Strength and Organization of the Armies of the British Empire in the Middle East (including Battles of Alamein) and Europe 1942-1943.
From late 1941 until the summer of 1942, the British 8th Army in North Africa fought a series of engagements which revealed serious deficiencies in its preparedness for desert warfare when compared with the German units.
The fighting during the ‘Crusader’ battles in November 1941, for example, had convinced General Auchinleck that the British Armored Division was an unbalanced formation containing too much armour and too little infantry. He therefore reorganized the armored divisions. Auchinleck also reorganized the infantry brigade to achieve a more permanent combination of the constituent arms.
Unfortunately these changes had not been fully implemented when Rommel attacked on 26 May 1942, pushed the 8th Army back and captured Tobruk on 21 June. At Tobruk the Eight Army lost the 2nd South African division together with one Army tank brigade, one British and one Indian Infantry Brigade, which had to surrender.
During the period from November 1941 to August 1942 the British 8th Army had suffered 102,000 battle casualties (of which 49,000 were British) but reinforcements continued to arrive and the Army’s strength rose from 88,000 in January 1942 to 126,000 by May. Amongst 149,800 reinforcements that had arrived in the Middle East between January and August were the British 8th Armored Division, and the 44th and 51st Infantry Divisions.
British Orders of Battle for Middle East, 1 July 1942:
Theatre | Army | Corps | Divisions and Brigades |
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Land Forces CinC MELF (Auchinleck) "Eight Army (Auchinleck) Reserves: 9 Australian Division | 8 Armoured Division" | Army Troops | 50 Division |
XIII Corps (Gott) | 1 Armoured Division |
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7 Armoured Division |
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2 New Zealand Division |
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5 Indian Division |
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XXX Corps (Norrie) | 1 South African Division |
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10 Indian Division |
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Ninth Army (Wilson) in Palestine | 17 Indian Infantry Brigade |
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1 Greek Brigade |
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2 Greek Brigade |
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2 Polish Infantry Brigade |
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Tenth Army (Quinan) in Iraq | 6 Indian Division |
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8 Indian Division |
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31 Indian armoured Division |
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British Troops in Egypt (Stone) | X Corps | 10 Armoured Division |
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29 Indian Infantry Brigade |
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26 Indian Infantry Brigade |
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British Troops in Cyprus | 7 Indian Infantry Brigade |
Tank Strengths and Casualties of Eight Army in July 1942:
Tank type | Valentine | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Strength 30 June, 1942 | 43 | 93 | 63 | 49 | 4 |
in Workshops | 50 | 80 | 90 | 8 | 4 |
Total Eight Army 30 June, 1942 | 93 | 173 | 153 | 57 | 8 |
Reinforcements received 1-25 July | 96 | 168 | - | 248 | 68 |
Battle and Mechanical Casualties 1-24 July | 118 | 196 | 27 | 186 | 67 |
For the El Alamein offensive General Montgomery, the new commander of the 8th Army, was able to deploy three corps with 195,000 men:
British Orders of Battle for El Alamein, 23 October 1942:
Army | Corps | Divisions and Brigades |
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Eight Army (Montgomery | XXX Corps (Leese) | 51 Highland Division |
4 Indian Division |
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9 Australian Division |
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2 New Zealand Division |
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1 South African Division |
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23 Armoured Brigade |
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9 Armoured Brigade |
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XIII Corps (Horrocks) | 7 Armoured Division |
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50 Division |
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44 Division |
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1 Free French Brigade |
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2 Free French Brigade |
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1 Greek Infantry Brigade |
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X Corps (Lumsden) | 1 Armoured Division |
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10 Armoured Division |
