The 7th Armoured Division was a British armoured division which saw service during the Second World War where its exploits made it famous as the Desert Rats.
After the Munich Crisis, the division was formed in Egypt during 1938 as the Mobile Division (Egypt) and its first divisional commander was the acclaimed tank theorist Major-General Sir Percy Hobart. During January 1940, the name of the unit was changed to the 7th Armoured Division. It was during this period that the nickname "Desert Rats" was coined.
The division fought in every major battle during the North African Campaign; later it would land and fight in Italy before being withdrawn to the United Kingdom where it prepared to fight in North West Europe.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 June 6 and fought its way across Europe ending the war in Kiel and Hamburg, Germany. The 7th Armoured Brigade was detached from the division during early 1942 and fought the Japanese during the fighting in Burma before it returned to the Mediterranean Theatre and fought in Italy. Although the division was disbanded during the 1950s, the history, name and the famous 'Desert Rat' flash is carried on by the 7th Armoured Brigade.
Founding
After the Munich Crisis, elements of what would become the 7th Armoured Division arrived in the Middle East in 1938 to increase British strength in Egypt.
The 'Mobile Force' was established on the coast some 120 miles (190 km) west of Alexandria. It was formed from the Cairo Cavalry Brigade (three armoured regiments, the 7th Hussars, the 8th Hussars, and 11th Hussars) and the 1st Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) supported by 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) and a company of Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and a Field Ambulance unit. It was joined by a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps and then its first commander, Major-General Percy Hobart later "creator" of the Funnies of the Normandy Invasion. Hobart was an armoured warfare expert and saw that his troops were properly prepared to fight in the desert despite their poor equipment. Stewart Henry Perowne, the Public Relations Attaché at the British Embassy in Baghdad perhaps uncharitably referred to the unit as the "Mobile Farce" because it included some obsolete tanks like the Vickers Medium Mark II.
North Africa
In December 1939, Major-General Sir Michael O'Moore Creagh succeeded Hobart who had fallen afoul of his superiors.
The unit was meant to be equipped with 220 tanks. However, at the outbreak of war the 'Mobile Force' had only 65. Most of the unit's troops had already been deployed for two years by 1940 and it took as long as three months for mail to arrive.
On 16 February 1940, the Mobile Division became the 7th Armoured Division. The Desert Rat divisional flash was adopted about the same time. It originated from a sketch of a jerboa drawn by the divisional commander's wife after a visit to the Cairo Zoo.
After the Italian declaration of war, the Western Desert Force was massively outnumbered. However, the Italians proved to be no match for the British. The Western Desert Force captured 250,000 Italians in the early engagements in 1940.
During the January 1941 Italian retreat, Major-General Richard O'Connor, the Western Desert Force commander, ordered the Desert Rats to travel south of the Jebel Akhdar and cut off the Italian forces at Beda Fomm, while Australian forces pushed the Italians west. On February 7, as the tanks were unable to travel fast enough, the manoeuvre was led by an ad hoc brigade of trucks, towed artillery and infantry which completed the trip in 30 hours, cutting off the Italian retreat and destroying the Italian Tenth Army. Lieutenant-Colonel John Combe led this ad hoc group which was known as "Combe Force" after him. After this, the tanks of 7th Armoured Division, after eight months of fighting, needed a complete overhaul and the division was withdrawn to Cairo and temporarily ceased to be available as a fighting formation.
The Italians had proved so weak that Hitler was forced to send the Afrika Korps as reinforcements under the command of General Erwin Rommel. In April 1941, the allied troops in Tobruk were cut off by the Germans and Italians. In June the 7th was again prepared for battle as part of Operation Battleaxe having received new tanks and additional personnel. In the attack plan for Operation Battleaxe, the 7th force was divided between the Coast Force and Escarpment Force. However, this Allied push failed, and the 7th was forced to withdraw on the third day of fighting. On 18 November, as part of Operation Crusader the whole of the 7th Armoured Division was concentrated on breaking through. They faced only the weakened 21st Panzer. However, XXX Corps commander Norrie, aware that 7th Armoured division was down to 200 tanks decided on caution. During the wait, in the early afternoon of 22 November Rommel attacked Sidi Rezegh with 21st Panzer and captured the airfield. Fighting was desperate and gallant: for his actions during these two days of fighting Brigadier Jock Campbell, commanding 7th Support Group, was awarded the Victoria Cross. However, 21st Panzer, despite being considerably weaker in armour, proved superior in its combined arms tactics, pushing 7th Armoured Division back with a further 50 tanks lost (mainly from 22nd Brigade).
