7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) November 1943, the division left Italy for the United Kingdom; with the last units arriving on 7 January 1944. The division was re-equipped with the new Cromwell cruiser tanks and in April and May received 36 Sherman Vc Fireflies; enough to organise each troop so that they had a complement of three 75 mm gun Cromwell tanks and a 17 pounder gun Firefly. The Desert Rats were the only British armoured division to use the Cromwell as their main battle tank. The 7th Armoured Division was one of the three British follow-up divisions of the two British assault corps earmarked
8th Armoured Division (South Africa) 8th Armoured Division (South Africa) 8 South African Armoured Division was a formation of the South African Army, active from the 1970s to 1999. 8 South African Division was established as an Armoured Formation on August 1, 1974, consisting of 81 Armoured Brigade, 82 Mechanised Brigade and 84 Motorised Brigade. It was, in many respects, a mirror of 7th South African Infantry Division. A provisional 1977 order of battle had 8 Armoured Division organised as follows: Headquartered in Pretoria, 81 Armoured Brigade consisted of the following units: Headquartered in Potchefstroom, 82 Mechanised Brigade consisted of the following units: During Operation