The movement of the 5th (West African) Brigade was delayed, however, after the troopship which was to carry it was lost in the German attack on Convoy Faith off Portugal on the night of 11/12 July 1943.

The remainder of the division took part in the second Arakan campaign from February to May, 1944, operating in the Kaladan Valley on the flank of XV Indian Corps.

In late March, substantial Japanese reinforcements (with some troops from the Indian National Army) outflanked the division and forced it to retreat over a range of hills out of the Kaladan valley into that of the Kalapanzin.

In August, the division re-entered the Kaladan valley, forcing the Japanese and Indian National Army to abandon Mowdok, a few miles east of the India–Burmese frontier.

Lieutenant General William Slim, then commanding XV Corps, commented on first inspecting units of the division in late 1943, Their discipline and smartness were impressive, and they were more obviously at home in the jungle than any troops I had yet seen...

First, by the horde of unarmed porters who were needed to carry supplies, ammunition, baggage and the heavier weapons, and secondly by the large number of white men in a unit, fifty or sixty to a battalion.