The History of the East Riding Yeomanry VOLUME 2: Armoured Yeomen:: The East Riding Yeomanry in the Opening Phase of the Second World War 1930-1943

The Battle of France, Defeat, Retreat & Evacuation from Dunkirk

The dawn of the 1930s saw the East Riding Yeomanry, 'Wenlock's Horse', having lost its horses after the end of the First World War, firmly established in the guise of the 26th (East Riding Yeomanry) Armoured Car Company, Royal Tank Corps, one of the earliest British Army cavalry units to mechanise. But as the decade wore on, increasing tensions with Germany saw the company enlarged to two full regiments in 1939, once again as the East Riding Yeomanry.

This is the story, told largely through eyewitness accounts, of the 1st East Riding Yeomanry, dispatched to France in February 1940 and given the unenviable task of holding back the German Blitzkrieg to buy time for the rest of the British Army to escape via Dunkirk. It is the story of desperate rearguard actions fought before Regiment was surrounded and overwhelmed at Cassel on the night of 29th/30th May 1940 and of the five long years of captivity as Prisoners of War that followed.

It is the story too of those few who escaped from Dunkirk and who, bolstered by men from the 2nd East Riding Yeomanry, formed the nucleus of an almost entirely new Regiment, licking their wounds and preparing for a return to Europe.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.