7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

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"Desert Rats" redirects here. For other uses, see Desert rat (disambiguation).

Mobile Division (Egypt) / Mobile Division, Egypt
Armoured Division (Egypt)
7th Armoured Division
A red jerboa on a black background
A jerboa had been used on the divisional insignia since early 1940. This variant was adopted in late 1943. The Imperial War Museum stated that due to a miscommunication the design was more akin to a kangaroo rather than intended, and permission was refused to update it.[1]
Active1937–1958
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeArmour
Size9,442–14,964 men
c.  350 tanks[a]
Nickname(s)The Desert Rats
EngagementsWestern Desert campaign
Tunisian campaign
Italian campaign
Invasion of Normandy
Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Percy Hobart
Sir Michael Creagh
William Gott
John Campbell
Frank Messervy
John Harding
George Erskine
Lewis Lyne
Insignia
First divisional insignia adopted c.1940[1]7th armoured division insignia 1944 3000px.png
Second design, adopted prior to the division's deployed to Italy.[1]7th armd div (2).jpg

The 7h Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army. It was formed as the Mobile Division (Egypt) on 27 September 1938, after increased tensions between Britain and the Axis powers. This was part of an effort to reinforce and maintain the British strategic presence in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal, which was seen as vital to the British Empire's interests. In February 1940, the formation was renamed as the 7th Armoured Division. Durings its early years, the Jerboa was adopted as the mascot and divisional insignia giving rise to the nickname Desert Rats.

The division fought in most of the major battles of the Western Desert campaign, was then engaged in the Tunisian campaign, and this was followed by the participation in the Italian campaign. It was then withdrawn from Italy and dispatched to the United Kingdom, to prepared for Operation Overlord. In June 1944, it landed in France and subsequently fought across western Europe and ended the war in Kiel and Hamburg, Germany.

After the war it formed part of the British Army of the Rhine until it was disbanded in the 1950s. The division's history and insignia were carried on by the 7th Armoured Brigade until the brigade was disbanded in 2014.

Background[edit]

Further information: Italian Empire

The Suez Canal, located in Egypt, was seen as a vital throughway of the British Empire linking Britain with its colonial possessions in the east, especially British India. In addition, it held economic and prestigious importance. To maintain this, Egypt was occupied in 1882 and a protectorate was subsequently establishment. During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire came into conflict with the Entente, and the British presence in Egypt was reinforced.[3] Following the conclusion of hostilities and the British victory in the Middle Eastern theatre, Britain intended to maintain a garrison to protect the canal. However, military commitments had to be balanced with economic and geopolitical conditions. From a peak of 400,000 men in 1919, the garrison was reduced to 20,000 in 1921 and included the Cairo Cavalry Brigade.[4][5]

During the inter-war period, the Middle East and the canal gained further importance as oil production expanded, in addition to the development of aerial links between Britain and British India. In 1935, British policy shifted to view Italy as the principle threat towards British interests in the Middle East, following the Italian military build-up and invasion of Ethiopia.[6] This crisis prompted negotiations with Egypt resulting in the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, which confined the majority of the British military to the canal zone, except in emergencies when it could be deployed across Egypt. This saw the rise in the importance of Mersa Matruh, in the Western Desert 170 mi (270 km) west of Alexandria, as it became the location from which the defense of Egypt would be conducted if Italy attacked. A joint declaration on 2 January 1937, by Italy and Britain to maintain the status quo around the Mediterranean, momentarily eased the situation between both countries. However, tensions quickly escalated between both and in early 1938 the garrison in Egypt was authorised to be brought up from its peace time to its wartime establishment. It was envisioned that behind the Mersa Matruh position, a force of one mobile and two infantry divisions could be assembled in the event of war.[7][8][b] During 1938, the political situation escalated in Europe as Germany annexed Austria and then focused on Czechoslovakia. As Italy was closely aligned with Germany, British forces moved to Mersa Matruh and authorization was provided to form a mobile division in Egypt.[10][11]

Formation[edit]

