History, 3rd The King's Own Hussars
 Of
the four Regiments who make up our famous antecedents, the 3rd Hussars
had the lion's share of Battles and Campaigns. As their number denotes,
they were the senior of the four regiments and our seniority amongst the
Cavalry and specifically the Light Cavalry has always been accorded because
of them. Into the almost overwhelming plethora of privileges and traditions
that The Queen's Royal Hussars have inherited, the regimental colour of
Garter Blue, The White Horse of Hannover, The Red Collar and the Fern
Leaf have all been passed down from the 3rd Hussars.
Created
at the very beginning of the first standing Army in 1685, as three independent
troops of Dragoons led by three Captains of the Royal Dragoons, they had
been forced to oppose Monmouth's Rebellion. Afterwards they were given
another troop by the Royal Dragoons, two newly raised troops banded together
and given their first title "The Queen Consort's Regiment of Dragoons".
Within
four years the title of the Regiment had been modified, due in part to
the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in which half of the Regiment, including
Leveson's Troop had changed over to William of Orange's side. For his
shrewd decision, Leveson was made Colonel of The Queens Consort's Regiment
of Dragoons by the new King. With all regiments popularly known by their
Colonels name, it was therefore Leveson's Dragoons who went to Ireland
to see their first action in 1689 the following year.
The
War in Ireland was a sour and ill-provisioned conflict with disease and
starvation taking almost half the Army as casualties. Leveson's Dragoons
however had made themselves"Celebrated in the Army" because
of their spirited conduct. This augured well for the future.
The
Regiment returned to England in 1692 for two years home service before
being sent to the Netherlands to campaign against the French, retitled
as The Queen's Dragoons, the name they were to hold until 1714. As part
of the garrison of Dixmude the Regiment was surrendered to the besieging
French by a Danish General which, enraged the Dragoons who broke all of
their weaponry, rather than hand it over. After the treaty of Ryswick
the Regiment returned home for five years, then in 1702 took part in two
minor scuffles at Cadiz and at Vigo, where at the latter they helped to
destroy over 40 Spanish ships before returning home.
Five
more years in England during Marlborough's great campaign against the
French could not have pleased the Queen's Dragoons until they were sent
to Spain and fought against the French themselves at the Battle of Almanza,
with the forerunners of the 4th and 8th Hussars, in 1707. Despite the
Dragoon's repeated charges, Almanza was a heavy defeat with over half
the Regiment being killed. Little had been gained by the time the Regiment
returned home the following year, and little was to happen for the next
four years while the Regiment was in Scotland.
In
1714 the first Hanovarian, George I, Became King and as he had no Queens
Consort the Regiment's Title changed once more to the King's Own Regiment
of Dragoons. A year later they fought at Sheriffmuir alongside the forebears
of the 7th Hussars, thus joining Battle with all their future partners
within 30 years of their formation. From 1715 until 1742, The Kings Own
Regiment of Dragoons soldiered at home, engaging in nothing more exciting
than anti-smuggling duty. The uneasy peace in Europe was broken when the
Emperor of Austria died and "The War of the Austrian Succession"
broke out with Britain and Austria once again fighting France. This time
there was one major Battle and one clear result. King George II led his
Army into Battle on 27 June 1743, near the village of Dettingen where
the King's Own endured three hellish hours exposed to French Artillery
then Charged three times through nine squadrons of the French Household
Cavalry and routed them. Private Thomas Brown rescued one of the Regimental
standards in Glorious Fashion."He had two horses killed from under
him; two fingers of ye bridal hand chopped off; and after retaking the
standard from ye Gen D'Arms, whom he killed, he made his way through a
lane of the enemy, exposed to fire and sword, in the execution of which
he received 8 cuts in ye face, head and neck; 2 balls lodged in his back,
3 went thro his hat; and in this hack'd condition he rejoined his regiment
who gave him three huzzas on his arrival"
For
his bravery Thomas Brown, along with George Daraugh of the 4th, was made
a Knight Banneret on the battlefield by King George II, the last time
a British Monarch led his soldiers into battle. The King's Own also captured
a pair of silver Kettle Drums from the French after the Battle, and although
these were destroyed in 1847, a pair of silver replicas are still highly
cherished by the Regiment today. At Dettingen all the Officers save two
were wounded among the 148 Killed or wounded. When George II inspected
the Regiment before it returned to England, he sharply asked whose Regiment
it was because of its thin ranks, forcing General Bland to answer,
"Please your Majesty, it is my Regiment
and I believe the remainder of it is at Dettingen".
