Home Counties Division (44th)

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44th_%28Home_Counties%29_Division .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Reserve_(United_Kingdom)#List_of_Territorial_Army_Divisions,_Second_World_War .