The 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army, which fought briefly in the Battle of France during the Second World War. In March 1939, after the re-emergence of Germany as a European power and its occupation of Czechoslovakia, the British Army increased the number of divisions within the Territorial Army by duplicating existing units. The 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division was formed in October 1939, as a second-line duplicate of the 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division.
It was intended that the division would remain in the United Kingdom to complete training and preparation, before being deployed to France within twelve months of the war breaking out. The division was dispersed to defend Kent and guard strategically important and vulnerable locations. In France, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was suffering from a manpower shortage among rear-line units. To boost morale, provide additional labour for the rear echelon of the BEF, and acquire political capital with the French Government and military, the division was sent to France in April 1940, leaving behind most of its administration and logistical units as well as its heavy weapons and artillery. The men were assigned to aid in the construction of airfields and pillboxes. General Sir Edmund Ironside, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), secured a promise from the commander of the BEF, General Lord Gort, that the division would not be used in action owing to it being untrained and incomplete.
When Germany invaded the Netherlands and advanced into northern Belgium, the BEF and French armies moved to meet the attack, leaving the 12th Division behind. The main German attack came through the Ardennes, in southern Belgium beyond the main Allied armies, and then rapidly advanced into France. This move intended to cut off the British and French forces in northern France and Belgium, from other formations along the Franco-German border as well as the Allied supply centres. With no other reserves available, the 12th Division was ordered to the front line to defend several towns blocking the way between the main German assault and the English Channel. This resulted in the division being widely spread out. A brief skirmish occurred on 18 May, in which one of the division's battalions repulsed the German vanguard. However, on 20 May, three German panzer divisions attacked the division in several isolated actions. Without the means to stop the attacking Germans, the division was overwhelmed and destroyed. The survivors were evacuated to England, and the division was broken-up. Its assets were transferred to other formations to help bring them up to strength.
Background During the 1930s, tensions increased between Germany and the United Kingdom and its allies. In late 1937, German policy towards Czechoslovakia became hostile. During 1938, Germany demanded the annexation of the Sudetenland, the border areas of Czechoslovakia that were primarily inhabited by German-ethnic people. These demands led to an international crisis. To avoid war, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with German chancellor Adolf Hitler in September and brokered the Munich Agreement. The agreement averted a war and allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland. Although Chamberlain had intended for the agreement to further a peaceful resolution of issues, relations between the two countries soon deteriorated. On 15 March 1939, Germany breached the terms of the agreement by invading and occupying the remnants of the Czech state.
On 29 March, British secretary of state for war Leslie Hore-Belisha announced plans to increase the Territorial Army (TA) from 130,000 to 340,000 men and double the number of TA divisions. The plan was for existing TA divisions, referred to as the first-line, to recruit over their establishments (aided by improved pay and conditions) and then form a new division, known as the second-line, from cadres around which the new divisions could be expanded. This process was dubbed "duplicating". The 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division provided cadres to create a second line "duplicate" formation, which became the 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division. Despite the intention for the army to grow, a lack of central guidance on the expansion and duplication process and a dearth of facilities, equipment and instructors complicated the programme. In April 1939, limited conscription was introduced. 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. The War Office had envisioned that the duplicating process and recruiting of the required number of men would take no more than six months. The process varied widely between the TA divisions. Some were ready in weeks while others had made little progress by the time the Second World War began on 1 September.
History Formation
On 7 October, the 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division became active. The division took control of the 35th, the 36th, and the 37th Brigades, as well as divisional support units, which the 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division had administered previously. Because of the lack of official guidance, the newly constituted formations were at liberty to choose numbers, styles, and titles. The division adopted the number of their First World War counterpart: the 12th (Eastern) Division. The division did not use their predecessor's divisional insignia, adopting a plain white diamond instead, which was painted on the division's vehicles but not worn on uniforms.
The 35th Brigade consisted of the 2/5th, the 2/6th, and the 2/7th Battalions, Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey). The 36th Brigade comprised the 2/6th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (2/6th Surrey), and the 6th and the 7th Battalions, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (6th RWK and 7th RWK). The 37th Brigade had the 5th Battalion, Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) (5th Buffs), and the 6th and the 7th Battalions, Royal Sussex Regiment (6th and 7th Sussex). On 25 October, the 2/6th East Surrey Regiment and the 5th Buffs were exchanged between the 36th and the 37th Brigades. The division was assigned to Eastern Command, and Major-General Roderic Petre became the General Officer Commanding. Petre's prior experience included commanding the Sudan Defence Force during the inter-war period before being made commandant of the Senior Officers' School in 1938., ,
Initial service and transfer to France
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. The TA would join regular army divisions in waves as its divisions completed their training, the final divisions deploying one year after the war had begun. In October 1939, Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, General Walter Kirke, was tasked with drawing up a plan, code named "Julius Caesar", to defend the United Kingdom from a potential German invasion. As part of this plan, the division was assigned to defend northern Kent. In addition, its forces were dispersed to guard strategically important locations known to be vulnerable points.
In early 1940, the division became caught up in an effort to address manpower shortages among the BEF's rear-echelon units. More men were needed to work along the line of communication, and the army had estimated that by mid-1940 it would need at least 60,000 pioneers for engineering and construction tasks. The lack of such men had taxed the Royal Engineers (RE) and the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps (AMPC), and had also impacted frontline units that had to divert men from training to help construct defensive positions along the Franco-Belgian border. To address this issue, it was decided to deploy untrained territorial units as an unskilled workforce, thereby alleviating the strain on the existing pioneer units and freeing up regular units to complete their training. As a result, the decision was made to deploy the 12th (Eastern), 23rd (Northumbrian), and the 46th Infantry Divisions to France. Each division would leave their heavy equipment and most of their logistical, administrative, and support units behind. In total, the elements of the three divisions that were transported to France amounted to 18,347 men. The divisions were to aid in the construction of airfields and pillboxes. The intent was that by August their job would be completed and they could return to the United Kingdom to resume training before being redeployed to France as front-line soldiers. The Army believed that this diversion from guard duty would also raise morale. Lionel Ellis, the author of the British official history of the BEF in France, wrote that while the divisions "were neither fully trained nor equipped for fighting ... a balanced programme of training was carried out so far as time permitted". Historian Tim Lynch commented the deployment also had a political dimension, allowing "British politicians to tell their French counterparts that Britain had supplied three more infantry divisions towards the promised nineteen by the end of the year".
General Edmund Ironside, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, opposed this use of these divisions. He reluctantly caved to the political pressure to release the divisions, having been assured by General Sir John Gort (commander of the BEF) that the troops would not be used as frontline combat formations. The 12th left the United Kingdom on 20 April 1940, arrived in France two days later, and was placed under the direct command of the BEF.
German invasion of France
On 10 May 1940, the Phoney War—the period of inactivity on the Western Front since the start of the conflict—ended as the German military invaded Belgium and the Netherlands. As a result, the majority of the BEF along with the best French armies and their strategic reserve moved forward to assist the Belgian and Dutch armies. While these forces attempted to stem the tide of the German advance, the main German assault pushed through the Ardennes Forest and crossed the River Meuse. This initiated the Battle of Sedan and threatened to split the Allied armies in two, separating those in Belgium from the rest of the French military along the Franco-German border.