7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) had been planned since that battle. Historian Daniel Taylor is of the opinion that the battle's result provided an excuse and that the sackings took place to "demonstrate that the army command was doing something to counteract the poor public opinion of the conduct of the campaign". Historian and former British Army officer Mungo Melvin has commented approvingly of the 7th Armoured Division's institution of a flexible combined arms structure, which other British armoured divisions did not adopt until after Operation Goodwood. The replacement of the division's GOC, following Normandy, did not change the performance of the division and in
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(United Kingdom) land and fight in the Italian Campaign during the early stages of the invasion of Italy before being withdrawn to the United Kingdom where it prepared to fight in North-west Europe.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