British Armoured formations of World War II In April 1939, the Mobile Division was renamed the 1st Armoured Division and the Mobile Division (Egypt) was named the Armoured Division (Egypt) on the outbreak of war, before being renamed the 7th Armoured Division on 16 February 1940. Following the outbreak of war, the headquarters of the 2nd Armoured Division was activated on 15 December 1939. The first troops, however, were only attached to the division in the following month and then in part from forces released from the 1st Armoured Division following a divisional reorganisation. During 1940, a further three armoured divisions were formed; the 6th Armoured Division
1st Armoured Division (Poland) and then France in 1940, the remaining Poles that had fought in both campaigns retreated with the British Army to the United Kingdom. Stationed in Scotland the Polish 1st Armoured Division was formed as part of the Polish I Corps under Wladyslaw Sikorski, which guarded approximately 200 kilometres of British coast in 1940-1941. The commander of the Division, General Stanislaw Maczek, was Poland’s premier mechanized commander, and many of his subordinate officers from the unit he commanded in 1939, the 10th Mechanized Brigade, had made their way to Britain with him. They were organized on the British Armoured Division model,