It was intended that the division would remain in the United Kingdom to complete training and preparation, before being deployed to France within twelve months of the war breaking out.

This mission was extended to cover sections of the Kent coastline, and was followed by stints defending Essex and being held back from the coast as a counter-attack formation.

As part of the demobilisation of the British armed forces after the Second World War, the division ceased to exist by the end of 1945 and has not been reformed.

To avoid war, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in September and brokered the Munich Agreement.

Some TA divisions had made little progress by the time the Second World War began; others were able to complete this work within a matter of weeks.

This resulted in 34,500 twenty-year-old men being conscripted into the regular army, initially to be trained for six months before deployment to the forming second-line units.

[16] Due to the lack of official guidance, the newly formed units were at liberty to choose numbers, styles, and titles.

[20] To denote the association of the division with the West Country, where the division's battalions were raised, its insignia referred to Devon born Sir Francis Drake's Drum: according to the Imperial War Museum, "A yellow drum, red bands top and bottom, white cords, a small red diamond above a dark blue half circle in the centre, all on a khaki ground.

The deployment timetable called for waves being sent to France in the fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth, and twelfth months of the war.

[22][25] As a consequence of the German victory in the Battle of France and the return of the BEF following the Dunkirk evacuation, the division was not deployed overseas.

[34] In June, a Home Guard memorandum described the division as consisting of "two weak Brigades [134th and 136th] disposed on the coast", with orders to "hold their positions 'to the last man and the last cartridge' ", and supplemented by Home Guard volunteers "manning barricades consisting of tree trunks, old motor cars, farm carts and barbed-wire trestles on the main approaches to towns and villages".

The third brigade would be positioned further inland to provide an additional counter-attacking force and in particular to retake airfields lost to German paratroopers.

It was then placed directly under the command of Home Forces, and rotated between coastal defence duties in Essex and maintaining a position in the English hinterlands as a counter-attack formation.

[39][45][46] 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 total of 17,845 men.

[48][d] The remaining 4,800 men were considered ineligible at that time for service abroad for a variety of reasons, including a lack of training or being medically unfit.

In an effort to downsize the army, while efficiently maintaining as many formations as possible at full strength, the War Office began disbanding divisions.

[47][51][52] As part of this restructure, the decision was made to retain division numbers familiar to the British public due to their potential recruiting value.

[54] Lieutenant-Colonel H.F. Joslen wrote that the division's role was now "for sorting, retraining and holding personnel temporarily – due to disbandments, medical and other causes.

Ex-prisoners of war, repatriates, troops who were suffering from morale issues or of low physique were sent to the battalion where they underwent medical, physical, and military tests.