8th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

8th Armoured Division
Active 4 November 1940-1 January 1943
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
Type Armoured division
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Maj.Gen.Sir Richard McCreery

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

Contents

[edit] 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 [1]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 [2].

[edit] Commanders

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

[edit] Component Units

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

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

[edit] Support Units

8th Support Group

[edit] Sources

  • Playfair, Major-General I.C.O.; Brigadier C.J.C Molony, Captain F.C. Flynn, R.N. and Group Captain T.P. Gleave, C.B.E. [1966] (2004). 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. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Playfair, Pg7
  2. ^ Playfair, Pg81-82
United Kingdom military stub This United Kingdom military article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
  This article about a specific military unit is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.