How many armored divisions did the Allies have at the beginning of World War II?

The Allies (namely Great Britain, France and Poland in 1939) did not have any (zero) armored divisions at the beginning of World War II. The index of military strength in September 1939 was the number of divisions that each nation could mobilize.

Against Germany’s 100 infantry divisions and six armored divisions, France had 90 infantry divisions in metropolitan France, Great Britain had 10 infantry divisions, and Poland had 30 infantry divisions, 12 cavalry brigades, and one armored brigade (Poland also had 30 reserve infantry divisions, but these could not be mobilized quickly). A division contained from 12,000 to 25,000 men. And, again, although the Allies did have a large number of tanks, they had no armored divisions at the start of the war.

More Info: history-world.org

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17 Comments

Richard S

Were Britain not part of the Allies? They had two armoured divisions in September 1939. Obviously spelt in English rather than American so not found! Poorly researched answer, should be changed.

John Moore

Britain had two armoured divisions at the outbreak of WWII. So why is the answer supposed to be zero?

Grant McIntosh

Germany had six armoured divisions in September 1939; the Allies, though they had a large number of tanks, had no armoured divisions at that time. The six armoured, or panzer, divisions of the Wehrmacht comprised some 2,400 tanks. And though Germany would subsequently expand its tank forces during the first years of the war, it was not the number of tanks that Germany had (the Allies had almost as many in September 1939) but the fact of their being organized into divisions and operated as such that was to prove decisive.

David Ching

David Hill, No. Like UK they had a Brigade - 3 Brigades to a Division, Germany had 6 divisions.

lls

Richard Spedding, That's what I thought!

Karin Johansson

Jennifer Dyster, no

Karin Johansson

Richard S, they had Brigades. Not the same.

Dog001

You can really trust the source, when the link above takes you to a casino type of gambling website. Checked: Jan 27, 2022. history-world.org no longer exists.

JohnnyRoulette

I’m reading the comments saying Great Britain had 2 divisions. So I looked into it a little, and found this… “A division contained from 12,000 to 25,000 men.” Did theirs meet that criteria? I don’t know the answer. Just curious.