SEVENTH ARMOURED DIVISION October 1938 – May 1943

The 7th Armoured Division is one of the most famous formations that ever served in the British Army. It was formed in the desert of North Africa just before the Second World War. The division fought in most of the major battles of the Western Desert campaign, was then engaged in the Tunisian campaign.

This history of the Desert Rats begins in the spring of 1940 when the 7th Armoured Division was given the task of stemming the Axis advance in North Africa and protecting the vital Suez Canal. The troops adopted the nickname the “Desert Rats” after the badge – depicting a desert creature called a jerboa – which they wore on their shoulders. It was forced to retreat into Egypt and many of its men were surrounded at Tobruk. But they fought back and beat Rommel’s combined German and Italian forces at the battle of El Alamein in October 1942.
As Winston Churchill wrote: “Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.” The Desert Rats pushed the Afrika Korps and their Italian allies west across Libya and Tunisia, winning back the strategic port of Tobruk in the process.