The Mobile Force – initially the "Matruh Mobile Force" – was established on the coast some 120 mi (190 km) west of Alexandria. It was formed from the Cairo Cavalry Brigade and comprised four armoured regiments (the 7th Queen's Own Hussars, the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, the 11th Hussars and the 1st Royal Tank Regiment) and supported by the 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, a company of the Royal Army Service Corps and a Field Ambulance unit.[12]

The Force was equipped with a mixture of vehicles: the Hussar regiments had light tanks, Ford 15-cwt vehicles, and Rolls-Royce armoured cars; 1st Royal Tank Regiment had light tanks and 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery had 3.7-inch Mountain guns and tracked vehicles to tow them.[12]

It was joined by the 1st battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps from Burma and then its first commander, Major-General Percy Hobart. 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.[13][14]

By September 1939 the artillery was equipped with 25-pounder gun-howitzers and 37 mm anti-tank guns[12] and, in December 1939, Major-General Michael O'Moore Creagh took command.[12]

The first divisional commander, Major-General Percy Hobart, found inspiration in the pet jerboa, or "desert rat" of Rea Leakey, then GSO 3 Intelligence. Hobart took to the animal and decided to adopt "The Desert Rats" as a nickname for the division. The shoulder flash was designed by the wife of his successor, Major-General Michael O'Moore Creagh, using a jerboa from Cairo Zoo as a model. The resulting shoulder patches were made of scarlet thread. These were unofficial; the War Office did not adopt the flashes until the summer of 1943 and then redesigned them to look, in the opinion of Leakey, more like a kangaroo than a jerboa. The colour was also changed to black.[15]

Second World War[edit]

North Africa[edit]

The division was meant to be equipped with 220 tanks. However, at the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, the 'Mobile Force' only had 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, which had changed names during the middle of 1939 to be called the Armoured Division,[16] became the 7th Armoured Division.

Light Tank Mk VIs and lorries of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars assembled ready to move off for an exercise in the desert, 5 June 1940.

After the Italian declaration of war, the Western Desert Force, under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor, was massively outnumbered. However, the Italian Army consisted largely of infantry on foot; its artillery dated back to the First World War, it had no armoured cars and a few anti-tank weapons, which were effective only against light and cruiser tanks. As such, it proved to be no match for the British. In Operation Compass the Western Desert Force captured 130,000 Italians as prisoners of war (POWs) between December 1940 and February 1941 in piecemeal battles.[17]

During the Italian retreat in January 1941, Major-General O'Connor 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 7 February, as the tanks were unable to travel fast enough, the manoeuvre was led by an ad hoc brigade of armoured cars, towed artillery and infantry, which completed the trip in 30 hours, that cut off the Italian retreat and destroyed 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 the 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 being replaced in the line by the 2nd Armoured Division.[18]

A 2-pounder anti-tank gun being manned by members of the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own), 24 March 1942.

The Italians had proven so weak that Hitler was forced to send the Afrika Korps, under Erwin Rommel, as reinforcements. In April 1941, the Allied troops in Tobruk were cut off by the Germans and Italians.[19]

On 7 June, the division was again prepared for battle as part of Operation Battleaxe, having received new tanks and additional personnel.[20] In the attack plan for Battleaxe, the 7th force was divided between the Coast Force and Escarpment Force. However, this Allied push failed, and the 7th Armoured Division was forced to withdraw on the third day of fighting.[21] 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 Division. However, the XXX Corps commander, Lieutenant-General Willoughby Norrie, aware that the 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 the 21st Panzer and captured the airfield. Fighting was desperate and gallant: for his actions during these two days of fighting, Brigadier Jock Campbell, commanding the 7th Support Group, was awarded the Victoria Cross. However, the 21st Panzer, despite being considerably weaker in armour, proved superior in its combined arms tactics, pushing the 7th Armoured back with a further 50 tanks lost (mainly from the 22nd Armoured Brigade).[22]

On 27 June 1942, elements of the 7th Armoured Division, along with units of the 3rd The King's Own Hussars, suffered one of the worst friendly fire incidents when they were attacked by a group of Royal Air Force (RAF) Vickers Wellington medium bombers during a two-hour raid near Mersa Matruh, Egypt. Over 359 troops were killed and 560 others were wounded.[23]

The Western Desert Force later became HQ XIII Corps, one of the major parts of the British Eighth Army which, from August 1942 was commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Montgomery. The 7th Armoured Division took part in most of the major battles of the North African Campaign, including both battles of El Alamein (the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942, which stopped the Axis advance, and the Second Battle of El Alamein in October/November 1942, which turned the tide of the war in North Africa).[24]

Infantrymen of the 1/6th Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) marching into Tobruk, Libya, 18 November 1942.

