48-я (Южно-Мидлендская) дивизия британской армии

Infantry division of the British Army

The 48th (South Midland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army. Part of the Territorial Force (TF) and raised in 1908, the division was originally called the South Midland Division, and was redesignated as the 48th (South Midland) Division in 1915. During the First World War, the division saw service on the Western Front before being transferred to the Italian Front in November 1917 and remaining there for the rest of the war. Reformed in 1920 in the Territorial Army (TA) as the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division, it saw active service in the Second World War with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in Belgium and France before being evacuated from Dunkirk to the United Kingdom. It was converted into a training reserve division in December 1942, remaining in the United Kingdom in that status for the rest of the war. Disbanded after the war, the division was not reformed again. In both world wars, the division raised a second line reserve formation; the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division in the First World War, and 61st Division in the Second World War.

In 1901, following lessons learned from the Second Boer War and diplomatic clashes with the growing German Empire, the United Kingdom sought to reform the British Army so it would be able to engage in European affairs if required. This task fell to Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane who implemented several policies known as the Haldane Reforms. As part of these reforms, the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 created a new Territorial Force by merging the existing Yeomanry and Volunteer Force in 1908. This resulted in the creation of 14 Territorial Divisions, including the South Midland Division. As part of the legislation, the territorials were only liable to serve within the United Kingdom. Haldane envisioned that the territorials would take over the defence of the country against what was perceived as a very real threat of invasion, which would allow the regular army to be deployed aboard. In addition, Haldane saw the territorials as a source of reinforcements for the regular army. Six months following mobilisation, during which time the troops would have come up to an acceptable training standard, Haldane was confident that up to a quarter of the men would opt to go and fight abroad. The 1910 edition of the Hazell's Annual reported that, in 1909, "The South Midland Division had 13 units up to or over establishment, and the others very little below it." The following year, the Territorial Force as a whole peaked at a strength of 276,000 men; 26,000 men short of the peacetime establishment set by Haldane's reforms. However, between 1910 and 1914, the overall strength of the force had declined to 250,000, 52,000 short of the peacetime establishment. In peacetime, the divisional headquarters was in the Old Barracks in Warwick.

On the outbreak of war, the division composed the Warwickshire Brigade, the Gloucester and Worcester Brigade and the South Midland Brigade. In August 1914, the South Midland Division departed for its annual summer training camp. The 143rd (Warwickshire) Brigade, for example, departed for Rhyl in northern Wales. Following the declaration of war, the division was mobilised and moved south to take up defensive positions along the southern coast. Due to German invasion scares, the division numbering 6,000 men moved to Essex. While there was no invasion, the division remained in the area on defensive duties and to continue training. During the opening weeks of the war, as the Territorials were not required to be deployed overseas, the troops were asked to volunteer. By the end of August, more than 70 battalions across the Territorial Force had volunteered with the number rising higher as the year progressed.

After the war, the 48th Divisional Signal Company was posted to Iran as part of Norperforce. The division was disbanded in June 1919, along with the rest of the Territorial Force. However, the Territorial Force was reformed in 1920 as the Territorial Army (TA) and the 48th Division was reconstituted as the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division. During the interwar period, the British Army envisioned that, during future conflicts, the Territorial Army would be used as the basis for future expansion so as to avoid raising a new Kitchener's Army. However, as the 1920s and 1930s wore on, the British Government prioritised funding for the regular army over the territorials, allowing recruitment and equipment levels to languish. Baron Templemore, as part of a House of Lords debate on the Territorial Army, stated that the division on 1 October 1924 mustered 338 officers and 7,721 other ranks. Historian David French highlights that "by April 1937 the Territorial Army had reached less than 80 per cent of its shrunken peacetime establishment" and "Its value as an immediate reserve was, therefore, limited." Edward Smalley comments that "48th Divisional Signals operated on an improvised organizational structure" for most of the 1930s, due to being below 50 per cent strength. He further highlights how the TA, and the division in particular, "never kept pace with technological developments." In 1937, the division was operating just two radio sets on a full time basis and had to borrow additional units from the 3rd Infantry Division for annual training camps.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, the 48th Division was mobilised in early September 1939, under the command of Major General Frank Roberts, who had won the Victoria Cross (VC) in the Great War. After spending a few months in England training the division, now commanded by Major General Sir Andrew Thorne after Roberts' retirement in December, landed in France in early January 1940 and became part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the first complete division of the TA to do so. The division came under command of Lieutenant General Sir John Dill's I Corps. Soon after their arrival, the 48th Division exchanged some of its units with the Regular divisions. For example, in the 143rd Brigade, the 5th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment was exchanged with the 1st Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, a Regular Army unit, and transferred to the 11th Infantry Brigade, of the 4th Infantry Division. This was official policy within the BEF and was, in theory, intended to strengthen the inexperienced Territorial divisions with experienced Regulars.

The division was not reformed in the Territorial Army in 1947. In 1961 the division became a district headquarters as 48th (South Midland) Division/District, and it was disbanded on the reduction of the TA into the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve on 1 April 1967, when many individual TA units lost their identities. The district headquarters itself formed the core of the structure for the creation of West Midlands District under HQ UK Land Forces in 1972.