The
Home Counties Division was an
infantry division of the
Territorial Force, part of the
British Army, that was raised in
1908. As the name suggests, the division recruited in the
Home Counties, particularly Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex.
At the outbreak of
WW1 it accepted liability for overseas service and was posted to
India in 1914 to relieve
Regular Army units for service on the
Western Front. On arrival in India it was effectively broken up so did not see active service as a complete formation. However, most of its constituent units did serve in active
theatres, notably
Mesopotamia from 1915 and in the
Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919.
Reformed in the
Territorial Army (TA) in 1920 as the
44th (Home Counties) Division, the division saw active service in the
WW2 in
Belgium,
France and
North Africa (notably in the
Battle of El Alamein) before again being
disbanded in 1943. Once again, its component units continued to serve, in North Africa,
Italy,
North-West Europe, and
Burma.
The division, as the
44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division (
Major-General Edmund Osborne), was mobilised on
3 September 1939 on the outbreak of the
WW2. Initially in
Southern and then
Eastern Command, the division was sent overseas where it
joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in
France on
1 April 1940 and was assigned to
III Corps (Lieutenant-General Ronald Forbes Adam). It took part in the
Battle of St Omer-La Bassée (23–29 May) during the
retreat to Dunkirk. At the
end of May 1940 the division was
evacuated from
Dunkirk after the
German Army threatened to cut off and destroy the entire BEF from the
French Army during the battles of
France and
Belgium.
After
returning to England the division,
much reduced in manpower and
woefully short of equipment and now under the command of
Major-General Arthur Percival (who had taken command in late June 1940, until late March the following year),
spent nearly two years on home defence, anticipating a
German invasion which never occurred, travelling through the counties of
Kent and
Sussex and serving under
I and XII Corps. On
29 May 1942, the division, now under the control of the
War Office and commanded by
Major-General Ivor Hughes, departed the United Kingdom to take part in the
North African Campaign. It arrived in
Cairo,
Egypt on 24 July – the long journey being due to sailing via the
Cape of Good Hope.
Less than three weeks after its arrival the division was ordered by
General Sir Harold Alexander (replacing General
Sir Claude Auchinleck on 13 August), the
Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C),
Middle East, to be sent forward to join the
Eighth Army (
Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery), at
El Alamein. The 44th Division joined
XIII Corps (Lieutenant-General
Brian Horrocks, commander of the division between June 1941 and March 1942) and fought at the
Battle of Alam el Halfa (30 August–7 September) where the
132nd Brigade was temporarily detached to the
2nd New Zealand Division and suffered nearly 700 casualties.
On 8 September, the
133rd Brigade was detached from the division. It was briefly assigned to the
8th Armoured Division before being assigned to the
10th Armoured Division on 29 September as a
lorried infantry unit. The division started the
Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October–4 November) with two brigades. It was still in XIII Corps, with the
7th Armoured and
50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division. The corps was on the southern flank with the task of tying down Axis reserves while the main thrust was made in the north with
XXX and
X Corps. The division was further reduced when the
131st Brigade was attached to the 7th Armoured Division on 1 November, as a lorried infantry brigade, as its original
7th Motor Brigade had been transferred to the
1st Armoured Division.
The
Battle of El Alamein was the
last engagement of the 44th Division; it was
disbanded on 31 January 1943. The
132nd and
133rd Brigade were dispersed, with the battalions ending up as British battalions in
British Indian Army brigades. The
131st Brigade remained in the
7th Armoured Division for the rest of the war, taking part in the rest of the
North African Campaign, culminating in
May 1943 with the surrender of almost 250,000
Axis soldiers as
prisoners of war, the
Allied invasion of Italy from
September–November 1943 and in the
North-West Europe campaign from June 1944 until
Victory in Europe Day in
May 1945.
