[17] On 29 March, the British Secretary of State for War Leslie Hore-Belisha announced plans to increase the Territorial Army (TA) from 130,000 men to 340,000, doubling the number of divisions.

also enjoyed early success, taking Danville, Beaurains and reaching the planned objective of Wancourt before running into opposition from the infantry units of Generalmajor Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division.

This comprised the 5th East Yorkshire Regiment, 6th and 7th Green Howards with supporting artillery and engineers, from the now disbanded 23rd (Northumbrian) Division, which had been badly mauled in France.

After intensive exercises on the moors of Somerset and Devon, another grant of embarkation leave was given in March 1941, and on 22 April the division HQ and 150th Brigade Group sailed from Liverpool.

[52] The Gazala Line was a series of defensive "boxes", protected by mine-fields and wire and with little showing above ground, each occupied by a brigade of infantry with attached artillery, engineers and a field ambulance.

Intense fighting quickly developed behind the 150th Brigade box in an area known as The Cauldron, as four German and Italian armoured divisions fought and initially overran the British formations which were committed piecemeal to the battle.

After two days, with the Free French holding out at Bir Hakeim, Rommel's supply situation was becoming desperate due to the long detour to the south, an increasing toll of tanks was being taken by the Desert Air Force (DAF).

Some supplies reached Rommel through the weakly held mine fields north and south of the 150th Brigade box, but by 31 May the situation was again serious, such that General Fritz Bayerlein was considering surrender.

The coast road leading to the east could only hold one division while it was being held open by the remains of the British armour and the El Adem box, and this was allocated to the South Africans.

During the attack Private Adam Wakenshaw was to win a posthumous Victoria Cross (VC), the first of four to be awarded to members of the division, while manning an anti-tank gun.

and elements of the 5th Indian Division, was intended to disrupt German and Italian lines of communication south of the escarpment, but due to poor coordination succeeded in causing as much confusion to their own columns as to the enemy.

[75] On the night of 25 October, as part of the southern diversionary attacks, the 69th Brigade, 5th East Yorkshires and 6th Green Howards, advanced to clear the mine fields, and seize positions.

[81] In the south, the remainder of the division, reinforced with the 2nd Free French Brigade, was tasked with clearing the mine fields between the Ruweiiat Ridge and the Rahman Track and capturing the defences around a point called 'Fortress A'.

[81] The division now went into reserve as part of X Corps, and was grouped around El Adem on the Gazala battlefield where it received new anti-tank and anti-aircraft regiments and commenced intensive training.

Various formations of the division were detached, transport platoons to carry supplies forward from Tobruk, the engineers to improve the docks and roads around Sirte and the anti-aircraft regiment to protect newly captured airfields.

On 2 April the division was told to supply a brigade for the coming battle at the next line at Wadi Akarit, which runs from the sea to impassable salt marshes of the Chott el Fejej, while the Germans were distracted by the advance of Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. II Corps to the west.

The 69th Brigade was sent forward with the division machine gunners and a squadron of tanks from the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), but they were not to be supported by the divisional artillery as all available transport was being used to move Eighth Army supplies.

The 5th East Yorkshires' leading company suffered over 70% casualties, and during this attack Private Eric Anderson won a posthumous V.C., killed while attending to the wounded on the battlefield.

There, on the Great Bitter Lake and on the Gulf of Aqaba they trained in amphibious landing techniques for the Allied invasion of Sicily (codenamed Operation Husky).

[96] Attacking in the early hours of 15 July, the battalion was forced back over the river after fierce hand-to-hand fighting in densely planted vineyards, with the supporting tanks being engaged by 88mm guns.

[99][100] The arrival of the remaining two companies started a fierce battle in the vineyard, and during the day the battalion fought off a number of counter-attacks, but was slowly pushed back.

By dawn the bridgehead was firmly established and the arrival across the bridge of Sherman tanks from the 3rd County of London Yeomanry on the Northern Shore brought about the German surrender.

This caused heavy casualties among the Hampshires, who like the Green Howards, were caught in enfilade, while the Dorsets were off the beach in an hour, it was not until 15:00 that the last strong point in Le Hammel was reduced by an AVRE.

[134] On 19 June two attempts to take Hottot (1 mile (1.6 km) south of Tilly) by the 231st Brigade (1st Hampshires then the 2nd Devons) failed, both time being forced out of the ruined village by armour.

The Devons and the Hampshires both reached Hottot with the help of a rolling barrage, AVREs, flail tanks and the mortars and machine guns of the Cheshires, but were counter-attacked by Panzer IVs and Panthers and accidentally rocketed by Typhoons.

[140] On 2 August 69th Brigade advanced, facing small arms fire only, to Tracy-Bocage just west of Villers-Bocage, capturing a regimental commander and his HQ of the 326th Division,[141] two days later a patrol from the Hampshires entered the ruined and booby-trapped village and saw the wreckage of the armoured clash that had taken place there nearly two months earlier.

[152] In the early morning of 8 September, 6 Green Howards crossed the canal unopposed using a small number of Goatley boats as a ferry, taking over three hours to do so.

[158] After three days reorganisation in the Pael area the division was deployed in the bridgehead over the Escaut (Bocholt-Herentals) canal, part of the ground component of Market Garden.

The next day the Germans began to attempt to cut the supply rout of the advance and attacked the road and with two battalions of infantry and a regiment of tanks near Uden, 8 miles (13 km) south of the bridge at Grave.

[164] The next day the 6th Green Howards were ordered to occupy Haalderen, but the infantry were overlooked by German observers and ran into severe opposition from concealed tanks, and failed to capture their objective.