With
a shortage of troops in England the second Jacobite Rebellion in 1745
called some regiments home, including the King's Own, who were sent north
to fight at Culloden in 1746. This preceded a long period of inactivity
for the Regiment until 1808, excepting their participation in a limited
raid on France in 1758 and in the Gordon Riots in London during 1780.
To
appease political pressure yet another ill-fated expedition was sent to
the low countries in 1809 to destroy French shipping on the Scheldt. Known
as the Walcheren expedition the plan failed and disease took many casualties.
Napoleon was in the ascendant throughout Europe and a year earlier had
installed his brother on the throne of Spain, the country Britain had
decided to make the focal point of it's struggle against French imperialism.
In
1811 the King's Own joined Wellington's Army in the Peninsula, talking
part in the campaign of the following year including many unremarkable
skirmishes until the major Battle of Salamanca. Wellington's perfect timing
of his attack routed 40,000 Frenchmen in 40 minutes, with the cavalry
being the chief instrument of destruction. The King's Own had earned their
second Battle Honour. After wintering in Portugal, the British again had
Wellington's Tactical mind to thank for pushing the French Army out of
Spain with only one major decisive battle at Vittoria, at which both sides
lost the same number of casualties but the French had been outflanked.
The King's Own chased the fugitive French Army, which had been beaten
by the infantry. In 1814 Napoleon had actually abdicated when Wellington
fought and won the bloody encounter of Toulouse, the King's Own's final
battle in addition to that of the whole campaign "Peninsula".
Throughout the war the 3rd had fought in the same Brigade as the 4th,
their future partners. In all 210 men had been killed, and it must have
been with relief that they reached home in July 1814.
Between
1815 and 1837 the King's Own were stationed in England and Ireland performing
the duty more of a gendarmerie than an Army during years of considerable
social unrest. In 1818 the Regiment's name was changed once more to "3rd
The King's Own Light Dragoons". In 1837 they set sail for India,
bought up to the strength of 420 men, of whom only 47 would return to
England in 1853. For four years the 3rd had no enemy except the intense
heat; then in January 1842 they set out to avenge the complete slaughter
of the British Garrison in Kabul, butchered on their attempt to return
to India. Having recaptured Kabul it was decided by the Governor-general
to abandon Afghanistan; thus the 3rd moved back to India. It was the turn
of the Sikh Army to suffer in 1845 as they crossed into India, with 60.000
men on December 11th. Within sixty-two days the Sikh Army had been utterly
defeated in four major Battles. The first of these was Moodkee, at which
the 3rd and the second Brigade of Cavalry were present.
"With praiseworthy gallantry...turned
the left of the Sikh Army, and sweeping along the whole rear of its
infantry and guns, silenced for a time the latter, and put their numerous
cavalry to flight...Their (the enemy's) whole forces were driven from
position to position with great slaughter"
From
the Regiment there were 61 killed and 35 wounded, but they could only
rest for three days before being put into battle again, charging the Sikh
guns at Ferozeshah on the 21st December, then repulsing a second Sikh
Army from the very positions they had just taken on the 22nd, with the
loss of another 55 killed and 100 wounded. Sir John Fortescue, the Military
Historian, wrote of the 3rd as "heroes", Saying
"Few Regiments of horse in the world can
show a finer record of hardihood and endurance".
