7th Armoured Brigade (United Kingdom) Bournemouth Barracks in Soltau. The 7th Armoured Brigade returned to the desert when it arrived in Saudi Arabia in October 1990 as part of Operation "Granby", intended to protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The brigade, commanded by Brigadier Patrick Cordingley, later took part in the Coalition of the Gulf War ground campaign to liberate Iraqi-occupied Kuwait on 24 February 1991 that began after a sustained air campaign. The Desert Rats, along with the rest of 1st Armoured Division, carried out a left-hook manoeuvre that swung round the Iraqi Republican Guard. The brigade advanced deep into Iraqi
7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) land and fight in the Italian Campaign during the early stages of the invasion of Italy before being withdrawn to the United Kingdom where it prepared to fight in North-west Europe. It began landing in Normandy during the afternoon of D-Day, 6 June 1944, and fought its way across Europe ending the war in Kiel and Hamburg, Germany. Although the division was disbanded during the 1950s, the history, name and the "Desert Rat" flash is carried on by the 7th Armoured Brigade. When Italian troops were massed for the invasion of Abyssinia in 1935, a Mobile Force was assembled in