Order of battle for 7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

This article supplements the 7th Armoured Division article by providing order of battle information for the division through various periods of the Second World War as the organization of an armoured division was changed by the War Office. Due to the experience gained in the Middle East these changes were sometimes present in the armoured divisions there before the War Office mandated organization.[1] Parallel changes were made in the organization in the armoured brigades.[2] The Division frequently did not match any organization scheme due to the lack of units in the Middle East.

3 September 1939

Organization I (May 1939) reflected the Infantry tank — Cruiser tank thinking in the British Army.[3]

8 December 1940

Main article: Battle of Sidi Barani

Organization II of April 1940,[3] had homogenised the armoured brigades. Organization III of October 1940 moved infantry into each armoured brigade (not applied) and formed a division reconnaissance regiment of armoured cars.[7]

23 October 1942

Organization IV (February 1942) reorganized divisions into one armoured brigade group and one motorised brigade group, each with attached artillery and engineers. Organization VI (August 1942) was the essentially same as organization V which was applied in the U.K. only, applied in the Middle East two months later. This returned supporting arms to division control, with an increase in all types of artillery.[9] The 7th Armoured Division initially had two Armoured Brigades, of different organizations.[10]

8 September 1943

Organization VII introduced little change, the attachment of a machine gun company to the infantry brigade, and the replacement of armoured cars with tanks in the reconnaissance regiment.[15]

8 June 1944

Main article: Invasion of Normandy

Organization VIII, consolidated the continuing changes in formations, increasing the reconnaissance regiment strength, moving the machine gun company to division troops and adding a bridging troop of engineers.[17]

Other Brigades

These other brigades served with the Division.[19]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Joslen p. 3
  2. ↑ Joslen pp. 137—142
  3. 1 2 Joslen p. 4
  4. 1 2 Joslen p. 158
  5. 1 2 Joslen p. 153
  6. ↑ Joslen p. 218
  7. ↑ Joslen p. 5
  8. ↑ Palmer, Rob. "The Armoured Division (Egypt) 1940" (PDF). British Military History. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Joslen p. 5—7
  10. ↑ Joslen p. 569
  11. ↑ Joslen pp. 153—154
  12. 1 2 3 Joslen p. 168—169
  13. 1 2 3 Joslen p. 316
  14. 1 2 3 Joslen p. 19
  15. ↑ Joslen p. 7
  16. ↑ Palmer, Rob. "7th Armoured Division in Italy" (PDF). British Military History. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  17. ↑ Joslen p. 9
  18. ↑ Palmer, Rob. "7th Armoured Division in North-West Europe" (PDF). British Military History. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  19. ↑ Joslen p. 19
  20. ↑ Joslen p. 144
  21. ↑ Joslen p. 266
  22. ↑ Joslen p. 342

References

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