The 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division was an infantry division of Britain's Territorial Army (TA). The division was first formed in 1908, as the Wessex Division. During the First World War, it was broken-up and never served as a complete formation. It was reformed in the TA in 1920, and then served in the campaign in North West Europe from June 1944 until May 1945, during the Second World War. The division suffered heavy casualties and gained an excellent reputation. After the Second World War, the division formed part of the postwar TA, and became the 43rd (Wessex) Division/District in 1961. It was finally disbanded in 1967.
Formation The Territorial Force (TF) was formed on 1 April 1908 following the enactment of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 (7 Edw.7, c.9) which combined and re-organised the old Volunteer Force, the Honourable Artillery Company and the Yeomanry. On formation, the TF contained 14 infantry divisions and 14 mounted yeomanry brigades. One of the divisions was the Wessex Division.
The Wessex Division was formed in Southern Command from TF units in the south-western counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. In peacetime, the divisional headquarters was at 19 Cathedral Close in Exeter.
Wessex Division Order of Battle 1908–1914Becke, pp. 43–48.Conrad, 1914.Monthly Army List, August 1914.43rd (Wessex) Division at Long, Long Trail. Divisional HQ at Exeter Hampshire Brigade at Southampton 4th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment at Winchester (joined 12th Indian Division and served in Mesopotamia) 5th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment at Southampton (served in Third Afghan War) 6th (Duke of Connaught's Own) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment at Portsmouth (joined 15th Indian Division and served in Mesopotamia) 7th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment at Bournemouth (served in Aden) South-Western Brigade at Taunton 4th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry at Bath (joined 37th Indian Brigade and served in Mesopotamia) 5th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry at Taunton (joined 75th Division and served in Palestine) 4th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment at Dorchester (joined 42nd Indian Brigade and served in Mesopotamia) 4th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment at Trowbridge (joined 75th Division and served in Palestine) Devon & Cornwall Brigade at Exeter 4th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment at Exeter (joined 41st Indian Brigade and served in Mesopotamia) 5th (Prince of Wales's) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment at Plymouth (joined 75th Division and served in Palestine) 6th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment at Barnstaple (joined 36th Indian Brigade and served in Mesopotamia) 4th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry at Truro (served in Aden, later with 75th Division in Palestine) Divisional Royal ArtilleryLitchfield, pp. 42-3, 89–93, 244. I Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery at Portsmouth (joined 3rd (Lahore) Division and served in Mesopotamia) 1st Hampshire Battery 2nd Hampshire Battery 3rd Hampshire Battery 1st Wessex Ammunition Column II Wessex (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery at Ryde, Isle of Wight 4th Hampshire (Howitzer) Battery (served in Aden) 5th Hampshire (Howitzer) Battery (joined 6th (Poona) Division and served in Mesopotamia; captured at Kut)] 2nd Wessex Ammunition Column III Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery at Swindon (served in Third Afghan War) 6th Hampshire Battery Dorsetshire Battery Wiltshire Battery 3rd Wessex Ammunition Column IV Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery at Exeter 1st Devonshire Battery 2nd Devonshire Battery 3rd Devonshire Battery (served in Third Afghan War) 4th Wessex Ammunition Column Wessex (Hampshire) Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery and Ammunition Column at Cosham (served on the Western Front) Wessex Divisional EngineersWatson & Rinaldi, pp. 11, 61. (joined 27th Division and served at Salonika) 1st Wessex Field Company at Bath (became 500th Field Company) 2nd Wessex Field Company at Weston-super-Mare (became 501st Field Company) Wessex Divisional Telegraph Company ('Signal Company' from 1910) at ExeterLord & Watson, pp. 151–2.Nalder, p. 597. Divisional Royal Army Medical Corps (joined 8th Division and served on the Western Front) 1st Wessex Field Ambulance at Exeter (became 24th Field Ambulance) 2nd Wessex Field Ambulance at Plymouth (became 25th Field Ambulance) 3rd Wessex Field Ambulance at Portsmouth (became 26th Field Ambulance) Wessex Clearing Hospital at Exeter Wessex Divisional Transport & Supply Column, Army Service Corps, at ExeterYoung, p. 215. (joined 29th Division and served at Gallipoli) Divisional Company at Andover (became 246 Company) Devonshire and Cornwall Company at Plymouth (became 247 Company) South Western Brigade Company at Bridgwater (became 248 Company) Hampshire Brigade Company at Aldershot (became 249 Company)
First World War On 29 July 1914, the Wessex Division was in the Salisbury Plain Training Area carrying out its annual training camp when 'precautionary orders' were received, and next day the division took up emergency war stations in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The order to mobilise arrived on the evening of 4 August. Between 10 and 13 August the division concentrated on Salisbury Plain and began war training.43rd (1st Wessex) Division at Long, Long Trail.
