7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) had fallen foul of his superiors. The division was meant to be equipped with 220 tanks. However, at the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, the 'Mobile Force' only had 65. Most of the unit's troops had already been deployed for two years by 1940 and it took as long as three months for mail to arrive. On 16 February 1940, the Mobile Division, which had changed names during the middle of 1939 to be called the Armoured Division, became the 7th Armoured Division. After the Italian declaration of war, the Western Desert Force, under the command
1st Armoured Division (India) Lorried Infantry Brigade away with the Punjab Boundary Force. The wartime 255th Indian Tank Brigade had previously been redesignated in June 1946 as 1st Armoured Brigade and assigned to 1st Armoured Division. The division played a major role in Operation Polo, the integration of Hyderabad into the Indian Union in 1948. During this time Major General Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri was serving as the division's commander, and he served as Military Governor of the state in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. For the Hyderabad operation, the division controlled the 1st Armoured Brigade and the 7th and 9th Infantry Brigades. The