| 42nd Armoured Division | |
|---|---|
 42nd Armoured Division insignia | |
| Active | 1 November 1941 – 17 October 1943 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Type | Armoured Division |
| Size | 13,235 men [1] 227 tanks [nb 1] [nb 2] |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Miles Dempsey |
The 42nd Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army raised during the Second World War.
The division was formed in late 1941 by converting the 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division. [3] The 42nd Division was a 1st Line Territorial Army (TA) infantry formation that saw service in the Battle of France and was evacuated at Dunkirk in June 1940. [4] The division was converted on 1 November 1941 into an armoured division. The division's first commander was Major-General Miles C. Dempsey. [3]
However, the division was not posted overseas [5] and its divisional headquarters was disbanded on 17 October 1943; [3] the division's infantry was assigned to the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division and its armour to the 79th Armoured Division. [5]
Two men served as the General Officer Commanding of the 42nd Armoured Division:
On 1 November 1941, the 10th Armoured Brigade was converted from the 125th Infantry Brigade, of three battalions of the Lancashire Fusiliers, and was attached to the 42nd Armoured Division. It comprised the 108 RAC (previously 1/5th Battalion), 109 RAC (1/6th Battalion) and 143 RAC (9th Battalion). On 25 July 1942, the brigade was converted again into the 10th Tank Brigade and finally disbanded on 25 November 1943. The 10th Armoured Brigade did not see active service as a unit and was broken up in late 1943.
In the early days of the Second World War the support group (or Pivot Group as it was sometimes known) was what its name suggested. It provided whatever support the armoured brigades needed to the operation in hand, being able to provide motorised infantry, field artillery, anti-tank artillery or light anti-aircraft artillery as needed.
The 42nd Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army. The division was raised in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force (TF), originally as the East Lancashire Division, and was redesignated as the 42nd Division on 25 May 1915. It was the first TF division to be sent overseas during the First World War. The division fought at Gallipoli, in the Sinai desert and on the Western Front in France and Belgium. Disbanded after the war, it was reformed in the Territorial Army (TA), in the Second World War it served as the 42nd Infantry Division with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and fought in Belgium and France before being evacuated at Dunkirk. The division was later reformed in the United Kingdom and, in November 1941, was converted into the 42nd Armoured Division, which was disbanded in October 1943 without serving overseas. A 2nd Line duplicate formation, the 66th Infantry Division, was created when the Territorials were doubled in both world wars.
The 4th Infantry Division was a regular infantry division of the British Army with a very long history, seeing active service in the Peninsular War and Waterloo Campaign, the Crimean and Boer Wars and both World Wars. It was disbanded after the Second World War and reformed in the 1950s as an armoured formation before being disbanded and reformed again and finally disbanded on 1 January 2012.
The 6th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army, created in September 1940 during the Second World War and re-formed in May 1951 in the UK.
The 10th Armoured Brigade was a short-lived armoured brigade of the British Army in the Second World War. It had been converted in November 1941 from 125th Infantry Brigade, but had never seen action and was disbanded in late 1943.
The 9th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army, raised during the Second World War. It never saw active service during the war as a complete division.
The 10th Armoured Division was an armoured formation of division-size of the British Army, raised during the Second World War and was active from 1941–1944 and after the war from 1956–1957. It was formed from the 1st Cavalry Division, a 1st Line Yeomanry unit of the Territorial Army (TA) which had previously been serving in Palestine. The division was converted from cavalry to armour and redesignated from 1 August 1941.
The 6th Infantry Brigade was a regular infantry brigade of the British Army that was in existence during the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War and later formed part of British Army of the Rhine.
The Reconnaissance Corps, or simply Recce Corps, was a service branch of the British Army, formed during the Second World War, whose units provided reconnaissance for infantry divisions. It was formed from infantry brigade reconnaissance groups on 14 January 1941.
The 125th Brigade was an infantry brigade formation of the British Army that saw active service during both the First and Second World Wars. It was assigned to the 42nd Division and served in the Middle East and later in the trenches of the Western Front in the First World War. In the Second World War the brigade, now redesignated 125th Infantry Brigade, fought in Belgium and France before being evacuated at Dunkirk and was then converted into 10th Armoured Brigade.
The 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps was an armoured regiment of the British Army. Originally raised during World War II as a battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment it was later transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps. It fought in the campaign in North-West Europe, from June 1944 to May 1945.
The 33rd Army Tank Brigade was an armoured brigade formation of the British Army raised during the Second World War.
The 148th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps was an armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps during World War II. It fought in the invasion of Normandy in 1944.
The 107th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (King's Own) (107 RAC) was a tank regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps, raised by the British Army during the Second World War. The regiment served with distinction in North-west Europe from July 1944 to May 1945.
108 Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (The Lancashire Fusiliers) (108 RAC) was an armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps during World War II.
109th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (The Lancashire Fusiliers) (109 RAC) was an armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps during World War II.
The 143rd Regiment Royal Armoured Corps was a short-lived armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps during World War II.
