 66 Tredegar Road, Bow.
The part-time Territorials were mobilised on the outbreak of World War I and the 17th Londons served on the Western Front from 1915 until 1918. It formed a 2nd Line battalion (2/17th Londons) that also went to France, but later served at Salonika and in the Sinai and Palestine campaign before returning to the Western Front in the closing stages of the war.
After the war the TF was reorganised as the Territorial Army (TA), and the London Regiment had fallen into abeyance. The unit was reformed in 1920 and changed its title to 17th London Regiment (Tower Hamlets Rifles) in 1926. When the London Regiment was formally abolished it became the Tower Hamlets Rifles, The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) in 1937, simply known as the Tower Hamlets Rifles (THR). With the doubling of the TA after the Munich Crisis, the THR formed a 1st and 2nd Battalion in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II (a 3rd Bn was also formed later).
World War II
Mobilisation
The TA was mobilised on 1 September 1939 and war was declared on 3 September. Both THR battalions mobilised in 3rd London Infantry Brigade, which was temporarily in 1st London Division until the new duplicate 2nd London Division was formed in October.
During World War II the 'Greenjackets' (the King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) and the Rifle Brigade, including their affiliated TA battalions) specialised in providing motorised infantry battalions to armoured brigades and armoured division support groups. The THR battalions were converted into motor battalions in 1940.
1st Tower Hamlets Rifles
On 1 March 1940 1st Bn THR was assigned to 2nd Support Group forming in 2nd Armoured Division. (An armoured division's support group at this time was essentially an artillery brigade with some motorised infantry to act as the pivot around which the armoured brigades could manoeuvre.) When the [British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk at the end of May 1940, the 2nd Armoured Division, still incomplete, was in Home Forces' reserve in Lincolnshire. During the summer, when invasion was considered imminent, the division moved down to a position between Northampton and Newmarket, from which IV Corps could send it to counter-attack an invasion force.
After the German defeat in the Battle of Britain the threat of invasion receded and it became possible to send reinforcements to Middle East Forces for operations against the Italian Army. 2nd Armoured Division was the most significant formation sent, arriving at Port Said in Egypt on 31 December 1940, with 1st THR under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Shipton.
On 15 January 1941 the 1st and 2nd THR were redesignated the 9th and 10th Battalions, Rifle Brigade (Tower Hamlets Rifles) (9th and 10th RB).
9th Rifle Brigade (Tower Hamlets Rifles) During February, elements of 2nd Armoured Division were sent up piecemeal to Cyrenaica to relieve 7th Armoured Division, which had been in contact with the Italians for eight months without rest. After desert training 3rd Armoured Brigade moved up on 26 February as an independent brigade group with 9th RB attached. The battalion's first task was peacekeeping between the local Arabs and the Italian settlers. Then on 22 March it took over the front at Mersa Brega, some south of Benghazi.