In 1948, when all British troops left, the division transferred to Tripoli, Libya, which was then under occupation by Anglo-French forces following the conclusion of the Second World War.

In 2003, the division again returned to the Middle East and formed the basis of Operation Telic, the British contribution to the US-led 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

The 1st Division was formed on 18 June 1809 by Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley, commander of British forces in Spain and Portugal, for service during the Peninsular War—part of the Napoleonic Wars.

[9] The division was reformed the following year when the War of the Seventh Coalition began, and it fought at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo.

Detachments were dispatched to take part in the Irish War of Independence, to reinforce the Occupation of Constantinople, and to help oversee the 1935 Saar status referendum.

As part of the general British withdrawal from Palestine, in May 1948, the division relocated to Tripoli, Libya, which at the time was occupied by Anglo-French forces.

Due to a lack of troops in the theatre, engineer and signal personnel from the 1st Infantry Division were sent to join the newly formed formation in Korea.

[33] The 1975 Mason Review, a government white paper, outlined a new defence policy and called for BAOR to be restructured and included the elimination of the brigade level of command.

[40] This approach intended to allow the GOC to tailor his forces to meet unforeseen events and execute the new developed doctrine.

[40] David John Anthony Stone, a historian who wrote about the British Army during the Cold War, said the system was "designed to allow the commander maximum flexibility and [to] take precise account of the operational or tactical task to be achieved".

[26] Starting that year, the first Challenger tanks were provided to the BAOR to replace the Chieftain, and all armoured regiments had converted by the end of the decade.

The invasion sparked international outrage and resulted in the formation of a US-led coalition, which dispatched troops to protect Saudi Arabia.

The invasion coincided with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the subsequent decreased threat from the Soviet Union, and the ending of the Cold War, which facilitated troop withdrawals from Europe for deployment to the Middle East.

A small number joined the vehicles, which were loaded aboard charted merchant ships and took a roughly two-week journey from Germany to the Middle East.

As the force expanded, Lieutenant-General Peter de la Billière, the overall British commander, called for the division to be used in the coming campaign's primary effort and not assigned to what was seen as a secondary role.

In mid-February, alongside VII Corps, the division conducted daily artillery attacks on Iraqi positions across the border.

[49] On 24 February 1991, VII Corps began the ground campaign and US forces breached Iraqi border positions, allowing the 1st Armoured Division to advance, and it entered Iraq the following day.

The capture of territory was not necessarily important so these objectives did not need to be secured as long as Iraqi forces left behind in them had been rendered immobile.

[51][52] During 26 February, the division advanced towards Wadi al Batin, further isolating the Iraqi VII Corps frontline troops.

The 1st Armoured Division was tasked with clearing the highway; moving vehicles off the road, removing unexploded munitions, rounding up scattered Iraqi troops, searching for wounded personnel and providing them with medical treatment, and burying the dead.

[56] Patrick Cordingley, who led the 7th Armoured Brigade during the fighting, said the war "was not the clean, high-technology conflict portrayed by the news media.

The UK government provided no funding to the division to undertake the required desert modifications, such as sand filters, for the tanks, resulting in widespread breakdowns during the exercise.

The rest of the brigade, supported by US Marines, rapidly secured the Rumaila oil field and only seven of the over-1,000 well heads were destroyed by defending Iraqi forces.

US Marines also captured Umm Qasr Port then moved north, leaving the 3rd Commando Brigade to finalise securing the city.

The lead elements reached the outskirts within 24 hours and part of the 16th Air Assault Brigade established a roadblock on the main highway from Basra to Baghdad.

[81] With the initial stage of the conflict over, the division took on security-and-stabilisation responsibilities in their assigned area, which was expanded in April to include Maysan, relieving US Marines.

On 23 June, the Battle of Majar al-Kabir occurred when divisional patrols consisting of members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment and the Royal Military Police were ambushed, leaving six dead.

The final deployment, which coincided with the disbanding of the task force and the British withdrawal from Helmand, was made by the 20th Armoured Brigade between June and December 2014.

[86][87] The Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010 made a commitment to rebase all remaining British forces stationed in Germany and to move them to the UK.

The Adaptable Force was to be based around the 1st Division, and would be responsible for Britain's standing commitments in Brunei, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, public duties, and United Nation peacekeeping, and to support any enduring operations undertaken by the army.