Британ армиясының 1-ші зы брондық дивизиясының тарихы

Armoured division of the British Army
the Second World War armoured formation

The 1st (United Kingdom) Division is an active division of the British Army that has been formed and disestablished numerous times between 1809 and the present. In its original incarnation as the 1st Division, it took part in the Peninsular War—part of the Coalition Wars of the Napoleonic Wars—and was disbanded in 1814 but was re formed the following year for service in the War of the Seventh Coalition and fought at the Battle of Waterloo. It remained active as part of the British occupation of France until it was disbanded in 1818, when the British military withdrew. The division was then raised as needed; it served in the Crimean War, the Anglo Zulu War, and the Second Boer War. In 1902, the British Army formed several permanent divisions, which included the 1st Division, which fought in the First World War, made various deployments during the interwar period, and took part in the Second World War when it was known as the 1st Infantry Division. In the post war period, the division was deployed to Mandatory Palestine on internal security operations during the Jewish insurgency. In 1948, when all British troops left, the division transferred to Tripoli, Libya, which was then under occupation by Anglo French forces following the conclusion of the Second World War. With rising tensions in Egypt, the division was moved there to defend the Suez Canal. It remained there until 1955, when it was withdrawn to the UK as Britain removed its military from the area. The stay in the UK was short because there was little need for an additional divisional headquarters, and the division was disbanded on 30 June 1960. The following day, it was reformed in Germany as the 1st Division by the renaming of the 5th Division and served as part of the British Army of the Rhine, and helped pioneer new tactics. On 1 April 1978, the name was again changed when the division was converted into an armoured formation and it became the 1st Armoured Division. The division formed the basis of Operation Granby, the British contribution to the Gulf War in 1991. During a 48 hour period, the formation destroyed 300 Iraqi tanks and captured 7,000 prisoners. It then returned to Germany and was disbanded in 1992 as part of an army restructuring and downsizing that followed the end of the Cold War. In 1993, the formation was reformed when the 4th Armoured Division was redesignated as the 1st (United Kingdom) Armoured Division. It contributed to various peacekeeping operations during the 1990s. In 2003, the division again returned to the Middle East and formed the basis of Operation Telic, the British contribution to the US led 2003 Invasion of Iraq. It rapidly achieved the objectives assigned to it, including the capture of the city of Basra. The division was withdrawn after a few months and southern Iraq came under the control of the Multi National Division (South East). Over the following years, the division was based in Germany and deployed brigades to the multi national division in Iraq. From 2010, the division has undergone several changes following defence reviews and army restructuring progammes. These included Army 2020, Army 2020 Refine, and the Future Soldier programme. As a result, in 2014, the formation was redesignated as the 1st (United Kingdom) Division; with this relabeling, the division transformed from an armoured formation into a light infantry one. The following year, the headquarters moved from Germany to Imphal Barracks, York. It is currently planned for the headquarters to be relocated to Catterick Garrison after 2028. 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team will re subordinate under command of 1st (UK) Division by 2024. A parade is being held on 15 November.

The 1st Division was formed on 18 June 1809 by Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley, commander of British forces in Spain and Portugal, for service during the Peninsular War—part of the Napoleonic Wars. After the conclusion of the War of the Sixth Coalition, the division was broken up in France and its troops dispersed to the UK or were dispatched to North America to take part in the War of 1812. The division was reformed the following year when the War of the Seventh Coalition began, and it fought at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. In the latter battle, the division helped repulse the final attack of the day, which the French Imperial Guard had launched. From September to December 1936, the entire division was deployed to Palestine during the opening stages of the Arab revolt. The majority of its troops were returned to the UK by the end of the year and the remainder returned in 1937. During the Second World War, by which time it was known as the 1st Infantry Division, the formation took part in the Battle of France, the Tunisian campaign, and the Italian campaign. In February 1945, it was transferred from Italy to Palestine and remained there for the final stages of the war. This came shortly after the Egyptian government abrogated the Anglo Egyptian Treaty of 1936, under which British troops were to remain in the canal area. The ensuing political landscape saw increased animosity to the British presence, eventually resulting in an agreement to withdraw. The division departed for the UK in November 1955 and then formed the British Army's strategic reserve. After its return to the UK, the division was used as a source of personnel for formations overseas and was never brought up to full strength. In Germany on 1 July 1960, the 5th Division was redesignated as the 1st Division and the renamed formation took on the 1st Division's lineage and insignia. The division was located at Verden an der Aller, Germany, and formed part of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). On its website in the 2000s, the British Army highlighted the link between the division and Germany, saying: "The Division has existed in the British Army since 1809" and included "one Hanoverian brigade of the King's German Legion. Therefore, since its inception in the 1800s the 1st (UK) Armoured Division has had strong links with this part of Germany." At the end of the 2000s decade, the formation conducted division wide trials using the "square brigade" concept. When they were deemed successful in 1970, all brigades within the BAOR were reorganised accordingly In the late 1960s, new anti tank and defence in depth concepts were developed as fears of a possible surprise attack by the Warsaw Pact grew within the BAOR. Major General Edwin Bramall promoted these new ideas when he took command of the 1st Division in January 1972. Bramall felt there was an over reliance on the arrival of reinforcements to resist an offensive by the Soviet Union rather than the BAOR being able to do so itself. Using the division, the new tactics were refined and were later adopted by the BAOR, and further developed at a higher level in the mid 1970s.

