The division was raised at Secunderabad in India from the Deccan District Headquarters, with two brigades of three Indian infantry battalions each.

After periods in Egypt, Cyprus and Syria, by 1942 it was involved in the fighting in the Western Desert of North Africa and the withdrawal of the Allied troops to El Alamein.

For the next three months, the division was involved in a series of aggressive skirmishing operations to keep the Italian forces off balance and confused as to Platt's longer-term intentions.

In early 1941, Platt's forces were further augmented by the 4th Indian Infantry Division, rushed from the Western Desert after the breakthrough during Operation Compass, and an attack was launched into Eritrea on 18 January.

The climax of the campaign was the Battle of Keren, a fiercely fought series of engagements against superior numbers, which ended with victory for Platt's forces on 1 April.

9 and 10 Brigades of 5 Indian Division were newly stationed around Tobruk when Rommel's offensive against the Gazala Line commenced at the end of May 1942.

Fresh to the desert, just recently equipped with obsolete anti tank guns and poor transport, they were ordered to counterattack (Operation Aberdeen) the German breakthrough.

The operation was badly mismanaged by the Corps commander; tank and artillery support failed to materialise and casualties were crippling – every one of the West Yorks officers who participated was killed or wounded.

161 Brigade joined XXXIII Corps, which was beginning to arrive at Dimapur, and fought in the Battle of Kohima; the remainder of the division reinforced IV Corps, whose land victory at Kohima and Imphal, in which the division played an important part, proved to be the turning-point of the Burma Campaign.