8th Armoured Division (South Africa)

8 South African Armoured Division
Active 1974-1997
Country  South Africa
Branch South African Army
Type Armour
Size Division
Insignia
SADF 8th Armour Division beret badge
SADF 8th Armoured Division beret bar
SADF 8th Armoured Division flag

8 South African Armoured Division was a formation of the South African Army, active from the 1970s to 1999.

History

8 SA Division was established as an armoured formation on August 1, 1974, consisting of 81 Armoured Brigade, 82 Mechanised Brigade and 84 Motorised Brigade. It was, in many respects, a mirror of 7 South African Division.

A provisional 1977 order of battle had 8 South African Armoured Division organised as follows: [1]

Divisional Breakdown

SADF Organigram 8th SA Armoured Division


SADF 8 Division Command structure

Brigades

81 Armoured Brigade

81 Armoured Brigade consisted of the following units:

SADF 81 Brigade

82 Mechanised Brigade

82 Mechanised Brigade consisted of the following units:

SADF 82 brigade

83 Mechanised Brigade

83 Mechanised Brigade consisted of the following units

SADF 83 Brigade

84 Motorised Brigade


84 Motorised Brigade consisted of the following units

SADF 84 brigade


By 1985, 8 SA Division however consisted of 81 Armoured Brigade, 84 Motorised Brigade and 72 Motorised Brigade. 82 Mechanised Brigade was under command of 7 South African Division.

SADF 8th Armoured Division Artillery unit flashes Transvaal and 26th Field
SADF 8th Armoured 19th Provost Unit Flash

8th Armoured Division also consisted of the following diverse units:

Artillery

18 Locating Regiment,

Light Anti-aircraft

18 Anti-aircraft Regiment (35mm), 28 Anti-aircraft Regiment (20mm),

Medium Artillery

18 Medium Regiment,

Engineers

18 Field Squadron, 18 Engineer Support Regiment,

Armour

18 Tank Regiment, 18 Forward Delivery Squadron,

Signals

18 Signals Group

Maintenance

18 Maintenance Unit, 18 Field Workshop,

Medical

18 Mobile Hospital, 18 Field Ambulance Unit,

Military Police

18 Provost Company,

Recce

8 Combat Reconnaissance Brigade, 81 Armoured Car Regiment, 82 Armoured Car Regiment, 83 Armoured Car Regiment,

Disbanding

8 SA Division’s Brigades were disbanded in 1992 and the battalions and regiments came to answer directly to the divisional headquarters - the thinking was that these would be grouped into task forces as required. The concept was never put to a serious test. The formation was also renamed 8 SA Division. The Division was effectively disbanded on April 1, 1997, when its former units became part of 7 South African Division as 74 Brigade.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.