The brigade, which consisted of two or more battalions grouped together under the command of a major-general, suited the small size of the army and the operations that it conducted.

[4] The 7th Division was a Regular Army formation that was formed in September 1914 by combining units returning from garrison outposts in the British Empire at the outbreak of the First World War the previous month.

[6] The division landed at Zeebrugge in Belgium on 6 October 1914 in an attempt to support the Belgian Army's defence of Antwerp, but was soon forced to retreat south-west as that city fell a few days later.

It then played a crucial part in the stabilisation of the front during the First Battle of Ypres, preventing a German breakthrough, although at a high cost in terms of casualties.

It was ordered to hold the line, while Field Marshal French brought up his remaining six divisions and redeployed them from the Aisne to the sea.

At the battle of Loos in late 1915, the division's General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major-General Thompson Capper, was killed in action at the height of the fighting.

[11] The conclusion of the Munich Agreement—on 30 September 1938—calmed the rising tensions in Europe and averted war, allowing the British to resume their military build-up in Palestine.

[16] In the north, the 8th Infantry Division, under Major-General Bernard Montgomery, and Special Night Squads engaged in counter-terror operations, with O'Connor writing that one brigadier "always encouraged his men to be brutal".

General Officer Commanding (GOC) British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan Robert Haining wrote in late 1938 that "unnecessary violence, vindictiveness ..., [and] killing in cold blood" had to be curbed.

[21] Due to the logistical problems in maintaining substantial forces across the Western Desert and on the Libya–Egypt border, Mersa Matruh was the forward British base of operations and supplied by rail.

Mersa Matruh also offered the British the strategy of drawing Italian or other forces forward to them, to allow a counter-attack after they ran into supply difficulties.