The next few weeks for the 56th Division were hectic as it began to mobilise for service overseas, which was completed by late August and the division left England soon after, arriving in Kirkup, Iraq in November 1942. The division formed part of Indian XXI Corps of the Tenth Army, which was given the role of preventing the Germans from reaching the Persian Gulf from the Caucasus. However, the German defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, the threat receded and the 56th Division could focus its attention on training for offensive operations, and began training in mountain warfare. In March, the division (minus the 168th Brigade) was ordered to join the British Eighth Army, then fighting in the final stages of the Tunisian Campaign. The two brigades of the division then began a 3,200-mile journey from Kirkup to Enfidaville, Tunisia. The journey took four weeks and is the longest approach march in the history of the British Army.