On 24 September, at the special request of the Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum the Wessex Division accepted liability for service in British India to relieve the Regular Army units there for service on the Western Front. The division's infantry battalions (without their brigade headquarters) and artillery brigades embarked at Southampton on 8 October and were convoyed to Bombay, disembarking on 9 November. The engineers, medical units, transport, heavy battery and brigade ammunition columns also remained in the UK and joined formations composed of Regular units brought back from India and other imperial garrisons. Meanwhile, the battalions and batteries were immediately distributed to garrisons across India, reverting to peacetime service conditions, and the Wessex Division never saw service as a whole, though it was formally numbered the 43rd (1st Wessex) Division in 1915 and the brigades were designated 128th (Hampshire) Brigade, 129th (South Western) Brigade and 130th (Devon and Cornwall) Brigade.
As soon as the Wessex Division had left for India, the home depots began raising 2nd Line units, distinguished from the 1st Line by a '2/' prefix. Recruitment and training of the 2nd Wessex Division proceeded so well that it was also sent to India in December 1914, and later received the notional title of 45th (2nd Wessex) Division.Becke, pp. 55–60.45th (2nd Wessex) Division at Long, Long Trail.
By early 1915 the need was growing for troops to be sent to various theatres of war, and the first drafts and formed units from the 1st Wessex Division began to go on active service, particularly to the Mesopotamian Front. By the end of the war only one battalion and five batteries remained in India, and most of these then participated in the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
Second World War Mobilisation and training 43rd (Wessex) Division was reformed in 1920 and became part of the Territorial Army, which replaced the TF. In the period of international tension preceding the outbreak of the Second World War, the existing territorial divisions (known as the first-line) helped form new formations, known as the second-line. This process was known as duplicating. The division's duplicate was the 45th Infantry Division.Army List, various dates.Joslen, pp. 69–70.Joslen, pp. 73–4.
The TA was mobilised on the outbreak of war in September 1939 and the division began training in its home area. In May 1940 it was preparing to go overseas to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, but the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May ended the 'Phoney War' before the division was ready.Southern Command 3 September 1939 at Patriot Files.Collier, Map 5. When the Battle of France was lost and the BEF was being evacuated from Dunkirk, 43rd (W) Division was one of the few reasonably well-equipped formations left in Home Forces to counter a German invasion of the United Kingdom. It formed part of the mobile GHQ Reserve disposed on the line from Northampton through North London to Aldershot, from which brigade groups could be despatched to any threatened area. During the period when invasion was most threatened, the division was stationed just north of London.Collier, Chapter VII.Collier, Map 6.Collier, Map 17.
By the end of 1940 the division was stationed under XII Corps in East Kent, where it remained for the next four years, first in defensive mode, later training intensively. It was later noted that its habitual training area round Stone Street, outside Folkestone, bore a marked resemblance to the Bocage countryside in Normandy where it would later fight.Joslen, pp. 69–70.Collier, Map 20.Collier, Map 27.Essame, 2–3.
In 1942, however, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the entrance of the United States into the war, the situation changed and the 43rd Division started training for offensive operations to return to mainland Europe. Throughout most of 1942, the division was part of XII Corps, serving alongside the 46th Infantry Division and 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division. XII Corps was, at the time, commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery.
In March 1942, the division also gained a new General Officer Commanding (GOC) in the form of Major-General Ivor Thomas. Thomas was a decorated officer who had served as a young battery commander in the Royal Artillery on the Western Front during the First World War where he was twice wounded and awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order. He would command the 43rd Division until September 1945.Essame, pp. 1–2. Thomas was an effective but hard-driving commander, humourless and not universally liked, sometimes known as 'Butcher', or more jocularly by Lt-Gen Brian Horrocks and others as 'Von Thoma', after the German Lt-Gen Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma captured after the Battle of Alamein. (Horrocks also jokingly referred to Thomas's command as the 'Wicked Wyvern'). Critics of his training methods regarded 43rd (Wessex) Division as 'the most over-exercised in the Army'.Christopherson, p. 484.Essame, pp. 8, 116.Saunders, Hill 112, pp. 44–6.
In June 1942, the 128th Infantry Brigade (consisting of three battalions of the Hampshire Regiment) was transferred to 46th Infantry Division. It was replaced first by 25th and later 34th Army Tank Brigade as part of an experiment with 'Mixed Divisions'. However the experiment was abandoned (deemed unsuitable for the type of terrain in North-western Europe) in late 1943 and the 34th Tank Brigade was replaced, in October 1943, by the 214th Independent Infantry Brigade, a Home Defence formation raised during the war that had been serving in Hampshire and Dorset District. After service in the Isle of Wight, 214th Brigade had received specialised training in combined operations under the Royal Marines at Inverary, and retained an individuality within the division. 214th Brigade would remain with the 43rd Division for the rest of the war.Essame, p. 4.Joslen, p. 313.Joslen, p. 203.Joslen, p. 207.Joslen, p. 377.
Operation Overlord XII Corps and 43rd (Wessex) Division were assigned to 21st Army Group for the Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord). They were follow-up formations, with 43rd (Wessex) Division scheduled to complete its landings 14 days after D Day (D +14, 20 June). However, shipping delays and a storm between 19 and 22 June delayed its arrival; the division finally concentrated round Bayeux on 24 June.Essame, pp. 15–7.