Company, Essex Regiment, which soon afterwards was designated as V Corps HQ Defence Company. On formation, 153 RAC joined 34th Army Tank Brigade, with which it fought in Normandy, alongside 107 RAC and 147 RAC. However, 153 RAC was disbanded on 28 August 1944, due to a severe shortage of manpower, to be used as replacements for other British tank units in the 21st Army Group. The 9th Battalion was also raised at Warley on 4 July 1940, the same day the 8th Battalion was raised, and joined the 210th Brigade alongside the 8th Battalion, before both being transferred to 225th Brigade. Now assigned to the 219th Independent Infantry Brigade, the battalion was transferred to the Royal Artillery and converted into the 11th Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery on 1 December 1942, as were the rest of the battalions in the brigade. The regiment served in the Battle of Normandy as part of the 9th Army Group Royal Artillery. The regiment was disbanded after the war in January 1946. The 50th (Holding) Battalion, Essex Regiment was formed at Colchester on 28 May 1940. On 9 October, it was reorganised as the 10th Battalion and served in the home defence role, assigned to 223rd Independent Infantry Brigade (Home). On 8 December 1942, the brigade was converted into the 3rd Parachute Brigade and the battalion became the 9th Battalion, Parachute Regiment, part of the Army's airborne forces. Originally assigned to the 1st Airborne Division, the 3rd Para Brigade was transferred, in May 1943, to help create the 6th Airborne Division. With most of the 6th Airborne Division, the battalion was involved in the British airborne landings in the early hours of 6 June 1944 (D-Day), code-named Operation Tonga, where the battalion had the task of destroying the Merville Gun Battery. After D-Day, they fought in the Battle of Normandy as normal infantrymen until the middle of August (see 6th Airborne Division advance to the River Seine). They later played a small part in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and a large part in Operation Varsity in March 1945, the largest airborne operation of the war, involving over 16,000 paratroopers, where the 6th Airborne Division fought alongside the US 17th Airborne Division and both divisions suffered relatively heavy casualties in only a short amount of time. The 9th Battalion, Parachute Regiment ended the war in May 1945 near the Baltic sea