The division, as the 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division (Major-General Edmund Osborne), was mobilised on 3 September 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War. Initially in Southern and then Eastern Command, the division was sent overseas where it joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France on 1 April 1940 and was assigned to III Corps (Lieutenant-General Ronald Forbes Adam). It took part in the Battle of St Omer-La Bassée (2329 May) during the retreat to Dunkirk. At the end of May 1940 the division was evacuated from at Dunkirk after the German Army threatened to cut off and destroy the entire BEF from the French Army during the battles of France and Belgium.