During the 1970s, the UK had to reconcile its decreased resources with its commitments and the increased threat from the Soviet Union. The 1975 Mason Review, a government white paper, outlined a new defence policy and called for BAOR to be restructured and included the elimination of the brigade level of command. This political change allowed the BAOR to restructure based on the anti tank concepts the 1st Division had pioneered. As a result, the BAOR increased to four divisions for the first time since the end of the 1950s, with each division composed of two armoured regiments, three mechanised infantry battalions, and two artillery regiments. On 1 April 1978, the 1st Division was redesignated as the 1st Armoured Division. The division's 7th and the 11th Armoured Brigades became defunct, and were replaced by Task Force Alpha and Task Force Bravo. It was intended the division could form up to five battlegroups, each of which would be commanded by either an armoured regiment or an infantry battalion. These groups were to be formed for a specific task and allocated the required forces. The reforms intended the divisional commander (general officer commanding (GOC)) would oversee these battlegroups but early training showed this to be impractical. To compensate, the divisional headquarters was increased to 750 men (wartime strength) and included two brigadiers. They would each command a flexible task force, which the GOC had formed. This approach intended to allow the GOC to tailor his forces to meet unforeseen events and execute the new developed doctrine. Task forces were not a reintroduction of a brigade command structure and they had no administrative responsibilities. Structuring the division in this manner allowed for an overall reduction of 700 men. David John Anthony Stone, a historian who wrote about the British Army during the Cold War, said the system was "designed to allow the commander maximum flexibility and [to] take precise account of the operational or tactical task to be achieved". In 1981, John Nott, the Secretary of State for Defence in the government elected in 1979, announced the 1981 Defence White Paper which, like the Mason Review, aimed to balance spending on the British military with the nation's financial resources. Nott's paper called for the BAOR to be restructured from four armoured divisions of two brigades into a force of three divisions of three brigades. The intent was to save personnel and money while losing only one divisional headquarters. The task force concept, which had not met expectations, was dropped and the 1st Armoured Division was reorganised in line with Nott's recommendations. It then commanded the 7th, 12th, and 22nd Armoured Brigades. Each brigade contained either two armoured regiments and one mechanised infantry battalion, or two mechanised infantry battalions and one armoured regiment. On 11 November 1983, the divisional insignia was changed. Major General Brian Kenny decided to merge the then current insignia with that used by the Second World War era 1st Armoured Division. The new insignia combined the extant triangle and red outline with a charging rhino motif. Starting in the 1990s, elements of the division were regularly hosted in Poland to conduct training exercises. Between 1992 and 1994, the 1st (British) Corps and the BAOR were disbanded and replaced with the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, a newly formed NATO HQ that was administered by the UK. The division came under its command and was deployed on several peacekeeping operations. In 1995, the Multi National Division (South West) was formed by the British Army, to support peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. Forces were drawn from the 1st (UK) Armoured Division and the 3rd (UK) Division, with each headquarters controlling the division as their forces rotated through the command. This lasted until 1999, when force contributions changed and different commanders were selected from outside either division. Other peacekeeping operations included providing troops to Kosovo Force and the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. Detachments were also deployed to the Falkland Islands and Northern Ireland. With the initial stage of the conflict over, the division took on security and stabilisation responsibilities in their assigned area, which was expanded in April to include Maysan, relieving US Marines. On 23 June, the Battle of Majar al Kabir occurred when divisional patrols consisting of members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment and the Royal Military Police were ambushed, leaving six dead. By May, the majority of the 3rd Commando and 16th Air Assault Brigades had been withdrawn from Iraq. This was followed by the replacement of the 102nd Logistics Brigade with the 101st Logistic Brigade. During June, the 7th Armoured Brigade was replaced with the 19th Mechanised Brigade. On 11 July, the 3rd (UK) Division relieved the divisional headquarters. This was followed by the formation of the Multi National Division (South East), which took command of all Multi National Forces in southern Iraq. The British portion of this force was based around a reinforced brigade, which came from different parent formations and was rotated through several deployments. From November 2003 to April 2004, the 1st (UK) Armoured Division's 20th Armoured Brigade was deployed to Iraq under the oversight of the Multi National Division; the 4th Armoured Brigade was deployed between November 2004–April 2005; the 7th Armoured Brigade was dispatched between October 2005 and May 2006; the 20th Armoured Brigade was again deployed between May and November 2006; the 4th Mechanized Brigade—the renamed and rerolled 4th Armoured Brigade—went to Iraq between December 2007 and June 2008; the 7th Armoured Brigade was deployed between June and December 2008; and the division's final deployment, which the Multi National Division oversaw, was undertaken by the 20th Armoured Brigade between December 2008 and 30 April 2009. This final deployment marked the official end of British combat operations in Iraq, all of which had fallen under Operation Telic.