The 7th Armoured Division, now consisting of the 22nd Armoured and 131st Infantry Brigades and commanded by Major General John Harding, fought in many major battles of the Tunisian Campaign, taking part in the Battle of El Agheila in December. By January 1943 the Eighth Army had reached Tripoli where a victory parade was held, with the 7th Armoured Division taking part. Among the witnesses was Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, and General Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS).[25]

The division, now commanded by Major General George Erskine after Harding was severely injured in January, next took part in the Battle of Medenine, followed by the Battle of the Mareth Line in March. In late April, towards the end of the campaign, the 7th Armoured Division was transferred to IX Corps of the British First Army for the assault on Medjez El Bab. The attack was successful, with the 7th Armoured Division competing with the 6th Armoured Division of the First Army in a race to the city of Tunis, with 'B' Squadron of the 11th Hussars being first into the city on the afternoon of 7 May, followed closely by the 22nd Armoured Brigade and the 131st Brigade. The fighting in North Africa came to an end just days later, with almost 250,000 Axis soldiers surrendering to the Allies and becoming POWs.[26]

Italy[edit]

The division was not an assault force in the invasion of Sicily, instead remaining in Homs, Syria for training in amphibious warfare, but did participate in the early stages of the Italian Campaign.[27]

The 7th Armoured Division came ashore at Salerno, on 15 September 1943, to help repel heavy German counterattacks during the Battle for the Salerno beachhead (Operation Avalanche). Shortly after landing on the 18th the 131st (Queen's) Infantry Brigade (which consisted of the 1/5th, 1/6th and 1/7th Territorial battalions of the Queen's Royal Regiment) relieved its 'sister' duplicate, the 169th (Queen's) Infantry Brigade, (consisting of 2/5th, 2/6th and 2/7th Queen's, all formed in 1939), which was part of the 56th (London) Infantry Division, and had been in continuous combat since 9 September. The assembly of six battalions of a single regiment has since been considered a unique moment in the regiment's history.[28] The 169th Brigade was commanded at the time by Brigadier Lewis Lyne, who would later command the 7th Armoured Division from November 1944 onwards.[29]

Then, as part of Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark's U.S. Fifth Army's British X Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Richard McCreery, and supported by the British 46th Infantry Division, it drove 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.[30]

A Sherman tank of the 4th County of London Yeomanry fording the Volturno river at Grazzanise, Italy, 17 October 1943.

On the wishes of the British Eighth Army commander, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, the 7th Armoured Division was recalled to the United Kingdom, along with the 4th and 8th Armoured Brigades, and the 50th (Northumbrian) and 51st (Highland) Infantry Divisions, all of which had seen extensive service alongside the 7th Armoured Division in the Mediterranean and Middle East, to participate in the invasion of North Western Europe with the British Second Army. The 7th Armoured, handing over its battered vehicles and equipment to the recently arrived 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division, left Italy in late December 1943, arriving in Glasgow, Scotland in early January 1944.[31]

North West Europe[edit]

German prisoners being searched by soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) near Tilly-sur-Seulles, Normandy, 13 June 1944.

In November 1943, the division left Italy for the United Kingdom, with the last units arriving on 7 January 1944.[32][33] The division was re-equipped with the new Cromwell cruiser tanks and in April and May received 36 Sherman Vc Fireflies. Each troop now had three 75 mm gun Cromwells and a 17-pounder gun Firefly.[32] The Desert Rats were the only British armoured division to use the Cromwell as their main battle tank.[34]

Major-General Gerald Lloyd-Verney, GOC 7th Armoured Division, enters Ghent in his Staghound armoured car, 8 September 1944.

