Order of battle for 7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) Order of battle for 7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) This article supplements the 7th Armoured Division article by providing order of battle information for the division through various periods of the Second World War as the organization of an armoured division was changed by the War Office. Due to the experience gained in the Middle East these changes were sometimes present in the armoured divisions there before the War Office mandated organization. Parallel changes were made in the organization in the armoured brigades. The Division frequently did not match any organization scheme due to the lack of units in the
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(United Kingdom) land and fight in the Italian Campaign during the early stages of the invasion of Italy before being withdrawn to the United Kingdom where it prepared to fight in North-west Europe.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