Order of battle for 7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)

This article supplements the 7th Armoured Division article by providing order of battle information for the division through various periods of the Second World War as the organization of an armoured division was changed by the War Office. Due to the experience gained in the Middle East these changes were sometimes present in the armoured divisions there before the War Office mandated organization. Parallel changes were made in the organization in the armoured brigades. The Division frequently did not match any organization scheme due to the lack of units in the Middle East.
3 September 1939.
Organization I (May 1939) reflected the Infantry tank — Cruiser tank thinking in the British Army.
8 December 1940.
Organization II of April 1940, had homogenised the armoured brigades. Organization III of October 1940 moved infantry into each armoured brigade (not applied) and formed a division reconnaissance regiment of armoured cars.
23 October 1942.
Organization IV (February 1942) reorganized divisions into one armoured brigade group and one motorised brigade group, each with attached artillery and engineers. Organization VI (August 1942) was the essentially same as organization V which was applied in the U.K. only, applied in the Middle East two months later. This returned supporting arms to division control, with an increase in all types of artillery. The 7th Armoured Division initially had two Armoured Brigades, of different organizations.
8 September 1943.
Organization VII introduced little change, the attachment of a machine gun company to the infantry brigade, and the replacement of armoured cars with tanks in the reconnaissance regiment.
8 June 1944.
Organization VIII, consolidated the continuing changes in formations, increasing the reconnaissance regiment strength, moving the machine gun company to division troops and adding a bridging troop of engineers.
Other Brigades.
These other brigades served with the Division.