The
final battle in which the Regiment fought in this first Sikh War was on
February 10th, 1846, at Sobraon which, because of the tremendous slaughter
of the enemy and their ejection from India, became known as the "Waterloo
of India". The 3rd suffered only minor casualties.
Three
years later the Sikh's Mutinied again, and as before the 3rd were included
in the force sent against them for the second sikh war. Battle was first
joined by the rival Armies at Chillianwallah which was really a defeat
for the British but for the 3rd, Captain Unett's Squadron cut a path half
a mile deep in the enemy, losing half of his brave squadron in the process.
It was only a month before the final battle in the war, which routed the
sikh's at Goojerat, in which the 3rd pursued and cut down the fleeing
enemy.
This
was the final battle in India for the regiment who returned to England
showered with praise by the Indian hierarchy, in 1853. In 1854 they were
ordered to recruit men and buy horses for the 4th Light Dragoons in the
Crimea providing 253 and 300 respectively. In 1861 the title of the Regiment
changed once more to "The 3rd King's Own Hussars", during the
fourth year of the six year tour in Ireland. In 1868 they sailed again
for India spending eleven peaceful years there before another nineteen
in England and Ireland, equally without incident. The 3rd provided it's
share for the socially elite Camel Corps in 1884, three years it was once
again sent for service in India. Disease disabled the Regiment as normal
in India before finally it was sent to see active service in South Africa
in November 1901. The hard fighting had already finished and the 3rd found
themselves engaged in "driving", rounding up the Boars out on
the veld with the only serious casualties being the horses who worked
very hard. Within six months the war was over and the Regiment was sent
back to India until 1907 where it spent four years policing the now peaceful
South Africa, returning home to England in 1911.
Within
the context of the 1914 - 1918 Great War the part played by any one unit
among hundreds must be obscured by the grand strategy. The 3rd Hussars
fought only in Northern France and Flanders, yet they gained twenty seven
Battle Honours, double the amount they had won in the previous two centuries.
None were on the scale of Moodkee or Dettingen, but the squalor and deprivation
which epitomised the trench warfare, all were thoroughly earned.
The
Regiment arrived in Rouen on 17th August 1914 and by the 21st was in action
opposing the German Cavalry at Mons. For a fortnight the so-called Great
Retreat saw the Regiment pushed back through Le Cateau over 200 miles
until on the 5th September the British and French Armies turned, inflicting
defeats on the Germans at the Marne and the Aisne. The struggle for Flanders
began in October in Ypres with the Cavalry fighting as infantry holding
the lines at Messines under intense pressure. On one day the Regiment
lost fifty percent in Casualties. The War now developed into trench warfare
with the 3rd employed around Ypres, St Julien and Bellewaarde lake until
put into reserve in June 1915. Meanwhile they provided large squadrons
for a Cavalry dismounted division fighting as infantry in the trenches.
September 1916 and the battle of the Somme saw the regiment still providing
labour behind the front, as well as their dismounted commitment, before
wintering in Villeroy.
For
the battle of Arras in April 1917, the 3rd were once again ready for "the
gap" but it did not materialise. Another spell as a dismounted regiment
followed until Cambrai in November when, ready to push through the right
flank they were again let down, but fought on foot in the latter stages.
In March 1918 the Germans put together their final assault in which the
3rd on 1st April were ordered to take rifle wood, the vital ground the
Commander-in-Chief had chosen. An exposed assault, left once again fifty
percent casualties. In July the Cavalry began to pursue the German withdrawal,
acting as reconnaissance for the slower infantry. The 3rd ended the war
where they had begun it in 1914, at Hautmont, having lost 107 killed and
385 wounded in the intervening four years.
