47th (London) Infantry Division

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For the unrelated formation in First World War, see 47th (1/2nd London) Division.

2nd London Division
47th (London) Infantry Division
47th Infantry (Reserve) Division
Formation sign of the 47th (London) Infantry Division
Active1939–1946
Branch Territorial Army
TypeMotorised infantry
Infantry
RoleMotorised infantry, home defence, and training
SizeWar establishment strength:
10,136–18,347 men[a]
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Sir Gerald Templer

The 47th (London) Infantry Division was an

occupation of Czechoslovakia, the British Army increased the number of divisions in the Territorial Army (TA) by duplicating existing units. The 2nd London Division was formed in August 1939 as a second-line duplicate of the 1st London Division; its battalions
were all initially London-based.

The division was established as a motor division and was fully mobile, with two infantry brigades rather than the usual three for an infantry division. The intention was to increase battlefield mobility, enabling the motor divisions to follow armoured forces through breaches in the opposing front line rapidly to consolidate captured territory. Following the Battle of France, the motor division concept was abandoned. The division was then allocated a third infantry brigade, becoming an infantry division. In November 1940, it was renamed the 47th (London) Infantry Division.

The division was to remain in the United Kingdom to complete training before being deployed to France within twelve months of the war breaking out. Instead, after Dunkirk the division was dispersed to protect strategically important locations and undertake anti-invasion duties and was moved to Wales to defend the country from invasion. In early 1941, it was transferred to the southern English coast on anti-invasion duties. During this period, the division developed training methods that were disseminated throughout the British Army within the United Kingdom. In 1944, parts of the division assisted in Operation Bodyguard, the deception efforts in support of Operation Overlord, as well as providing administrative services during the build-up to invasion. Manpower in the division was slowly reduced as it reinforced combat formations within the 21st Army Group. The division was disbanded in August 1944.

In September 1944, the division was reformed as the 47th Infantry (Reserve) Division, which was composed of personnel from the disbanded 76th Infantry (Reserve) Division. The division, now a training formation, was made responsible for providing final tactical and field training once soldiers had passed their initial training. After five additional weeks of training, the soldiers would be posted to fighting formations overseas. The 47th Infantry (Reserve) Division was disbanded as part of the demobilisation of the British Armed Forces after the Second World War, in 1946 and was not reformed when the TA was reconstituted in 1947.

Background

Throughout the 1930s,

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in September 1938 and signed the Munich Agreement, which accepted that Germany would annexe the Sudetenland. Chamberlain had intended the agreement to lead to a further peaceful resolution of differences but relations between the countries soon deteriorated. On 15 March 1939, Germany breached the terms of the agreement by invading and occupying the remnants of Czechoslovakia.[2]

On 29 March, the British

1st London Division.[9] Despite the intention for the army to grow, the programme was complicated by a lack of central guidance on the expansion and duplication process, and issues regarding the lack of facilities, equipment and instructors.[3][10] It had been envisioned by the War Office that the duplicating process and recruiting the required number of men would take no more than six months.[10][11] In April, limited conscription was introduced; at that time 34,500 men, all aged 20, were conscripted into the regular army, initially to undergo six months of training before being deployed to the forming second-line units.[9][12] The process varied widely between the TA divisions; some were ready in weeks while others had made little progress by early September 1939, when war on Germany was declared.[10][11]

History

Formation

Refer to caption
Men of the division construct a pontoon bridge over the River Thames.

Due to a lack of official guidance, newly formed units were at liberty to choose numbers, styles, and titles.

Rifle Brigade).[18] To denote the division's association with London, the formation insignia represented the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church.[19][20]

The division was formed as a motor division, one of five such divisions in the British Army.[c] British military doctrine development during the inter-war period resulted in three types of division by the end of the 1930s; the infantry division, the mobile division (later called the armoured division), and the motor division. Historian David French wrote, "the main role of the infantry ... was to break into the enemy's defensive position". This would then be exploited by the mobile division, followed by the motor divisions that would "carry out the rapid consolidation of the ground captured by the mobile divisions", therefore "transform[ing] the 'break-in' into a 'break-through'."[22] According to French, the motor division "matched that of the German army's motorized and light divisions. But there the similarities ended." The German motorised divisions contained three brigades and were as fully equipped as a regular infantry division; while their smaller, light divisions contained a tank battalion. The British motor division was fully motorised and capable of transporting all of their infantry. However, it was "otherwise much weaker than normal infantry divisions", or their German counterparts. This was due to it being made-up of only two brigades instead of three, having two artillery regiments as opposed to an infantry division's three, and due it having no tanks.[23]

Home defence

Refer to caption
Soldiers at the division's battle school; bomb-damaged houses are being used to provide a realistic training environment for fighting in built-up areas.