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8 Armoured Division |
Equipment of the 8th Army at El Alamein:
Type | Numbers |
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---|---|---|
Tanks | 170 |
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252 |
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216 |
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78 |
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119 |
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Valentine | 194 |
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TOTAL | 1,029 |
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Field and medium guns | 908 |
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2-pounder anti-tank | 554 |
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6-pounder anti-tank | 849 |
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insgesamt | 2,311 |
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Aircrafts | Serviceable | 530 |
TOTAL | 750 |
Basic British Army units in 1942:
Organization | Infantry Division (motorised) | Armoured Division |
---|---|---|
Total units (Middle East and UK in July 1942) | c. 34 (+ 8 beach defence divisions + 19 brigades) | c. 9 (+ c. 3 army tank brigades) |
Infantry brigades | 3 with 2,340 men and 99 officers each | 1 motorised Infantry brigade with three Battalions and one mechanised Infantry Battalion ( 3,120 men and 132 officers) |
Total men | 17,298 | 13,325 |
heavy machine guns | 48 (Vickers) | - |
light machine guns | 819 (Bren) | 475-860 (Bren) |
Mortars | 56 (3in mortars), 162 (2-inch mortars) | 18 (3in mortars), 60 (2-inch mortars) |
Artillery | 72 (25 pounders) | 48 (25 pounders) |
Anti-tank guns | 48 (2 or 6 pounders) | 48 (2 or 6 pounders), 202 with units in UK |
Anti-aircraft guns | 48 (40mm Bofors) | 52-54 (40mm Bofors AA, 26 AA-tanks for units in UK) |
Armoured Cars | 6 | 58-64 (Humber, Marmon-Herrington, Daimler) |
armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) | 256 (Bren Gun Carriers) | 88-151 (last number for units in UK) Bren Gun Carriers |
Tanks | - | |
Vans, trucks, lorries, tractors | 2,158 | 1,460 - 1,468 |
The British and Empire Armies in Great Britain
By the autumn of 1941 there were 27 British, Canadian, and Polish motorized infantry divisions (28 in April 1943) available for the Field Force in Great Britain, each containing a front line strength of approximately 15,500 men. For beach defense eight country divisions had been formed, each with a strength of 10,000 officers and men but equipped with only minimal artillery and transport. In addition to the divisional forces there were seven infantry brigades, four motorized brigade groups incorporating artillery, 12 independent battalions, and eight airfield defense battalions. The need to provide flank protection for the Atlantic sea lanes meant that garrisons had also to be maintained in the Faroes, Iceland (24,000 British troops by October 1941), the Azores, St. Helena, the Falkland Islands, and the West Indies.A major change in the organization of the five Armored Divisions (four in April 1943) occurred in May 1942 when one of the armored brigades in each division was replaced by an infantry brigade. Each of the Armored Divisions in Britain had now a strength of 201 cruiser and 26 anti-aircraft tanks.
The three existing army tank brigades were henceforth normally assigned to infantry divisions replacing one infantry brigade in each division. The fighting complement of a tank brigade was approximately 1,950 officers and men with 178 tanks of which at least 135 were infantry tanks (Valentine, Matilda, Churchill). The 1st, 3rd, 4th, 43rd and 53rd Infantry Divisions each received an army tank brigade during 1942.
References and literature
Krieg der Panzer (Piekalkiewicz)
The Armed Forces of World War II (Andrew Mollo)
Datafile – British Tanks and Formations 1939-45 (Malcom A.Bellis)
World War II – A Statistical Survey (John Ellis)
The Desert War (Andrew Kershaw, Ian Close)
The Unknown Alamein – Crucial Battles of World War 2 (Charles Messenger)
The Tunesian Campaign (Charles Messenger)
British Tanks in N.Africa 1940-42 (Bryan Perrett)
My favorite account of the Desert War is von Mellenthin’s “Panzer Battles”. He was on Rommel’s staff and was later sent to the Eastern Front.
“sometimes when you want to reach for a dream you have to leave something behind”!
Dear sirs
Good day
Please advice the right address to search for injured soldier Mohammed Mahmoud Almack who served in 8th british army in north Africa,world war two.
Attached is the only available document for him.
Thank you
Mr.Saad Almack
Tobruk,Libya
Tel:+218 91 6263670
Tel:+218 94 5549439
Document translation:
********************TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN***************
Soldier:Mohammed Mahmoud ALMACK
This is to certify that above mentioned joined british forces,8th army in Tobruk north Africa from:1940 to Aug.31st 1943 and was given below number:
8876
Rank:soldier
This certificate has been issued for him to be used in due with law
Thank you