page_title: 48th (South Midland) Division
section_title: Home defence and training
hierarchical_section_title: 48th (South Midland) Division / Second World War / Home defence and training
caption_attribution_description: English: The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 Men of 1st/7th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, digging in with entrenching tools during training at Horncastle, 15 April 1942.
context_page_description: The 48th (South Midland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army. Part of the Territorial Force and raised in 1908, the division was originally called the South Midland Division, and was redesignated as the 48th (South Midland) Division in 1915. During the First World War, the division saw service on the Western Front before being transferred to the Italian Front in November 1917 and remaining there for the rest of the war.
  Reformed in 1920 in the Territorial Army as the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division, it saw active service in the Second World War with the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium and France before being evacuated from Dunkirk to the United Kingdom. It was converted into a training reserve division in December 1942, remaining in the United Kingdom in that status for the rest of the war. Disbanded after the war, the division was not reformed again. In both world wars, the division raised a second line reserve formation; the 61st Division in the First World War, and 61st Division in the Second World War.
context_section_description: The 48th Division, much depleted in numbers, completed its return to the United Kingdom on 1 June. The division, commanded from 18 June by Major General Roderic Petre, was subsequently posted to Western Command, Southern Command, and VIII Corps under Lieutenant General Harold Franklyn and began training in preparation to repel Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of England, which proved abortive.
  During the war, the divisions of the British Army were divided between "Higher Establishment" and "Lower Establishment" formations. The former were intended for deployment overseas for field operations, whereas the latter were strictly for home defence in a static role. During November 1941, the division was placed on the "Lower Establishment" and assigned to I Corps District, commanded by Lieutenant General Henry Willcox.
  During the winter of 1942–43, the British Army overhauled its training of recruits. The 48th was one of three divisions that were changed from "Lower Establishment" units to "Reserve Divisions". On 20 December, the division was renamed the 48th Infantry (Reserve) Division, becoming a training formation in the process. This reorganisation took place during 1943 and the division held this training role for the remainder of the war. These three divisions were supplemented by a fourth training formation (the 80th Infantry (Reserve) Division), which was raised on 1 January 1943. The 48th Infantry (Reserve) Division was assigned to Northern Command Soldiers who had completed their corps training were sent to these training divisions. The soldiers were given five weeks of additional training at the section, platoon and company level, before undertaking a final three-day exercise. Troops would then be ready to be sent overseas to join other formations. Training was handled in this manner to relieve the "Higher Establishment" divisions from being milked for replacements for other units and to allow them to intensively train without having to cope with recruits. During this period, from 17 October 1942 until 30 September 1943, the 10th Tank Brigade was assigned to the division for the holding and training of reinforcements to armoured units. On 7 November 1943, the 145th Infantry Brigade was disbanded.
  On 30 June 1944, the 48th Infantry (Reserve) Division, along with the other training divisions (the 76th, 77th, and the 80th), had a combined total of 22,355 men. Of this number, only 1,100 were immediately available as replacements for the 21st Army Group, at the time of Operation Overlord and the Battle of Normandy. The remaining 21,255 men were considered ineligible for service abroad due to a variety of reasons, ranging from medical, not being considered fully fit or insufficiently trained. Over the following six months, up to 75 per cent of these men were deployed to reinforce the 21st Army Group, following the completion of their training and having met the required fitness levels. In 2007, Stephen Hart wrote that, by September, the 21st Army Group "had bled Home Forces dry of draftable riflemen", due to the losses suffered in the Battle of Normandy, leaving the army in Britain (with the exception of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division) with just "young lads, old men and the unfit".
  Due to the decreased need for such a formation, the division was disbanded after the war on 1 November 1945.
caption: Men of the 1/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, digging in with entrenching tools during training at Horncastle, 15 April 1942.
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