It was planned that the TA divisions would be deployed intact to reinforce the

18-pounder field guns, and eight 4.5 in (110 mm) howitzers of similar vintage.[31] The division lacked the motor vehicles it needed to fulfil its motor division role and had to rely heavily on commandeered civilian transport.[32]

As a result of the German victory in the Battle of France and the return of the BEF following the

Royal Engineer field company, the 222nd, also became part of the division. With the addition of a permanent third brigade, and the additional artillery and engineer units, the 2nd London Division became an infantry division.[36]

Soldiers from the division training, take cover along a river bank.
Infantry training at the 47th Division School of Battle Drill at Lymington near Southampton, Hampshire, 11 March 1942.

In late June 1940, the 2nd London Division was assigned to Western Command.[37] It then moved to South Wales to relieve the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division, which moved east across the country.[38][39] A. T. M. Durand and R. H. W. S. Hastings, authors of the London Rifle Brigade's history of the war, wrote that while it was improbable Germany would invade Great Britain via Wales, "the last foreign troops to land with hostile intent in the British Isles came ashore at Fishguard during the Napoleonic War".[26] After the move to Wales, some of the division's battalions were relocated to other parts of the United Kingdom. For example, the 11th Royal Fusiliers moved to Worcestershire after a brief deployment to South Wales.[27] Others, such as the London Scottish, did not move with the division but moved to Staffordshire, where it provided guards for airfields and vulnerable points.[40] On 21 November 1940, the 2nd London was redesignated the 47th (London) Infantry Division.[15][d] During this period, two of the original battalions left the division because rifle units were selected to provide the motorised infantry support of armoured formations.[46][e] This move, according to author Cyril Barclay, "emasculated the Division" and it was brought up to strength with former "pioneer and local defence battalions", which were "renamed, with small geographical or transitional justification".[46] Following this, Willans was promoted to the War Office and was replaced as GOC on 8 December 1940 by Major-General Clifford Malden, who was previously Director of Military Training.[15][48]

In February 1941, the 47th Division was assigned to

44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division.[50] In July, under Utterson-Kelso's direction, the division established the first 'Battle School' in the United Kingdom.[51][52] The school was a two-week training course, which included observing and practising fieldcraft, undertaking tactical exercises without troops, and engaging in battle drill in realistic conditions.[53] French wrote, "Its purpose was to offer soldiers some experience of the noise and chaos of battle by giving them the opportunity to train under live-firing conditions".[52][f] The success of the school was shown by the adoption of the idea and all divisions were ordered to form one.[52] In November 1941, the division was assigned to V Corps and that December it was placed on the lower establishment.[14] During the war, divisions of the British Army were classified as either higher establishment formations that were intended for deployment overseas and combat, or lower establishment ones that were detailed strictly for home defence in a static role.[55][56]

On 10 April 1942, Major-General Gerald Templer replaced Utterson-Kelso as GOC.[15] Templer had served in the BEF in France before being given command of a battalion on return to the United Kingdom, then a brigade. Following his appointment, Templer arranged a demonstration of the effects of fighter-aircraft strafing of ground targets but a pilot error led to 27 spectators being killed and 80 more – including Templer – were wounded in the Imber friendly fire incident.[57] By May 1942, the division was based in Hampshire and tasked with countering any potential raids along the coast conducted by the German forces.[58] In June, the division was placed under the command of the Hampshire and Dorset District and remained under this command until January 1944. On 14 September 1942, following Templer's promotion, Major-General Alfred Eryk Robinson became GOC of the division.[15][57] Robinson had commanded the 1st Battalion, Green Howards during the Norwegian campaign, before being given command of an infantry brigade on his return to England.[59] The division remained in the south until January 1944, when it was assigned to Northern Command, before being switched to Southern Command in March. It reverted to Northern Command in July.[37] Some of these moves, as well as notional ones, were deliberately leaked through double agents as part of Operation Fortitude.[60] Between April and October 1944, the 141st Brigade was made responsible for an embarkation sector in the Southampton area; an administrative and organisational role in support of Operation Overlord facilitating the movement of troops from their camps to ships to be deployed to France.[18][61]

Wind down, training division, and disbandment

Refer to caption.
Infantry training at the division's battle school. The troops are seen advancing between the backs of houses along a railway line.