7th Armoured was assigned to XXX Corps for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. XXX Corps was one of two British corps earmarked for the Normandy landings; 7th Armoured Division was one of the three follow-up divisions of the two corps.[35] The 22nd Armoured Brigade embarked on 4 June, and most of the division landed on Gold Beach by the end of 7 June, a day after the initial landings.[32][36] 7th Armoured 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 and were repulsed.[37] Following the capture of Caen, the division took part in Operation Spring, which was intended to keep the German forces pinned to the British front away from the Americans who were launching Operation Cobra, and then Operation Bluecoat, an attack to support the American break-out and intercept German reinforcements moving to stop it. After the Battle of the Falaise Gap, which saw most of the German Army in Normandy destroyed, the 7th Armoured Division then took part in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine.[38]

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 1944, Major General George Erskine, who commanded of the division since January 1943, Brigadier William Hinde, commanding the 22nd Armoured Brigade, and up to 100 other officers of the division were removed from their positions and reassigned. Erskine was replaced as GOC by Major General Gerald Lloyd-Verney. Historians largely agree that this was a consequence of the "failure" at Villers-Bocage and had been planned since that battle.[39][40][41][42] 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".[41] 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.[43]

The replacement of Erskine in August did not change the performance of the division. In November 1944, GOC Lloyd-Verney was relieved by Major General Lyne, after he "was unable to cure the division's bad habits well enough to satisfy Montgomery and Dempsey".[44] There is almost no doubt that the division was suffering from collective and cumulative battle fatigue. As Lloyd-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."[45] This was not an isolated incident: the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and several other veteran formations Montgomery had brought back from the Mediterranean experienced similar difficulties, although, curiously, not the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, which performed well throughout the Normandy Campaign.[46]

Ram Kangaroo personnel carriers carrying troops of the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry near Weske, 31 March 1945.

Following the advance across France, the division took part in the Allied advance through Belgium and the Netherlands, liberating Ghent on 6 September. The division then took part in the advance to and securing of the River Maas, where the division, now commanded by Major General Lewis Lyne, a highly experienced commander, was slightly reorganized, with many experienced men who had been overseas with the division for five years returning home. In January 1945 the division, with the 8th Armoured Brigade and 155th Infantry Brigade (from the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division) under command, took part in Operation Blackcock to clear the Roer Triangle. The division had a short rest for training in late February. This was followed by Operation Plunder: the 7th Armoured Division crossed the River Rhine near Xanten and Wesel and advanced northeast. On 16 April 1945, the 7th Armoured Division liberated Stalag 11B in Fallingbostel,[47][48] which was the first prisoner-of-war camp to be liberated. The 7th Armoured Division's last action of the war was the battle for the German city of Hamburg.[49]

Cromwell tank with Challenger tank behind of 8th Hussars, 7th Armoured Division, outside Hamburg Dammtor station, 5 May 1945.

In July 1945 the 7th Armoured Division took part in the Berlin Victory Parade of 1945, alongside American, French and Soviet troops. Among the many witnesses of the parade were British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was particularly fond of the division, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) and Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, the 21st Army Group commander.[50]

Post war[edit]

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 and iconic nickname ("Desert Rats") of the division are maintained by 7th Armoured Brigade, which forms part of 1st Armoured Division.[51]

A monument to commemorate the 7th Armoured was erected at Brandon in Thetford Forest where the division trained prior to D-day.[52]

