7th Armoured Division (France) the "7 Division Légère Blindée" (7th Light Armoured Division). It became simply the "7 Division Blindée" (7th Armoured Division) in 1963 when the 8th Motorised Infantry Brigade joined the division. In the 1970s the French Army returned to the idea of smaller, more flexible divisions, the idea which had originally led to the creation of the division. It was selected to test the new ideas, and its 7th Mechanised Brigade did much of the experimental work. With the adoption of the new divisional structure in 1977, the 7th Armoured Division was dissolved and the new 7th Armoured, as well as
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