Motor Battalion

As part of an Armoured Division in the Second World War, a Motor Battalion provided infantry support within the Armoured Brigade, as opposed to the operations of the Infantry Brigade. The Motor Battalion was heavily mechanised and used some additional armoured fighting vehicles. Whilst there was an Independent Machine Gun Company in the Armoured Division, this was to support the Infantry Brigade and the Motor Battalion had its own machine gun support in the form of two platoons in the later stages of the war.

In the Middle East, in 1942, the Motor Battalion included a machine gun platoon in each of the Motor Companies. This provided 16 guns across the Battalion but decentralised unlike the pre-war Infantry Battalions. They were carried in 3-ton lorries.

VI/559/1 15th August 1942 – A Motor Battalion, Middle East.

June 1943 saw the second iteration of the Motor Battalion of an Armoured Division not in the Middle East. It contained two machine gun platoons, each with four guns and carried in Universal Carriers, in the same manner as a machine gun platoon of a machine gun battalion.

II/231/2 4th June 1943 – A Motor Battalion.

This was amended in January 1944 and shows the 20-mm. anti-aircraft guns as with the signals and administrative platoons but for allotment elsewhere.

II/231/3 19th January 1944 – A Motor Battalion.

The Motor Battalions of the Second World War included those from the following regiments:

Motor battalions had their own training arrangements, different from the infantry battalions and the machine gun battalions. Whereas a machine gunner in a Divisional (Machine Gun) Battalion would be trained at one of the Machine Gun Training Centres, machine gunners in a Motor Battalion received their training alongside other members of the battalion at a Motor Training and Holding Battalion. This included specialist companies that provided the training for the different platoons in the support company of the Motor Battalion. This included an MMG Platoon within the Specialist Company.