VII Corps (United Kingdom)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| VII Corps | |
|---|---|
| Active | World War II |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Type | Field corps |
VII Corps was formed in the United Kingdom during mid-1940 to control field forces deployed to counter the invasion threat of that year. On 17 July that year it comprised 1st Canadian Division, 1st Armoured Division, and 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (UK), a somewhat oversized brigade based on the second NZ echelon of troops which had been diverted to the UK from Egypt. The Corps was placed under the command of Major General A.G.L. McNaughton. At the time its allotted task was to 'counter-attack and destroy any enemy force invading the counties of Surrey-Kent-Sussex-Hampshire which was not destroyed by the troops of the Eastern and Southern Commands'. It was disbanded in December 1940 when the threat of invasion had somewhat dissipated.
Later in the war it was notionally reactivated for deception purposes as a formation of the British Fourth Army as part of Operation Fortitude North, the threat to invade Norway at the time of the Normandy landings, with headquarters at Dundee. It was composed of the genuine British 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division at Dundee, the notional U.S. 55th Division in Iceland, a Norwegian brigade, and three notional American ranger battalions in Iceland, plus corps troops. It moved south with Fourth Army for Fortitude South II, the continuation of the threat to the Pas de Calais, with headquarters at Folkestone in Kent and consisting of the British 61st and 80th Divisions and 5th Armoured Division, the latter two notional and the 61st a genuine but low-establishment formation. It notionally moved to East Anglia in September, to Yorkshire in December, and was notionally disbanded in January 1945. Its insignia was a scallop shell on a blue ground.
[edit] References and Sources
- W.G. McClymont, To Greece: Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-45, War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand, 1959, p.36
 |
This United Kingdom military article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