By mid-1944, the five lower establishment divisions allocated to home-defence duties – the 38th (Welsh), the 45th, the 47th (London), the 55th (West Lancashire), and the 61st – had a combined strength of 17,845 men. Of this number, around 13,000 were available as replacements for the 21st Army Group fighting in France.[62][g] The remaining 4,800 men were considered ineligible for service abroad for a variety of reasons, including a lack of training or being medically unfit. Over the following six months, up to 75 per cent of these men would be deployed to reinforce the 21st Army Group following the completion of their training and certification of fitness.[64] On 15 August, what was left of the division was dispersed; this process took until the end of the month, when the division and its brigades were disbanded.[14]

During 1944, the British Army suffered a severe shortage of manpower. In an effort to downsize the army and consolidate as many men within as few formations as possible to maintain efficiency, the War Office began disbanding divisions and restructuring the Army.

Dorsetshire Regiment trained soldiers who were then dispatched to other battalions within the regiment and the Royal Norfolk Regiment.[73] The division remained in this role for the duration of the war. It was disbanded during the demobilisation of the British Armed Forces after the Second World War, and was non-existent by January 1946 when Utterson-Kelso retired.[14][74] The TA was reformed in 1947 on a much smaller scale of nine divisions, which did not include the 47th.[75][i]

General officers commanding

See also: General officer commanding
Appointed Name
24 August 1939
Major-General Harry Willans[15][77]
29 November 1940 Brigadier William Havelock Ramsden (acting)[15]
8 December 1940 Major-General Clifford Cecil Malden[15]
25 March 1941 Brigadier William Bradshaw (acting)[15]
18 April 1941 Major-General John Edward Utterson-Kelso[15]
10 April 1942 Major-General Gerald Templer[15]
14 September 1942 Major-General Alfred Eryk Robinson[15]
1 September 1944 Major-General John Edward Utterson-Kelso[15]

Order of battle

See also

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ^ This is the war establishment, the on-paper strength. The war establishment of a motor division was 10,136 men; for an infantry division during 1939–1941, it was 13,863 men; following 1941, it was increased to 17,298 men; for the final two years of the war, the war establishment was 18,347 men.[1] For further information on how division sizes changed during the war, see British Army during the Second World War.
  2. First World War). First-line territorial formations would create a second-line division using a cadre of trained personal and if needed, a third division would also be created. All TA recruits were required to take the general service obligation meaning that territorial soldiers could be sent overseas. (This avoided the complications experienced with the First World War Territorial Force, whose members had to volunteer for overseas service.)[4][5][6][7]
  3. ^ The other four being the 1st London, 50th (Northumbrian), 55th (West Lancashire), and the 59th (Staffordshire) divisions.[21]
  4. ^ In being renumbered, the division took over the designation of the former 47th (2nd London) Division, which was formed as the first-line 2nd London Division following the Haldane Reforms in 1908.[41][42] It was renumbered the 47th, and fought during the First World War.[43] In 1936, the majority of the division was merged with the 56th (London) to create the London Division. The Royal Army Service Corps element of both the 47th and 56th were used to form the 1st Anti-Aircraft Division.[44][45]
  5. 30th Armoured Brigade.[47]
  6. ^ An example of how the battle school aided the division can be provided by the 11th Royal Fusiliers, which initially submitted all platoon commanders and sergeants to complete the course. After the battalion was relieved of its coastal defence duties, the platoon commanders disseminated the knowledge of the battle school through intensive fieldcraft and tactical training.[54]
  7. ^ The war establishment – the paper strength – of a higher establishment infantry division by this point in the war was 18,347 men.[63]
  8. ^ Having entered military service, a recruit was assigned to the General Service Corps. He would then undertake six weeks' training at a Primary Training Centre and take aptitude and intelligence tests. The recruit would then be posted to a Corps Training Centre that specialised in the arm of the service he was joining. For those who would be joining the infantry, corps training involved a further sixteen-week course. For more specialised roles, such as signallers, it could be up to thirty weeks.[71]
  9. 51st/52nd (Scottish), and 53rd (Welsh) infantry divisions.[75][76]
  10. ^ In June 1942, the Reconnaissance Corps universally adopted cavalry nomenclature. As a result, all companies were redesignated as squadrons.[82]

