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3rd Mechanised Division (United Kingdom)

3rd Division
3rd Infantry Division
3rd Mechanised Division
3rd (United Kingdom) Division
British 3rd Infantry Division2.svg
Insignia of the 3rd Division
Active Since 18 June 1809
Country  United Kingdom
Branch Flag of the British Army.svg British Army
Type Armoured Infantry
Size Three Brigades
Part of Land Forces
Garrison/HQ Bulford Camp, Wiltshire
Nickname(s) Iron Sides
Engagements Napoleonic Wars
Battle of Sabugal
Battle of Orthez
Battle of Nivelle
Battle of Fuentes de Onoro
Battle of Badajoz (1812)
Battle of Vitoria
Battle of Bussaco
Battle of the Pyrenees
Battle of Quatre Bras
Battle of Waterloo
Crimean War
Battle of Alma
Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)
Second Boer War
First World War
Battle of Mons
Battle of the Somme
Battle of the Ancre
Battle of Delville Wood
Battle of Arras 1917
Second World War
Battle of Belgium
Battle of France
Normandy landings
Battle of Normandy
Operation Market Garden
Overloon and Venray
Reichswald
Rhine crossing
Bremen
Commanders
Current
commander
Major-General Nick Borton
Notable
commanders
Thomas Picton
Charles Alten
Hubert Hamilton
Bernard Montgomery
William Ramsden

The 3rd (United Kingdom) Division, known at various times as the Iron Division, 3rd (Iron) Division, Monty's Iron Sides or as Iron Sides; 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 is also sometimes referred to as the Iron Division, a nickname earned during the bitter fighting of 1916, during the First World War. The division's other battle honours include: the Battle of Waterloo, the Crimean War, the Second Boer War, the Battle of France (1940) and D-Day landings of 6 June 1944. It was commanded for a time, during the Second World War, by Bernard Montgomery. 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, created by Bernard Montgomery to instil pride in his troops.

The division was part of the Allied British and Portuguese forces that took part in the Peninsular War and fought in the Battle of Sabugal, Battle of Orthez, Siege of Badajoz (1812), Battle of Salamanca, Battle of Nivelle, Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, Battle of Vitoria, Battle of Bussaco and the Battle of the Pyrenees


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Wikipedia

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