Notable personnel[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

Footnotes

  1. ^ These figures represent the war establishment, the paper strength, of an armoured division. In 1939, an armoured division was to have 9,442 men, close to 400 guns, 351 tanks and about 3,000 vehicles. By 1944, a division was supposed to have 14,964 men, 126 guns, 366 tanks and around 4,000 vehicles.[2] Various organisational changes were introduced throughout the war that changed the composition of armoured divisions. More information can be found at British Army during the Second World War and British armoured formations of the Second World War.
  2. ^ Mobile Division was the initial terminology used, by the British Army, to describe a tank-based force. They would later be known as an armoured division.[9]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c "Badge, formation, 7th Armoured Division". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  2. ^ Joslen 2003, p. 129.
  3. ^ Jeffery 1984, p. 110.
  4. ^ Carver 1954, p. 4.
  5. ^ Hughes 2013, p. 150.
  6. ^ Playfair et al. 2004a, pp. 1–3.
  7. ^ Playfair et al. 2004a, pp. 6–8.
  8. ^ Gibbs 1976, pp. 484–486.
  9. ^ French 2001, p. 37.
  10. ^ Playfair et al. 2004a, pp. 17–19.
  11. ^ Verney 2002, Prologue.
  12. ^ a b c d Forty, George (2014). Desert Rats at War: North Africa. Italy. Northwest Europe. Air Sea Media Services. ISBN 978-0957691520.
  13. ^ Kelly, Saul, The Lost Oasis, p. 121
  14. ^ British and Commonwealth Armoured Formations 1919–1946
  15. ^ Rea Leakey, Leakey’s Luck, paperback edition 2002, pp 23–25n; photographs of original and redesigned flashes between pp. 102–103.
  16. ^ Playfair, Volume I, p. 36
  17. ^ Dupuy (1986), p. 1071
  18. ^ Wavell, Archibald (1946). Operations in the Middle East from 7th February to 15th July 1941. Wavell's Official Despatches. first published in "No. 37638". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 July 1946. pp. 3423–3444., p. 2 (see "No. 38177". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 January 1948. p. 310.)
  19. ^ Playfair Volume II, pp. 35–36
  20. ^ Playfair, Volume II, pp. 1–2, 32, 163–164
  21. ^ Liddell Hart, Basil H.. The Tanks: The History of the Royal Tank Regiment and its Predecessors, Heavy Branch, Machine-Gun Corps, Tank Corps, and Royal Tank Corps, 1914–1945, pg. 90
  22. ^ "CHAPTER 7 – A disastrous Beginning - NZETC". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz.
  23. ^ The Rommel Papers, Liddell-Hart, Basil Henry pp. 238–239 (New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, Javanovich, 1953)
  24. ^ Playfair Volume IV, p.34
  25. ^ "The British Army in North Africa". Imperial War Museum. 4 February 1943. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  26. ^ "The Struggle for North Africa 1940-1943". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  27. ^ "Thomas Campbell RE". The Desert Rats. 1 February 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  28. ^ "The Italian Campaign". The Queen's Royal Surrey Regimental Association. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  29. ^ "Major-General Lewis Owen Lyne CB, DSO". Lancashire Fusiliers. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  30. ^ Bowlby, Alex (1994). Countdown to Cassino: The Battle of Mignano Gap, 1943. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-0850524109.
  31. ^ "Fifth Canadian Armoured Division: Introduction to Battle". Canadian Military History. 23 January 2012. p. 44. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  32. ^ a b c Fortin, p. 4
  33. ^ Delaforce, pp. 1–2
  34. ^ Taylor, p. 6
  35. ^ Ellis, p. 79
  36. ^ Forty, p. 36
  37. ^ Buckley, pp. 23–27
  38. ^ Ellis, Lionel Frederic (1968). Victory in the West: The defeat of Germany Volume 2 of Victory in the West. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 123–27.
  39. ^ Fortin, p. 10
  40. ^ Forty, p. 104
  41. ^ a b Taylor, p. 84
  42. ^ Wilmot, p. 398
  43. ^ Buckley (2006), pp. 28–29
  44. ^ D'Este, Carlo (1983). Decision in Normandy. London: William Collins Sons. p. 286.
  45. ^ D'Este, p. 273
  46. ^ Williams p. 90
  47. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: British Movietone. "FREE! Prisoners of war released by the "Desert Rats" Stalag XIB and 357" – via YouTube.
  48. ^ "16 April 1945: The first POW camp liberated – Fallingbostel". ww2today.com.
  49. ^ Delaforce, Patrick (2015). The Fourth Reich and Operation Eclipse. Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1781554005.
  50. ^ "Winston Churchill in Berlin". Imperial War Museum. 21 July 1945. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  51. ^ "Fact file: 7th Armoured Brigade". BBC. 20 January 2003. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  52. ^ "Desert Rats embark upon final fundraising push for memorial". The Thetford and Brandon Times. 24 June 2021.

