page_title: Beauman Division
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: Beauman Division / Prelude / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: The British Expeditionary Force (bef) in France 1939-1940 4th Battalion Border Regiment on the Somme Front, May 1940: A soldier of the 4th Battalion, Border Regiment stands by his requisitioned and well camouflaged lorry.
context_page_description: The Beauman Division was an improvised formation of the British Expeditionary Force during the Second World War, which fought in France against the German 4th Army in June 1940, during Fall Rot, the final German offensive of the Battle of France.
context_section_description: On 18 May 1940, Acting Brigadier Beauman, who was based at Rouen, was ordered by Major-General Philip de Fonblanque (General Officer Commanding Lines of Communication Troops) to strengthen his local defences. He formed Beauforce, consisting of Territorial infantry battalions that had been intended to protect lines of communication and undertake pioneer work. A second brigade-sized formation, Vicforce (named after its first commander, Colonel C. E. Vicary), was formed from five provisional battalions, made up of troops who had been employed in various depots, together with reinforcement drafts recently arrived in France.
  Beauman placed the force in a defensive position along the rivers Andelle and Béthune to defend Rouen and Dieppe from the east. Digforce was created by combining companies of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps into several battalions under Lieutenant-Colonel J. B. H. Diggle. These troops were mainly reservists who were not fit enough to join their front line units and had been detailed for construction and labour in the rear area. On 29 May, the three improvised formations were combined to form the Beauman Division and Beauman was promoted to acting Major-General in command. This was the first British division to be named after its commander since the Peninsular War.
  The use of the term "division" was to cause problems later, as it misled the French high command into thinking it was supported by artillery, engineers and signals in the same way as a regular division, rather than a collection of largely untrained troops armed only with light weapons. A plan to withdraw all the improvised forces was dropped at the request of Georges, who said that such a course of action would have "an unfortunate effect on the French Army and the French people".
caption: A soldier and lorry of "Beauforce" in May 1940.
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