6th Support Group

The 6th Support Group was a brigade-sized formation of the British Army associated with the 6th Armoured Division during the early years of the Second World War. It was sometimes known as the Pivot Group, a name that reflected its flexible supporting role rather than a permanently fixed battlefield function. Unlike a conventional infantry or armoured brigade organized around a single principal combat arm, the group brought together several supporting elements that could be assigned according to the operational needs of the armoured brigades it supported. Its principal purpose was to provide adaptable combined-arms assistance. Depending on the operation, the formation could furnish motorized infantry, field artillery, anti-tank artillery, or light anti-aircraft artillery. This arrangement allowed the 6th Armoured Division to reinforce an armoured operation with the specific capabilities required for the situation, including protection against enemy tanks, artillery support, mobile infantry, and defence against low-level air attack. The force listed in the available historical account included the 9th Battalion, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, serving in a motor-infantry role; the 12th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery; the 72nd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery; and the 51st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery. These constituent units illustrate the group’s deliberately mixed composition and its role as a pool of mobile battlefield support for armoured formations. The group was commanded by Brigadier T. Lyon-Smith. The available reference material does not establish a precise date of formation, dissolution, headquarters location, detailed order of battle changes, or a complete operational chronology. It does, however, place the 6th Support Group within the British armoured-division structure of the Second World War and identifies its central organizational concept: concentrating mobile supporting arms so they could be allocated where an armoured brigade’s immediate mission required them. It is therefore best understood as a historical military formation rather than a commercial brand or ongoing organization.

The 6th Support Group was a British Army formation attached to the 6th Armoured Division during the Second World War. The surviving description presents it as a brigade-sized organization created to give an armoured division access to a range of mobile supporting arms. In contemporary usage it was also referred to as the Pivot Group. The group’s distinctive feature was functional flexibility. Rather than operating as a single-purpose infantry, artillery, or armoured formation, it could provide different types of support to the division’s armoured brigades according to the task at hand. Its available capabilities included motorized infantry, field artillery, anti-tank artillery, and light anti-aircraft artillery. This made the formation a mechanism for tailoring combined-arms support around an operation’s immediate requirements. The recorded component units were the 9th Battalion, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, in the motor-infantry role; the 12th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery; the 72nd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery; and the 51st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery. Together, these units represented the main categories of support that could be made available to the armoured brigades of the 6th Armoured Division. Brigadier T. Lyon-Smith is identified as the group’s commander in the available account. The supplied historical material does not provide a firm formation date, dissolution date, headquarters, detailed campaign record, or a complete list of commanders. Consequently, the documented history supports a concise organizational interpretation rather than a fully dated operational narrative. The 6th Support Group’s historical importance lies in its role as a flexible support structure within Britain’s wartime armoured-division system.

A flexible, brigade-sized combined-arms support formation designed to provide the 6th Armoured Division’s armoured brigades with whichever mobile supporting capabilities an operation required.

• Military capability

  Motorized infantry support

  The group included the 9th Battalion, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, in a motor-infantry role. This component gave the armoured formation mobile infantry support that could accompany or reinforce armoured operations.

• Military capability

  Field artillery support

  The 12th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, supplied field-artillery capability within the group. Its inclusion enabled the formation to provide mobile indirect-fire support as required by the armoured brigades’ operations.

• Military capability

  Anti-tank artillery support

  The 72nd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, provided dedicated anti-armour support. This element strengthened the division’s ability to respond to enemy armoured threats while operating within the group’s broader flexible-support structure.

• Military capability

  Light anti-aircraft artillery support

  The 51st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, contributed protection against low-level air attack. Its presence added an air-defence function to the group’s otherwise varied package of mobile battlefield support.

1. 16th Support Group (United Kingdom)en.wikipedia.org