page_title: 4th Infantry Division (India)
section_title: North Africa
hierarchical_section_title: 4th Infantry Division (India) / History / North Africa
caption_attribution_description: English: The Fourth Indian Division in Tunisia As the sun sets the Fourth Indian Division leave ther last positions at the Eighth Army front and move forward to join the First Army. The fourth Indian Division, who had been in at the great battles of the Western Desert, was part of the force which drove down the Medjerda valley to the capture of Tunis and Cape Bon. It was to an officer of this Division that the German General Von Arnim surrendered.
context_page_description: The 4th Indian Infantry Division, also known as the Red Eagle Division, is the infantry division name the Indian Army retained after the present India adopted its entire rank and structure from its parent Army, the British Army.
  The division was formed in Egypt in 1939 during the Second World War. As with all formations in the British Army, it primarily had British officers and a few Indians in lower ranks but had a few Indian officers with junior ranks as high as Captain. During the Second World War, it took part in campaigns in East Africa, Syria, North Africa and Italy.
context_section_description: During the war, the 4th Indian Division was in the vanguard of nine campaigns in the Mediterranean theatre. Major-General The Hon. P. Gerald Scarlett appears to have been the division's first commander, from October 1939 to January 1940. The British 14th Infantry Brigade was attached to the division from 1 June to 20 July 1940; the British 16th Infantry Brigade was attached from 9 September 1940 to 14 December 1940. In the first of Archibald Wavell's operations in Egypt, as part of the Western Desert Force, it took part in Operation Compass in December 1940. The division was involved in the battles of that campaign in the camps around Sidi Barrani. Along with the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, the 11th Indian Infantry Brigade of the 4th Indian Infantry Division destroyed the Italian Maletti Group at the Nibiewa Camp.
caption: The 4th Indian Division in Tunisia. It was to an officer of this Division that General Von Arnim surrendered.
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