It was then withdrawn from the line for re-equipping although a small number of it troops used mine sweeping Matilda (Scorpion) tanks during the Second Battle of El Alamein. In June 1943, the battalion became part of 4th Armoured Brigade for the invasion of Sicily and the also for the brigade's part in the Italian Campaign. It, with the rest of 4th Armoured Brigade, withdrew from Italy in January 1944 to return to the United Kingdom ready for the Normandy landings, where it arrived on 9 June 1944.
Matilda tanks of 44th Royal Tank Regiment on the clifftops at Seaford Head, Sussex, 15 March 1941.
After the Operation Overlord in Normandy, it took part in the break-out and reached the River Scheldt by 9 September 1944. On 17 September it came under the command of the US 101st Airborne Division as part of Operation Market Garden, before returning to the 4th Armoured Brigade. In April 1945 the regiment helped 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division in the capture of Bremen. It then moved via Hamburg to begin its occupational role to Uetersen on 9 May 1945.
The regiment was amalgamated with 50th RTR to form 44th/50th RTR and on 31 October 1956, the new regiment was further amalgamated with the North Somerset Yeomanry, to form the North Somerset Yeomanry/44th Royal Tank Regiment, which has since become the North Somerset and Bristol Yeomanry.
A history of the 44th Royal Tank Regiment in the War of 1939-45, by A. G. Brown, K. C. E. Dodwell, F. E. Honniball & G. C. Hopkinson. Brighton: 44th Royal Tank Regiment Association, 1965.
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