References[edit]

  • Carver, Michael (1954). Second to none; the Royal Scots Greys--1919-1945. Glasgow: Royal scot Greys/McCorquodale. OCLC 35423747.
  • Gootzen, Har. Connor, Kevin. "Battle for the Roer Triangle", Creative, 2006. ISBN 978-90-90-21455-9
  • Gibbs, N. H. (1976). Grand Strategy. History of the Second World War. Vol. I. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-116-30181-9.
  • Delaforce, Patrick. Churchill's Desert Rats: From Normandy to Berlin with the 7th Armoured Division, Sutton Publishing, 2003
  • Dupuy, R. Ernest; Dupuy, Trevor N. (1986). The Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. To The Present (2nd revised ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-011139-9.
  • Forty, George. Battle Zone Normandy: Villers Bocage. Sutton Publishing, London, 2004. ISBN 0-7509-3012-8
  • Fortin, Ludovic. British Tanks in Normandy, Histoire & Collections (30 November 2004). ISBN 2-915239-33-9
  • Foster, R.C.G. History of The Queens Royal Regiment: Volume VIII 1924–1948, Gale and Polden, 1953
  • French, David (2001) [2000]. Raising Churchill's Army: The British Army and the War Against Germany 1919–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-199-24630-4.
  • Graham, Andrew Sharpshooters at War, The Sharpshooters Regimental Association, 1964
  • Hughes, Matthew (2013) [1999]. Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East, 1917-1919. Hoboken, New Jersey: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-13632-388-1.
  • Jentz, Thomas L. (1998). Tank Combat in North Africa: The Opening Rounds, Operations Sonnenblume, Brevity, Skorpion and Battleaxe, February 1941 – June 1941. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7643-0226-4.
  • Jeffery, Keith (1984). The British Army and the Crisis of Empire, 1918-22. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-71901-717-9.
  • Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1960]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield, East Sussex: Naval and Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84342-474-1.
  • Joly, Cyril, Take These Men – The campaign of the Desert Rats from 1940 to 1943. Penguin Books, 1956.
  • Kelly, Saul. The Lost Oasis: The Desert War and the Hunt for Zerzura. Westview Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7195-6162-0 (HC)
  • Lindsay, Martin and Johnston, M.E. History of the 7th Armoured Division June 1943 – July 1945 first published by BAOR in 1945, reprinted in 2001 by DP & G for the Tank Museum
  • Mollo, Boris. The Sharpshooters 1900–2000, Kent and Sharpshooters Yeomanry Trust, 2000
  • Neillands, Robin. The Desert Rats : 7th Armoured Division, 1940–45, Aurum Press Ltd (29 August 2005), ISBN 2-913903-13-4
  • Playfair, I. S. O.; et al. (2004a) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Early Successes Against Italy (to May 1941). History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I. London: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84574-065-8.
  • Playfair, I.S.O. (2004) [1956]. The Mediterranean and Middle East Volume 2: The Germans Come to the Help of Their Ally, 1941. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. East Sussex, UK: Naval & Military Press. pp. 406 pages. ISBN 1-84574-066-1.
  • Playfair, I.S.O. (2004) [1960]. The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume 3: British Fortunes Reach Their Lowest Ebb. History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Military Series. Uckfield, UK: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-067-X.
  • Playfair, I.S.O. (2004) [1966]. The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume 4: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa. History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Military Series. Uckfield, UK: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-068-8.
  • Rommel, Erwin (1982) [1953]. B H Liddell Hart (ed.). The Rommel Papers (reprint ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80157-0.
  • Verney, G.L. (2002) [1954]. The Desert Rats: the 7th Armoured Division in World War II. Havertown, Pennsylvania: Greenhill Book. ISBN 978-1-78438-410-4.
  • Williams, E. R. (2007). 50 Div in Normandy: A Critical Analysis of the British 50th (Northumbrian) Division on D-Day and in the Battle of Normandy (MMAS). Fort Leavenworth KS: Army Command and General Staff College. OCLC 832005669. Retrieved 21 May 2014.

External links[edit]

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