12th Armoured Brigade Combat Team (United Kingdom)
The 12th Armoured Brigade Combat Team, formerly the 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade, is a regular brigade of the British Army which has been in almost continuous existence since 1899 and now forms part of 3rd Division.
Men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in a trench in front of the Maginot Line, 3 January 1940.
Maj-Gen R.A.P. Clements, the brigade's first commander.
3rd (United Kingdom) Division
The 3rd Division, also known as The Iron Division, is a regular army division of the British Army. It was created in 1809 by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, as part of the Anglo-Portuguese Army, for service in the Peninsular War, and was known as the Fighting 3rd under Sir Thomas Picton during the Napoleonic Wars. The division fought at the Battle of Waterloo, as well as during the Crimean War and the Second Boer War. As a result of bitter fighting in 1916, during the First World War, the division became referred to as the 3rd (Iron) Division, or the Iron Division or Ironsides. During the Second World War, the division fought in the Battle of France including a rearguard action during the Dunkirk Evacuation, and played a prominent role in the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944. The division was to have been part of a proposed Commonwealth Corps, formed for a planned invasion of Japan in 1945–46, and later served in the British Mandate of Palestine. During the Second World War, the insignia became the "pattern of three" — a black triangle trisected by an inverted red triangle.
Men of the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers watching the 7th (Service) Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry marching up to the outpost line, 3rd Division, 11 April 1918.
Men of the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment on exercise wearing snow suits, 4 February 1940.
Troops from the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, 3rd Division, training on the Vickers machine gun at Gondecourt, 21 March 1940.
Gunners of the 20th Anti-Tank Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, haul a 2-pdr anti-tank gun up a steep slope during training at Verwood in Dorset, 22 March 1941.