The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 proposed a comprehensive Mobilisation Scheme for the part-time Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

[1][2] On 9 February 1889 Lieutenant-Colonel the Earl Mount Edgcumbe, commanding officer (CO) of the 2nd (Prince of Wales's) Volunteer Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, was appointed Colonel in command of the Plymouth Brigade, consisting of the volunteer battalions of the Devons[a]and the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI), which was charged with defending the Royal Navy's base at Plymouth.

[3][17] By early 1915 the need was growing for troops to be sent from India to various theatres of war, and the first drafts and formed units from the Wessex Divisions began to go on active service, particularly to the Mesopotamian Front.

130th (Devon and Cornwall) Infantry Brigade in 43rd (Wessex) Division was composed as follows:[3][19] After the Munich Crisis in late 1938, when the possibility of another European conflict loomed, the TA was doubled in size, and once again its units formed duplicates.

[22] When the Battle of France was lost and the BEF was being evacuated from Dunkirk, 43rd (W) Division was one of the few reasonably well-equipped formations left in Home Forces to counter a German invasion of the United Kingdom.

It formed part of the mobile GHQ Reserve disposed on the line from Northampton through North London to Aldershot, from which brigade groups could be despatched to any threatened area.

[25][26] [27][28] By the end of 1940 the division was stationed in East Kent, where it remained for the next four years, first in defensive mode, later training intensively for the Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord).

It was later noted that its habitual training area round Stone Street, outside Folkestone, bore a marked resemblance to the Bocage countryside in Normandy where it would later fight.

The advance began at 05.00 and at first the brigade's attack went well, 5th Dorsets and C Squadron, 9th RTR, making good progress against the farms on the lower ground and taking the ruins of Château de Fontaine by 06.15.

4th Dorsets, making their second attack of the day, suffered heavy casualties advancing to reach the isolated Hampshires without artillery support.

The anti-tank troop was overrun by a German counter-attack, and after firing all their small arms ammunition the crews had to remove the breechblocks from their guns and retreat to the infantry's slit trenches.

5th Dorsets and 7th Somerset Light Infantry (SLI) from 214 Brigade had a tough fight until the following morning to maintain the positions round Éterville.

[37][38][39][40] After a short rest 43rd (Wessex) Division moved west to launch an attack towards the dominating height of Mont Pinçon as part of Operation Bluecoat.

130 Brigade was in Group 3, a convoy of just over 1000 vehicles including 15th (Kent) GHQ Troops Royal Engineers who were to operate tank rafts and build a heavy Bailey Bridge.

By 10.00 on 27 August a bridgehead had been secured, the first light bridge (named 'David') was ready, tanks were being ferried across and 130 Bde was assembling in Vernon to be passed across the river when required.

The advance up the only road ('Club Route') was painfully slow for the infantry, who were being carried in amphibious DUKWs ready for river crossings, and night found the head of the brigade group still at the great bridge at Grave.

The Dorsets' crossing was a disaster; the assault boats were late arriving, the opposite bank was strongly defended and the two leading companies were scattered and destroyed.

[59][60][61][62][63] In the aftermath of Market Garden, 43rd (W) Division was stationed on The Island, with 130 Bde still in its exposed positions along the Nederrijn, subject to mortar, machine gun and shell fire.

On the night of 26/27 September German troops infiltrated the outposts of 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment to the left (west) and a sharp fight broke out.

Heavy losses were sustained among the houses as the battle escalated, but by midday the ad hoc group of units from 43rd (W) Division had eliminated the German bridgehead.

The attack by 7th Hampshires on 22 January was a major success: supported by a massive barrage and by Crocodile flamethrowers, the APC-borne infantry swept through Putt and fought their way into Waldenrath, taking 200 prisoners at a cost of 30 casualties.

By the time 43rd (W) was launched, only one congested road was open through the heavily bombed town of Kleve, and the whole division was strung out, with 130 Bde still in Nijmegen.

On 17 February 130 Bde cleared Forst Kleve, but there was little opposition after the wood had been blasted by RAF Typhoons and Canadian rocket projectors (the Land mattress).

[72][73][74][75] On 20 February 130 Bde was pulled out and sent to relieve a Canadian brigade holding a 'watery wilderness' north of Kleve, where the troops had to be taken in aboard Buffalo amphibious vehicles and contact patrols between the isolated companies had to be carried out by boat.

5th Dorsets found themselves in immediate combat without time to reconnoitre, but captured Androp with a night attack, allowing the rest of the brigade to clear Millingen next day.

130 Brigade then retook the lead on 28 March, with 4th Dorsets capturing Landford on the west bank of the Ijssel before nightfall while 7th Hampshire protected the flank.

5th Dorsets then carried out an opposed landing by assault boats in the dark and its pioneer platoon built a light bridge to allow the battalion anti-tank guns to cross.

130 Brigade was therefore brought up to make a crossing at Hengelo, with the tanks of the Sherwood Rangers and 12th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) attached from 8 Armoured Bde.

[21][81][79] Bremen having ignored a summons to surrender, XXX Corps pushed on into the outskirts, 130 Bde reverting to 43rd (W) Division's command to advance through spasmodic resistance to cut the Hamburg–Bremen Autobahn.

130 Brigade had secured a bridgehead over the Hamme Canal on 4 May and the rest of the division was preparing to move on Bremerhaven next day when news arrived of the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath.