8th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

The 8th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army during the Second World War. It was deployed to Egypt in June 1942 but never operated as a complete formation and was disbanded in January the following year.

8th Armoured Division
8th Armoured Division insignia
Active4 November 1940 – 1 January 1943
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeArmoured
SizeDivision, 13,235 men[1]
130+ tanks[nb 1][nb 2]
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Sir Richard McCreery

History
Scout car of the 40th (The King's) Royal Tank Regiment, 8th Armoured Division, at Warren Camp, Crowborough in Sussex, 22 December 1941. The regiment was about to embark for the Middle East, hence the desert camouflage.

The division was sent to North Africa but never saw active service as a complete formation. As the division could not be provided with a lorried infantry brigade, it was broken up and[5] was finally disbanded in Egypt on 1 January 1943.[4]

Following the Second Battle of El Alamein a plan was put forth to use the remains of the division as a self-contained pursuit force to dart forward into the German-Italian rear as far as possibly Tobruk, however the plan to use the division was shelved and units in the forward area were used instead.[6] Afterwards, the name of the division was used for the purpose of military deception.[7]

Order of Battle

The units which formed part of the division included (day/month/year). Worth to note, in the six months the division was in Egypt, it never operated as a complete formation. Order of battle was:[8][9]

Commanders

Commanders of the brigade included:[8]

See also

Notes
Footnotes
  1. The division was initially organised on Basic Organisation No. III (340 tanks) but on arrival in the Middle East was partially reorganised along the lines of Basic Organisation No. IV;[2] depending on the tanks used, resulting in 44 or 48 tanks per regiment at full strength.[3] However, owing to casualties within Middle East Command, the change to Basic Organisation No. IV was never completed.[4]
  2. This is the war establishment, the on-paper strength, of the division for 1942; for information on how divisions changed over the war, please see British Army during the Second World War and British Armoured formations of World War II.
Citations
  1. Joslen, p. 129
  2. Joslen, p. 5, 22
  3. Joslen, p. 140
  4. Joslen, p. 22
  5. Playfair, P. 7
  6. Playfair, pp. 81–82
  7. Thaddeus Holt. The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War. Phoenix. 2005. ISBN 0-7538-1917-1
  8. Joslen, pp. 22.
  9. "8th Armoured Division, 10th Corps, 23.10.42". niehorster.org. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

References
  • Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1990]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield: Naval and Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84342-474-1.
  • Playfair, Major-General I.C.O.; Molony, Brigadier C.J.C.; Flynn R.N., Captain F.C. & Gleave C.B.E., Group Captain T.P. (2004) [1966]. History of the Second World War: The Mediterranean and Middle East, volume 4: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa. United Kingdom Military Series. Uckfield, UK: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-068-8.


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