1st Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

Mobile Division 1st Armoured Division 1st British Armoured Division
The second variant of the divisional rhinoceros insignia, used from 1942 to 1945
Active	1937–1945
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Armour
Size	9,442–14,964 men c. 350 tanks[a]
Engagements	Battle of France Western Desert Campaign Tunisian Campaign Gothic Line
Commanders
Notable commanders	Herbert Lumsden
Insignia
First divisional insignia adopted

The 1st Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army. It was formed as the Mobile Division on 24 November 1937, after several years of debate on the creation of such a formation. It was then renamed, in April 1939, the 1st Armoured Division. Following the start of the Second World War, in September 1939, subordinate units and formations were withdrawn from the division to reinforce others. Then, in May 1940, the division was deployed to France and then fought in the Battle of France. After several engagements and heavy tank losses, it was forced to withdraw to the UK, in June, during Operation Aerial. In late 1941, the division was sent to North Africa where it took part in the Western Desert campaign, notably fighting at the Battle of Gazala, and the First and the Second Battles of El Alamein.

The division then fought in the Tunisian campaign until the Axis defeat in North Africa in May 1943. It was during this period that it was temporarily renamed the 1st British Armoured Division, to avoid it being confused with the American 1st Armored Division. With the conclusion of fighting in Tunisia, the division remained in North Africa until 1944. In May, it started to move to Italy to fight in the Italian campaign. Between late August and the end of September, the division fought in several engagements as part of the Allied assault on the German Gothic Line. Due to a manpower shortage in the British Army, the division was broken up to provide reinforcements for other formations to keep them at full strength. In October 1944, the division relinquished command of its final troops and ceased to be an operational formation and was disbanded on 11 January 1945.

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