Following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the division created new units around cadres of its own personnel, a process called "duplicating".

[3] The division was broken up between 1914 and 1915, to provide reinforcements for the British Expeditionary Force that was fighting in France during the First World War.

It was reformed as the 55th (West Lancashire) Division in late 1915, deployed to the Western Front and fought during the Battles of the Somme, Passchendaele, and Estaires, and took part in the Hundred Days Offensive.

By the 1930s, this resulted in the TA having limited access to modern equipment, under-trained men, and officers with inadequate experience in command.

[16] Historian David French wrote "the main role of the infantry ... was to break into the enemy's defensive position."

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

At that time 34,500 men, all aged 20, were conscripted into the regular army, initially to be trained for six months before being deployed to the forming second line units.

[38] The division's initial war-time duties included deploying guards to the docks at Birkenhead, the Port of Liverpool, and the naval defences at Crosby, while also assisting the civilian authorities during air raids.

The shots missed, and the aircraft were later determined to be Royal Air Force Handley Page Hampden bombers.

[41] The war deployment plan for the TA envisioned its divisions being sent overseas, as equipment became available, to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that had already been dispatched to Europe.

[42] In October 1939, the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, General Walter Kirke, was tasked with drawing up a plan, codenamed Julius Caesar, to defend the United Kingdom from a potential German invasion.

Here the division furthered its training, while also having to be ready to act as a counter-attack force for Julius Caesar in case of a German invasion between the Humber and The Wash.[39][44] Other duties included the protection of RAF Finningley.

[45] In January 1940, the division was used to obtain drafts for formations overseas as well as volunteers to man anti-aircraft guns on small ships.

These moves were part of a larger effort by Kirke to reinforce the defences in the east of England, which he believed would be the location most in danger of an invasion as a result of the German operations on mainland Europe.

[39][46] Other than coastal defence, the division was also responsible for guarding Ipswich Airport, constructing roadblocks inland from potential invasion beaches, and providing mobile detachments to respond to any German airborne landings.

[53][d] General Edmund Ironside, who had replaced Kirke, believed the division (along with the others which had remained in the UK) to be insufficiently trained, equipped, and unable to undertake offensive operations.

The division was therefore assigned a static coastal defence role in Essex, while leaving enough troops available to deal with any German paratrooper landings that may occur in its area.

[39][63] Elements of the division moved to more central locations, for example the two Liverpool Scottish battalions took up winter quarters in Oxfordshire.

This included manning coastal defensive positions, being assigned to hunt down any German paratroopers, improving and expanding defences in their sector, and training.

With the arrival of increased levels of ammunition, the men of the division were able to considerably improve their proficiency in the use of small arms and mortars.

[18][68] During the final months of 1941, the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division started to provide drafts of men to other formations.

This was in addition to continued training, guarding vulnerable points, and rendering assistance to nearby civilian authorities as needed after air raids.

[79] The division remained within the United Kingdom and was drained of manpower to a point that it was all but disbanded, and was then maintained as a deception formation.

[82] 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.

[86] In the final months of 1943 and through June 1944, the division's actual and notional moves were deliberately leaked by double agents as part of the "Fortitude North" segment of the Operation Fortitude deception, the effort to make the Germans believe that the notional 250,000-strong Fourth Army, based in Scotland, would assault Norway.

[90] The division participated in this deception effort by maintaining wireless signals suggesting it was moving around the United Kingdom as part of the Fourth Army.

In September, as the "Fortitude" deception was wound down and the Fourth Army dispersed, it was allowed to be known that the division had reverted to a training role.

[98] Historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that the Germans readily believed in the threat to the Pas de Calais and "it was only at the end of July" that they realised a second assault was not coming, and "by that time, it was too late to move reinforcements".

[103][h] In 1947, the division's insignia was temporarily adopted by the 87th Army Group Royal Artillery, but was replaced at some point before the unit was disbanded in 1955.

This formation was based in Liverpool and was made up primarily of units from the West Lancashire area, creating a connection with the division.