​Upon their return to Egypt, they would be once more re-equipped with A9 Cruisers, they would be posted to 4th Armoured Brigade, with whom they would continue to serve until June 1942. In August 1941, 3RTR would receive it’s first American-built tanks, in the form of M3 Stuarts. Although these were soon outclassed as battle tanks, they proved as invaluable reconnaissance vehicles. Their American 37mm gun was found to not be as effective as the Ordnance QF 2pdr that 3RTR had previously used, so a number of Stuarts were modified to have their 37mm guns replaced with a 2pdr, which resulted in a number of 3RTR Tank Commanders and Gunners raking up a fair number of kills. There were talks of re-equipping all British Stuarts with 2pdr guns as a result, but it was not seen as politically expedient, so the 2pdr guns were swapped back for the 37mm guns, much to the disappointment of 3RTR.

It would only be in July 1942, after being transferred to 2nd Armoured Brigade when they would see another British tank in their servicing areas - this was the A15 Cruiser tank, known as the Crusader. Initially only disliked by the Officers and Men of 3RTR, the Crusader soon became hated across the entire British Army, due to it's very poor reliability and willingness to break down without warning. When the Crusader was fitted with the bigger 6pdr gun, the crews still hated it, but when they used their tanks as static positions, they met with some success. One crew from C Squadron 3RTR in a single action managed to destroy eight German tanks before being knocked out themselves and the crew bailing out. The massive disadvantage of the 6pdr armed Crusader was that the commander of the tank sat facing rearwards and would have to turn around to help located targets, in addition to loading the main gun and operating the radio. With their 6pdr-armed Crusaders and the American-built Grant Tanks, 3RTR fought on with 2nd Armoured Brigade until transferred to 8th Armoured Brigade later on that month. November 1942 would see the biggest change that 3RTR would see throughout the duration of the war - that would be the introduction of the M4 Sherman Tank to the world of 3RTR. 3RTR already had experience with the Sherman’s predecessor, the M3 Lee/Grant, but what the Officers and Men of 3RTR appreciated was the larger 75mm gun that could fire both High Explosive and Armour Piercing rounds. Those who had previously fought in Crusaders were immediately struck by the Shermans high silhouette, meaning that they would have to become masters of using the terrain to avoid the tank being a sitting duck for German anti-tank guns, by which time now included the fearsome 88mm Flak 18 - which had originally been designed as an Anti-Aircraft gun. Those who were posted to Sherman tanks soon discovered that it had a horrendous tendency to blow up and burn when hit by an anti-tank shell. Those who still fought in Grant or Crusader tanks were “lucky” - for the mean time. That “luck” would run out for all members of 3RTR in November 1943, when all Crusaders and Grants were removed from the vehicle stores and Sherman's replaced them. Although the Sherman didn't have as high of a silhouette as the Lee/Grant, it still had a high silhouette, so 3RTR fell back on the skills they had learned with the Grants by using the land to their advantage, utilising every lump and bump to their advantage. It was now that 3RTR had to show it’s true metal and they were naturally eager to get back into combat, but it would not get another chance until after the Normandy landings of 6th June 1944. During the journey to Alexandria (prior to returning to Britain), 3RTR would regularly hold gunnery practise exercises, in which many normal tank gunners would be re-mustered and upgraded to the position of Gunner Operator with them having been taught how to calibrate armaments. Not only that, but at every opportunity, 3RTR would break their journey for sports and swimming. 3RTR had done that much swimming, that 2LT Maloney is reputed to have joked with the Regimental Medical Officer, "Doc" MacMillan, that "when they want people to go to the Olympics for swimming, they might as well take the whole regiment." Upon their arrival at Alexandria, 3RTR were ordered to leave their tanks behind and return to the UK to join the newly-formed 11th Armoured Division, which at that time was merely a training division for those who were to go on and join the more established armoured divisions. Initially equipped with Covenators and Valentine tanks, the 11th Armoured Division would be rapidly reequipped with Shermans and Cromwells to bring them into line with the majority of armoured divisions in the in the British Army.

In mid-1944, some of the normal Shermans were replaced by Sherman Firefly tanks, which were armed with the British 17pdr anti-tank gun, which was known to be able to take out the heaviest of German tanks - the Tiger. This was following some of the lessons learned during the North African campaign where it was discovered that the 6pdr gun, which was the primary anti-tank gun at the time, was unable to knock out a Tiger by targeting anything but it's tracks. When the 17pdr was first brought into service, the CIGS (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) received reports that the 17pdr was more than capable of knocking out a Tiger even when targeting the thick frontal armour of the Tiger. Following the Normandy landings, 3RTR, along with the other units that used the Sherman Firefly, were soon painfully aware that the Firefly tanks were being purposefully targeted by the Germans, which lead to the end of the barrels being painted in an attempt to disguise the Firefly as a normal Sherman - an experiment that proved to work surprisingly well. 3RTR would keep their Sherman and Sherman Firefly tanks until January 1945, when they finally took delivery of their long-awaited A34 Comet tanks, the best British Tank of the Second World War. They were scheduled to take delivery of their Comet tanks in December 1944, however, the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes Forest, which started on 17th December 1944, put a stop to those plans. 3RTR, along with the remainder of 29th Armoured Brigade had in fact already handed their Shermans over in preparation to receive Comets when the offensive started, so they weren’t exactly "happy” to have to take their Sherman and Sherman Firefly tanks back so they could repulse the German onslaught.

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3RTR has also got the most unenviable accolade of being the only part of the Royal Tank Regiment to be involved with the liberation of a Concentration Camp. This took place on 12th April 1945, arriving one month too late for the young diarist Anne Frank. It would be 3rd Royal Tanks who would also show that the Comet could fight and win against the fearsome Tiger Tank. In April 1945, a Comet from 1 Troop, A Squadron, 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, fired at and destroyed two Tiger tanks without itself being knocked out. It's commander, who had only just become a tank commander, was awarded the Military Medal for his actions.