Discover

(Redirected from 11th Armoured Division)

The '11th Armoured Division', known as 'The Black Bull', was a British Army division formed in 1941, during World War II.

Contents

History

Commanders

Battles

Component Units

British 29th Armoured Brigade

British 159th Infantry Brigade

Support Units

References

External links

Notes

History

It was one of the most famous British armoured divisions of the war, known mainly for its role in the battles of Northwestern Europe in 1944-45. It was nicknamed 'The Black Bull' after its insignia.
In July 1944, soon after the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944), the British 11th Armoured Division broke out of the Normandy beachhead and advanced into France, before turning northward to Belgium as part of Operations Epsom and Goodwood in Normandy. They also participated in the "swan" to Amiens. On September 4, 1944, the unit captured the city of Antwerp in Operation Market Garden and participated in the Ardennes.
Soon thereafter, the 11th Armoured Division pushed forward into the German-occupied Netherlands. In March 1945, it crossed the Rhine River, and by the end of the war had advanced to the northeast and captured the German city of Lübeck.
As it drove into Germany, the 11th Armoured Division occupied the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945, pursuant to an April 12 agreement with the retreating Germans to surrender the camp peacefully. When the 11th Armoured Division entered the camp, they found more than 60,000 emaciated and ill prisoners in desperate need if medical attention. More than 13,000 corpses in various stages of decomposition lay littered around the camp.
The Division was reformed in the autumn of 1950, but then was converted into the 4th Infantry Division in 1956.

Commanders

★ Major General Percy Hobart

★ Major General C.F. Keightley

★ Major General M.B. Burrows

★ Major General G.P.B 'Pip' Roberts

Battles

★ Battle of Normandy

★ [http://www.memorial-montormel.org/?id=50 [Battle of the Falaise pocket]]

★ Operation Market Garden

★ Invasion of Germany

Component Units

(On 6 June 1944)

British 29th Armoured Brigade

Main articles: British 29th Armoured Brigade


★ 3rd Royal Tank Regiment

★ 23rd Hussars

★ 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry

★ 8th Bn. The Rifle Brigade

British 159th Infantry Brigade

Main articles: British 159th Infantry Brigade


★ 4th Bn, The King's Shropshire Light Infantry

★ 1st Bn, The Herefordshire Regiment

★ 3rd Bn, The Monmouthshire Regiment

Support Units

★ 2nd The Northamptonshire Yeomanry

★ 13th (H.A.C) Regt. Royal Horse Artillery

★ 151st (Ayrshire Yeomanry) Field Regt. Royal Artillery

★ 75th Anti-Tank Regt. Royal Artillery

★ 58th (Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders) Light Anti-Aircraft Regt. Royal Artillery

★ 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars

References

★ The Black Bull: From Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division, , Patrick, Delaforce, , ,

External links

★ 'History of the Taurus Pursuant on memorial-montormel.org'

★

★ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - The 11th Armoured Division (Great Britain)

Notes

:''This article incorporates text from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has been released under the GFDL.''