7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) division, with the 8th Armoured and 155th Infantry Brigades (from the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division) under command, took part in Operation Blackcock to clear the Roer Triangle. The division had a short rest for training in late February. This was followed by Operation Plunder; the 7th Armoured Division crossed the River Rhine near Xanten and Wesel and advanced on the German city of Hamburg as its destination, as part of the Western Allied invasion of Germany, where the division ended the war. On 16 April 1945, the 7th Armoured Division liberated Stalag 11B in Fallingbostel, which was the first prisoner-of-war
7th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht) sea, leaving what was left of its heavy equipment behind each time. After fighting defensively across Prussia and northern Germany, the surviving men escaped into the forest and surrendered to the British army northwest of Berlin in May 1945. Following the completion of the invasion of Poland, the limited effectiveness of the light divisions caused the German High Command to order the reorganization of the four light divisions into full panzer divisions. In October 1939, the 2nd Light Division became the 7th Panzer Division, one of Germany's ten armoured divisions. It consisted of 218 tanks in three battalions, with two