The 8th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army during the Second World War. It was deployed to Egypt in June 1942 but never operated as a complete formation and was disbanded in January the following year. History The division was sent to North Africa but never saw active service as a complete formation. As the division could not be provided with a lorried infantry brigade, it was broken up and was finally disbanded in Egypt on 1 January 1943. Following the Second Battle of El Alamein a plan was put forth to use the remains of the division as a self-contained pursuit force to dart forward into the German-Italian rear as far as possibly Tobruk, however the plan to use the division was shelved and units in the forward area were used instead. Afterwards, the name of the division was used for the purpose of military deception. Order of Battle The units which formed part of the division included (day/month/year). Worth to note, in the six months the division was in Egypt, it never operated as a complete formation. Order of battle was: 8th Armoured Division Headquarters 8th Armoured Division Signals, Royal Corps of Signals 4/11/40–16/12/42 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry 27/11/40–20/8/42 23rd Armoured Brigade 22/11/40–11/7/42 23rd Armoured Brigade Headquarters 23rd Armoured Brigade Signal Troop, Royal Signals 40th (The King's) Royal Tank Regiment 46th (Liverpool Welsh) Royal Tank Regiment 50th Royal Tank Regiment 1st Battalion, The London Rifle Brigade later 7th Battalion, The Prince Consort's Own (Rifle Brigade) (London Rifle Brigade) 24th Armoured Brigade 22/11/40–10/10/42 then 31/10/42–6/11/42 23rd Armoured Brigade Headquarters 23rd Armoured Brigade Signal Troop, Royal Signals 41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment 45th (Leeds Rifles) Royal Tank Regiment 47th (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment 1st Battalion, The Queen's Westminsters later 11th (Queen's Westminsters) Battalion, The King's Royal Rifle Corps 8th Support Group 7/11/40–23/7/42 8th Support Group Headquarters Detachment 14th Battalion, The Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Regiment (Sherwood Foresters) 5th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (Field) 19/9/42–11/11/42 73rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery 25/9/42–26/10/42 (part of Hammerforce, see above) 56th (East Lancashire) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery 23/7/42–6/11/42 (part of Hammerforce, see above) CRA, 8th Armoured as HQ Hammerforce from 18/10/42–3/11/42 (see below for units) Commander Royal Artillery, 8th Armoured Division (HQ Hammerforce, see above) HQ Commander Royal Artillery CRA Signal Troop, Royal Signals 5th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (Field) 19/9/42–11/11/42 11th (Honourable Artillery Company) Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (Field) 12/8/42–20/8/42 104th