Citations

  1. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 130–133.
  2. ^ Bell 1997, pp. 3–4, 258–281.
  3. ^ a b c Gibbs 1976, p. 518.
  4. ^ Allport 2015, p. 323.
  5. ^ French 2001, p. 53.
  6. ^ Perry 1988, pp. 41–42.
  7. ^ Simkins 2007, pp. 43–46.
  8. ^ Messenger 1994, p. 47.
  9. ^ a b Messenger 1994, p. 49.
  10. ^ a b c d Perry 1988, p. 48.
  11. ^ a b Levy 2006, p. 66.
  12. ^ French 2001, p. 64.
  13. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 235, 238.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Joslen 2003, pp. 41–42.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Joslen 2003, p. 41.
  16. ^ "No. 34660". The London Gazette. 29 August 1939. p. 5921; and "No. 34519". The London Gazette. 10 June 1938. p. 3719.
  17. ^ a b c Joslen 2003, p. 235.
  18. ^ a b c d Joslen 2003, p. 238.
  19. ^ "Badge, formation, 47th (London) Infantry Division, 2nd London Infantry Division". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  20. ^ Chappell 1987, p. 24.
  21. ^ a b Joslen 2003, pp. 37, 41, 61, 90.
  22. ^ French 2001, pp. 37–41.
  23. ^ French 2001, p. 41.
  24. ^ Gibbs 1976, pp. 455, 507, 514–515.
  25. ^ a b c d Graves 1950, p. 223.
  26. ^ a b c Durand & Hastings 1952, pp. 80–81.
  27. ^ a b Northcote Parkinson 1949, p. 48.
  28. ^ Newbold 1988, pp. 147–148, 154.
  29. ^ Newbold 1988, pp. 69, 73, 101, 121–122.
  30. ^ Barclay 1952, pp. 177–178.
  31. ^ Collier 1957, p. 125.
  32. ^ Newbold 1988, p. 154.
  33. ^ Fraser 1999, pp. 72–77.
  34. ^ French 2001, pp. 189–191.
  35. ^ Perry 1988, p. 54.
  36. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 41, 56, 272–273, 284–285.
  37. ^ a b c Joslen 2003, p. 42.
  38. ^ Collier 1957, p. 219.
  39. ^ Newbold 1988, p. 201.
  40. ^ Barclay 1952, p. 180.
  41. ^ Perry 1988, p. 6.
  42. ^ Hall 1910, p. 210.
  43. ^ Maude 1922, pp. 1–212.
  44. ^ Barclay 1952, p. 32.
  45. ^ Williams 1969, p. 78.
  46. ^ a b Barclay 1952, pp. 190–191.
  47. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 180–181.
  48. ^ "No. 34519". The London Gazette. 24 December 1940. p. 35023; and "No. 35021". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 December 1940. p. 7206.
  49. ^ Grehan & Mace 2012, pp. 173–174.
  50. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 41, 71, 316.
  51. ^ Place 2000, p. 50.
  52. ^ a b c French 2001, pp. 205–206.
  53. ^ Place 2000, pp. 51–52.
  54. ^ Place 2000, p. 52.
  55. ^ Perry 1988, p. 65.
  56. ^ French 2001, p. 188.
  57. ^ a b Heathcote 2012, p. 275.
  58. ^ Collier 1957, pp. 293, 298.
  59. ^ Powell 2015, pp. 188–189.
  60. ^ Hesketh 2000, p. 179.
  61. ^ Ruppenthal 1995, pp. 357–364.
  62. ^ Hart 2007, p. 52.
  63. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 130–131.
  64. ^ Hart 2007, pp. 48–51.
  65. ^ Hesketh 2000, p. 246.
  66. ^ Messenger 1994, p. 122.
  67. ^ Allport 2015, p. 216.
  68. ^ Hesketh 2000, pp. 246–247.
  69. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 41, 99.
  70. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 42, 286, 376, 383.
  71. ^ a b c French 2001, p. 68.
  72. ^ Forty 2013, Reserve Divisions.
  73. ^ "The 6th (Home Defence), 9th, 30th and 70th (Young Soldiers) Battalions The Dorsetshire Regiment in World War Two". The Keep Military Museum: Home of the Regiments of Devon and Dorset. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  74. ^ "No. 37430". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 January 1946. p. 447.
  75. ^ a b Messenger 1994, p. 157.
  76. ^ Lord & Watson 2003, p. 89.
  77. ^ "No. 34660". The London Gazette. 29 August 1939. p. 5921.
  78. ^ Joslen 2003, pp. 41–42, 77.
  79. ^ Joslen 2003, p. 272.
  80. ^ 147 LAA Rgt War Diary 1943, The National Archives (TNA), Kew file WO 166/11765.
  81. ^ a b Joslen 2003, pp. 41, 608.
  82. ^ Doherty 2007, p. 4.
  83. ^ Joslen 2003, p. 376.
  84. ^ Joslen 2003, p. 383.
  85. ^ Joslen 2003, p. 286.

References

Further reading

External links

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