In
1921 the title of the regiment changed for the final time to "3rd
The King's Own Hussars" a few years before it embarked for two years
in Turkey as part of the allied army of occupation. From there it proceeded
to Egypt until 1927 when it moved to India. Lucknow was a quiet tour and
in 1932 the 3rd hussars returned home to York.
On
transferring to Tidworth in 1935 the regiment had been selected, and had
itself approved the decision, to undergo the first experiments in Mechanisation.
Emotional the loss of the horse was, the British higher command had left
the decision as late as they possibly could. The regiment cheerfully practised
with laughably unsuitable vehicles until the Second World War drew them
once more against their foes of the last conflict, the Germans.
Initially
during the "phoney War" the Regiment was brigaded to the 1st
Armoured Brigade alongside their old friends the 4th Hussars. After France
had fallen the 3rd were sent to Cairo to join the 7th Armoured Brigade
of the 7th Armoured Division, "The Desert Rats". General Wavell
opened his offensive against the Italians in December 1940, and the 3rd
saw their first action during the closing stages of the Sidi Barrani at
Buqbuq where they sustained 25 casualties, but helped to capture with
the allied units so many Italian prisoners that "there were about
five acres of Officers and two hundred acres of other ranks". This
success carried on to Beda Fomm when the Italians were driven out of Cyrenaica.
In
April 1941 the Afrika Corps under Rommel attacked and pushed the Allies
all the way back to the El Alamein Line in twelve months. Meanwhile the
Regiment had been split up into two squadrons moving to Crete and Cyprus
before they fell. "B" Squadron were sent to Java where they
were all captured by the Japanese and put into the infamous prisoner of
war camps. The remaining and reconstituted 3rd Hussars were re-equipped
with Crusader, Sherman and Grant Tanks ready for the Battle ahead. In
the first phase of El Alamein the regiment helped break through Rommel's
Defences but in the second phase it was given the crucial task of forcing
a gap through the remaining defences to enable the armoured reserves to
break through. The "Moodkee Wallahs" succeeded and Alamein was
won, at a cost of 21 Officer casualties and 98 other rank casualties whilst
of their 51 Tanks, 47 were destroyed in the battle. So decimated was the
Regiment that it was unable to join the pursuit. General Freyburgh granted
the 3rd Hussars the Honour of wearing the "Fern Leaf" on their
vehicles because of their participation with the New Zealand Division
during the Battle.
In
January 1943, the Regiment moved to Aleppo in Syria, in August to Haifa
and then to the Lebanon but it was not until April of 1944 that they were
put back into action pushing the Germans out of Italy. In June and July
the 3rd led the advance of the 78th Division up Italy reaching Citta Del
Piave and fighting then at Ripa. Montone, Citta del Castello and Pistrino
in the Tiber valley. The Regiment had led 130 miles of successful pursuit
when an order came that all personnel who had served overseas for four
and a half years were to be sent to England. This was disappointing as
the Regiment had always suffered the brunt of the battles but rarely enjoyed
the easier work of the pursuits. The 3rd Moved to Syria first and this
is where they were for the capitulation of the Axis powers on 6 may 1945.
When Japan surrendered in August "B" Squadron started to return
to the Regiment. The inhuman Japanese Prisoner of War camps had Killed
54 of the Squadron.
In
December 1945 the 3rd Hussars were selected to be the Reconnaissance Regiment
for the only Airborne Division being retained in the Post War Army and
thus moved to Sarafond in Palestine to join their Division. Three years
of internal peacekeeping duties followed until the 3rd were evacuated
to Germany via Durham in 1948. For the next Decade they moved around Germany
providing the First Armoured Squadron in Berlin and enjoying the peaceful
life until they came home to amalgamate in 1958 after 18 years of unbroken
foreign service.
Major
David Watts commanded the returning party and described poignantly the
"Hollow Merriment" of the journey and the lowering of the Regimental
Flag for the last time. Two Hundred and Seventy Three years of Valour,
Sacrifice, Tradition and identity was to be lost.
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