8th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

8th Armoured Division

8th Armoured Division insignia.
Active 4 November 1940 – 1 January 1943
Country  United Kingdom
Branch  British Army
Type Armoured
Size Division, 13,235 men[1]
130+ tanks[nb 1]
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Sir Richard McCreery

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.

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 shelfed 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]

General Officer Commanding

The division had four officers who held the position of General Officer Commanding, during the Second World War.

Appointed General Officer Commanding
4 November 1940 Brigadier A.G. Kenchington (acting)[4]
14 December 1940 Major General Richard McCreery[4]
15 October 1941 Major-General Charles Norman[4]
24 August 1942 Major-General Charles Gairdner[4]

Component Units

(all brigades stripped away from the division prior to the Second Battle of El Alamein)

23rd Armoured Brigade
24th Armoured Brigade
133rd Infantry Brigade

Support Units

8th Support Group

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]</ref><ref group='nb'>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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Joslen, p. 22
  5. Playfair, P. 7
  6. Playfair, pp. 8182
  7. Thaddeus Holt. The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War. Phoenix. 2005. ISBN 0-7538-1917-1

References

External links

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