The Western Desert Force later became HQ XIII Corps, one of the major parts of Eighth Army. The 7th Armoured Division took part in most of the major battles of the North African Campaign, including both Battles of El Alamein (see First Battle of El Alamein and Second Battle of El Alamein for details). It also participated in the destruction of Axis forces in North Africa in Tunisia in 1943.
Italy
The division was not an assault force in the invasion of Sicily but did participate in the battle for Italy. It came ashore at Salerno on 15 September 1943, to help repel heavy German counterattacks, then as part of U.S. Fifth Army's British X Corps and supported by the 46th (North Midland) Division, drive on and took Naples. The Desert Rats, used to fighting in the desert, had to adjust to the confined Italian roads. The division crossed the river Volturno in southern Italy, constructing a pontoon bridge. This paved the way for many divisions heading north.
North West Europe
The division departed Italy from November 1943, the last of the division arrived in the United Kingdom on 7 January 1944. The division was reequipped with Cromwell tanks and in April and May received delivery of 36 Sherman Vc Fireflies; enough to organise each troop so that they had a complement of three Cromwell tanks and a Firefly. 7th Armoured was the only British division to use the Cromwell as their main battle tank.The division was one of the three British follow-up divisions of the two British assault Corps earmarked for the Normandy Landings. The 22nd Armoured Brigade embarked on 4 June and most of the division landed on Gold Beach by the end of 7 June. The division initially took part in Operation Perch and Operation Goodwood, two operations that formed part of the Battle for Caen. During Perch the division was to spearhead one arm of a pincer attack to capture the city. Due to a change in plan elements of the division engaged tanks of the Panzer-Lehr-Division and the Heavy SS-Panzer Battalion 101 in the Battle of Villers-Bocage. Following the capture of Caen the division took part in Operation Spring, intended to keep German forces pinned to the British front away from the Americans who were launching Operation CobraOperation Bluecoat, an attack to support the American breakout and intercept German reinforcements moving to stop it. The division then took part in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine. and then
The division's performance in Normandy and the rest of France, has been called into question and it has been claimed they did not match those of its earlier campaigns. In early August Erskine the division's commander, the armoured brigade commanding officer, Hinde and up to 100 other officers were removed from their positions and reassigned. Historians largely agree that this was a consequence of the "failure" at Villers-Bocage and 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 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.
Following the advance across France, the division took part in the Allied advance through Belgium and the Netherlands; liberating Ghent on 5 September. The division then took part in the advance to and securing of the River Maas. In January 1945 the division took part in Operation Blackcock to clear the Roer Triangle, followed by Operation Plunder; the division crossed the Xanten and Wesel rivers and advance on the city of Hamburg its destination, part of the Western Allied invasion of Germany.
The replacement of the division's commanding officer, following Normandy, did not change the performance of the division and in November 1944, Erskine's replacement Major-General G.L. Verney was relieved after he "was unable to cure the division's bad habits well enough to satisfy Montgomery and [Lieutenant-General Miles] Dempsey."
No doubt the division suffered from collective and cumulative battle fatigue. As Verney put it, with some prescience: "There is no doubt that familiarity with war does not make one more courageous. One becomes cunning and from cunning to cowardice is but a short step."
Post war
The Division remained in Germany as part of the occupation forces and then into the 1950s as part of the British Army of the Rhine standing watch against the Warsaw Pact. As the British Army became smaller, its higher numbered divisions were removed from the order of battle. The Division's long and illustrious career finally came to an end in this fashion, in April 1958, when it was converted into 5th Division. However, the traditions of 7th Armoured Division are maintained by 7th Armoured Brigade, which forms part of 1 (UK) Division.
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