3rd (United Kingdom) Division

  • 3rd Division
  • 3rd Infantry Division
  • 3rd Armoured Division
  • 3rd (United Kingdom) Mechanised Division
  • 3rd (United Kingdom) Division
Active18 June 1809 - present
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeArmoured Infantry
Part ofField Army
Garrison/HQBulford Camp, Wiltshire
Nickname(s)1810–1814: Fighting 3rd
From 1916: The Iron Division, Ironsides, or Iron Sides
EngagementsNapoleonic Wars
Crimean War
Second Boer War
First World War
Second World War
Palestine Emergency
Gulf War
Iraq War
WebsiteOfficial website
Commanders
Current
commander
James Martin
Insignia
c. First World War

The 3rd (United Kingdom) 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 (now known as the 3rd Infantry 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.

  1. ^ Cole p. 36