The division was not sent to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, but instead moved to Kent in April 1940, joining XII Corps. When most of the BEF was forced to retreat to Dunkirk during the disastrous Battle of France in mid-1940 the division assumed a defensive posture and alternated between coastal defence duties and training to repel an expected German invasion which never arrived, due mainly to events that happened in the Battle of Britain and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in mid-1941.