Description
Physical description
badge
A heraldic pinion in red with blue details, all on a black ground. This example is on a khaki drill backing with poppers at the corners.
History note
Cole states that the backing should be dark blue and Morris (see Notes below) maintains that the post-war version was in a lighter blue. The latter authority also suggests that the later pinion was of a slightly different design, with greater detail on the background wing. The badge was retained by the post-war 24th Infantry Brigade which later became 5th Field Force and finally 24th Airmobile Brigade.
The 24th Independent Guards Brigade was formed on 13 February 1940 and on 7 April sent to Norway as part of Avonforce. It became part of Rupertforce on 19 April and then came under command of HQ North West Expeditionary Force on 13 May, returning to the UK on 11 June 1940.
In November 1940 the Brigade was reorganized as an Independent Brigade Group but reverted to an Independent Brigade at the end of October 1942 before becoming part of 1st Infantry Division on 6 December 1942. It arrived in North Africa with the Division at the beginning of March 1943 and fought until the end of hostilities in Tunisia.
The Brigade took part in the Anzio battles from January to May 1944, re-converting (in March 1944) to an Independent Brigade Group. In this guise it fought in the remainder of the Italian campaign, being under the command of 6th South African Armoured Division for the nine months 20 May 1944 to 19 February 1945.
The Brigade reverted to an infantry brigade within a division on 10 March 1945, joining the 56th (London) Division. It again became independent when 56th Division returned to the UK. In May 1946 it dropped the Guards element of its title to become 24th Infantry Brigade when 2nd Coldstream and 1st Scots Guards left the formation. It left Trieste in October 1945 when the city returned to Italian control. In the late 1950s the Brigade was in Kenya, and transferred to Kuwait in July 1961 but redeployed to Kenya in the autumn. They were sent briefly to Zanzibar in January 1962 then back again to Kenya.
In October 1964 HQ 24th Infantry Brigade took over in the Radfan (Aden) and returned to Plymouth in the UK in August 1967 where it came under 3rd Division. It had two deployments to Ulster, August 1969 and in 1972 for Operation Motorman in July of that year.
The title 'airportable' was added in 1970 and in the same year the Brigade relocated to Barnard Castle, moving again to Topcliffe in Yorkshire in 1973.
The Brigade left 3rd Division in 1976 and moved to Osnabruck as part of BAOR in November 1976, where it became 5th Field Force, part of Task Force Delta under 2nd Division.
In January 1981 the Brigade came briefly under command of 1st Armoured Division and in April 1981 renamed again to 24th Infantry Brigade and returned to UK.
In 1988 it was again renamed as 24th Airmobile Brigade at Colchester and moved to Catterick in 1993 where it was assigned to the Multinational Division (Central) as part as Allied Command (Europe) Rapid Reaction Corps.
In 1999 the Brigade amalgamated with 5th Airborne Brigade to become 16th Air Assault Brigade.