8th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 8th Armoured Division


caption=
dates=4 November 1940-1 January 1943
country= United Kingdom
allegiance=
branch= British Army
type=Armoured division
role=
size=
command_structure=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname=
patron=
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=
notable_commanders= Maj.Gen.Sir Richard McCreery
anniversaries=

The 8th Armoured Division was a British Army formation in the World War II.

History

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 [Playfair, Pg7] was finally disbanded in Egypt on 1 January 1943.

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 [Playfair, Pg81-82] .

Commanders

* Brig. A.G. Kenchington
* Maj. Gen. Sir Richard McCreery
* Maj. Gen. C.W. Norman
* Maj. Gen. C.H. Gairdner

Component Units

(all brigades stripped away from the division prioir to the Second Battle of El Alamein);23rd Armoured Brigade
* 40th Royal Tank Regiment
* 46th Royal Tank Regiment
* 50th Royal Tank Regiment
* 7th The Rifle Brigade

;24th Armoured Brigade
*41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment
*45th Royal Tank Regiment
*47th Royal Tank Regiment
* 11th The King's Royal Rifle Corps

;133rd Infantry Brigade
* 2nd Bn, The Royal Sussex Regiment
* 4th Bn, The Royal Sussex Regiment
* 5th Bn, The Royal Sussex Regiment

upport Units

;8th Support Group
* 14th The Sherwood Foresters
* 2nd The Derbyshire Yeomanry
* 5th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery
* 11th (HAC) Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery
* 104th (Essex Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery
* 146th (Pembroke and Cardiganshire) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery

ources

*

External links

*
* [http://www.unithistories.com/units_british/units_british.html History]

Footnotes