From 2006 onwards, Task Force Helmand, which was based on a reinforced brigade, was formed to conduct stabilisation and counterinsurgency missions in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Under the oversight of this task force, the division deployed the 20th Armoured Brigade between October 2011 and April 2012. The next deployment came between October 2013 and June 2014, when the 7th Armoured Brigade was sent to Afghanistan. The final deployment, which coincided with the disbanding of the task force and the British withdrawal from Helmand, was made by the 20th Armoured Brigade between June and December 2014.

As with the Gulf War, the division returned to Germany following its time in Iraq and continued to be headquartered at Hereford. While deploying a brigade at a time to Iraq under the oversight of the Multi National Division (South East), the 1st (UK) Armoured Division maintained command over the 4th Armoured Brigade based at Osnabruck, the 7th Armoured Brigade at Bergen, and the 20th Armoured Brigade at Paderborn. Combined with the divisional assets and support personnel, the formation was around 17,000 strong. In 2006, following decisions made in the 2003 Delivering Security in a Changing World white paper, the 4th Armoured Brigade was converted into the 4th Mechanized Brigade, a move that decreased the number of its tank regiments and replaced them with infantry battalions. Two years later, the brigade was moved to England and joined the 3rd Division, which reduced the 1st (UK) Armoured Division to a formation of two brigades. By 2013, the 7th Armoured Brigade had relocated to Hohne. The Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010 made a commitment to rebase all remaining British forces stationed in Germany and to move them to the UK. The review also outlined the Army 2020 plan, which aimed to restructure the army from one optimized for the War in Afghanistan to one that was more flexible. This included establishing a Reaction Force and an Adaptable Force, the former of which was to based around the 3rd Division and would contain the army's tanks. This force would be primed for short notice deployments. The Adaptable Force was to be based around the 1st Division, and would be responsible for Britain's standing commitments in Brunei, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, public duties, and United Nation peacekeeping, and to support any enduring operations undertaken by the army. On 21 July 2014, the division was renamed the 1st (United Kingdom) Division. The redesignation, part of the Army 2020 changes, was the start of the division's restructure from an armoured formation to one that consisted of light infantry, and the start of its role in the Adaptable Force. On 2 June 2015, the divisional headquarters moved from Germany to Imphal Barracks, York. Upon its reorganisation, the division consisted of the 4th Infantry Brigade—previously the 4th Mechanized and the 15th (North East) Brigades—and was based at Catterick Garrison); the 7th infantry Brigade—the previous 7th Armoured Brigade's headquarters merged with the 49th (Eastern) Brigade—and was based at Chetwynd Barracks, Chilwell); the 11th Infantry Brigade at Aldershot Garrison; the 38th (Irish) Brigade at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn; the 42nd Infantry Brigade at Fulwood Barracks, Preston; the 51st Infantry Brigade at Redford Barracks, Edinburgh; the 102nd Logistic Brigade at Prince William of Gloucester Barracks, Grantham; and the 160th Infantry Brigade at The Barracks, Brecon. Further changes occurred following the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, resulting in Army 2020 Refine, which was implemented in 2019. The division then consisted of the 4th, 7th, 11th, and 51st Infantry Brigades, as well as the 2nd Medical Brigade at Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Strensall; 8th Engineer Brigade at Gibraltar Barracks, Minley; the 102nd Logistical Brigade; and the 104th Logistical Brigade at Duke of Gloucester Barracks, South Cerney. The role of the division was also expanded to "provide more strategic choice and a range of capabilities, conducting capacity building, stabilisation operations, disaster relief and UK resilience operations".