7th Armoured Division (France) 7th Armoured Division (France) The 7th Armoured Division () was an armoured division of the French Army. The division was active during the Cold War and some time after the fall of the Berlin Wall, before being disbanded. Its traditions were carried on by the 7th Armoured Brigade. The division was created in 1955 as the "7 Division Mecanique Rapide" (7th Fast Mechanised Division), commanded by General François Huet and based in Germany. It was an experimental formation of the French Army and served to test of new structures and tactics for the expected nuclear battlefield and also new weapons,
7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) to the Rhine. The division's performance in Normandy and the rest of France has been called into question and it has been claimed they did not match those of its earlier campaigns. In early August 1944, Major General George Erskine, the division's GOC, who had been in command of the division since January 1943, Brigadier William Hinde, commanding the 22nd Armoured Brigade, and up to 100 other officers of the division were removed from their positions and reassigned. Erskine was replaced by Major General Gerald Lloyd-Verney. Historians largely agree that this was a consequence of the "failure" at Villers-Bocage and