It was deployed to Egypt in June 1942 but never operated as a complete formation and was disbanded in January the following year.

The division was sent to North Africa but never saw active service as a complete formation.

As the division could not be provided with a lorried infantry brigade, it was broken up and[5] was finally disbanded in Egypt on 1 January 1943.

[4] Following the Second Battle of El Alamein a plan was put forth to use the remains of the division as a self-contained pursuit force to dart forward into the German-Italian rear as far as possibly Tobruk, however the plan to use the division was shelved and units in the forward area were used instead.

Worth to note, in the six months the division was in Egypt, it never operated as a complete formation.