50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division
The 50th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that saw distinguished service in the Second World War. Pre-war, the division was part of the Territorial Army and the two Ts in the divisional insignia represent the two main rivers of its recruitment area, namely the rivers Tyne, and Tees. The division served in almost all of the major engagements of the European War from 1940 until late 1944 and also served with distinction in North Africa, the Mediterranean and Middle East from mid-1941 to 1943. The 50th Division was one of two British divisions to land in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, where it landed on Gold Beach. Four men of the division were awarded the Victoria Cross during the war, more than any other division of the British Army during the Second World War.
Inter-war period
In 1921, the Territorial Force was reconstituted as the Territorial Army following the passage of the Territorial Army and Militia Act 1921. This resulted in the 50th Infantry Division being formed. It contained the same infantry brigades as before, the 149th, 150th, and 151st.Motor division
British military doctrine development during the inter-war period resulted in the three kinds of divisions by the end of the 1930s: the infantry division, the mobile division, and the motor division. Historian David French wrote "The main role of the infantry... was to break into the enemy's defensive position." This would then be exploited by the Mobile division, followed by the motor divisions that would "carry out the rapid consolidation of the ground captured by the Mobile divisions" therefore "transform the 'break-in' into a 'break-through." As a result, in 1938, the army decided to create six such Motor Divisions from Territorial Army units. Only three infantry divisions were converted into motor divisions prior to the war, this included the 50th alongside the 55th and the 1st London. The reform intended to reduce the division from three to two brigades along with a similar reduction in artillery. French wrote that the motor division "matched that of the German army's motorized and light divisions. But there the similarities ended." German motorized divisions contained three brigades and were as fully equipped as a regular infantry division, while the smaller light divisions contained a tank battalion. Whereas the motor division, while being fully motorized and capable of transporting all their infantry, contained no tanks and was "otherwise much weaker than normal infantry divisions" or their German counterparts.Following this, some of the division's infantry battalions were converted to anti-aircraft regiments, and the entire 149th Brigade was converted into divisional support units for other formations.
Buildup to the Second World War
Throughout the 1930s, tensions built between Germany and the United Kingdom and its allies. During late 1937 and 1938, German demands for the annexation of Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia led to an international crisis. To avoid war, the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, met with the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in September and came to the Munich Agreement, the German annexation of Sudetenland. Chamberlain had intended the agreement to lead to further peaceful resolution of differences, but relations between both countries soon deteriorated. On 15 March 1939, Germany breached the terms of the agreement by invading and occupying the remnants of the Czech state.On 29 March, the British Secretary of State for War Leslie Hore-Belisha announced plans to increase the Territorial Army from 130,000 men to 340,000, doubling the number of divisions. The plan was for the existing divisions to recruit over their establishments and then form Second Line divisions from small cadres that could be built upon. This was aided by an increase in pay for territorials, the removal of restrictions on promotion that had been a major hindrance to recruiting during the preceding years, the construction of better quality barracks and an increase in supper-time rations. The 23rd Division was to be created as a Second Line unit, a duplicate of the 50th. Despite the intention for the army to grow, the programme was complicated by a lack of central guidance on the expansion and duplication process and issues regarding the lack of facilities, equipment and instructors. It had been envisioned by the War Office that the duplicating process and recruiting the required numbers of men would take no more than six months. The 50th Motor Division started this process in March, creating new units based around an initial cadre of just 25 officers and men. In April, limited conscription was introduced. At that time 34,500 militiamen, all aged 20, were conscripted into the regular army, initially to be trained for six months before being deployed to the forming second line units. The process varied widely in the TA divisions. Some were ready in weeks while others had made little progress by the time the Second World War began.
Opening months, France and the BEF
The division, along with most of the rest of the TA, was mobilised on 1 September 1939, the day the German Army invaded Poland. From the new units it created in March, the 50th Division created the 69th Infantry Brigade as a Second Line duplicate of the 150th Infantry Brigade, and the 70th Infantry Brigade as a Second Line duplicate of the 151st Infantry Brigade. These brigades had been created by the outbreak of the war and were administered by the 50th Division until the 23rd divisional headquarters was formed on 2 October 1939. At this point, they were transferred to the new division.The war-time deployment of the TA envisioned the divisions being deployed singly, to reinforce the regular army that had already been dispatched to the European mainland, as equipment became available. The plan envisioned the deployment of the whole TA in waves, as divisions completed their training. The final divisions would not be transported to France until a year had elapsed from the outbreak of war. In October, the division was concentrated in the Cotswolds to train for overseas service, which continued into the winter. In January 1940, the division was moved to France to join the British Expeditionary Force. The division disembarked at Cherbourg on 19 January 1940, and was assigned to II Corps. By March, the division was at work preparing the defences in the Lille—Loos area.
When the German attack began on 10 May, the British and French enacted their Dyle Plan and advanced to the River Dyle in Belgium. The next day, the 25th Infantry Brigade and other supporting units were added to the division while it was in reserve on the Belgian border. It was ordered to move on 16 May, and the division headed towards Brussels and took up positions on the river Dender, only to end up part of the Allied withdrawal. By 19 May, it was on Vimy ridge, north of Arras. It had become known to the Allies that the German Army's southern spearheads had pierced the Peronne–Cambrai gap and were threatening Boulogne and Calais, cutting the BEF's lines of communication and separating it from the main French armies. A plan by French General Maxime Weygand to close this gap between the French and British forces included Frankforce, consisting of the 5th and 50th Divisions and the 1st Army Tank Brigade attacking southward, and French divisions attacking northward from around Cambrai.
Arras
Instead of divisions, the attack was made by two battalion sized columns, with many tanks of the armoured units already unserviceable. Of the 5th Infantry Division's two brigades, one had been sent to hold the line of the river Scarpe to the east of Arras, together with the 150th Brigade of the 50th Division, while the other was in reserve. The two columns comprised the 6th and 8th Battalions of the Durham Light Infantry of 151st Brigade supporting the 4th and 7th Royal Tank Regiment, one of each in both columns, artillery and other supporting troops, totalling 74 tanks and around 2,000 men. Attacking on 21 May, the right column initially made rapid progress, taking the villages of Duisans and Warlus and a number of German prisoners but they soon ran into German infantry and Waffen-SS, and were counterattacked by Stukas and tanks and had many casualties. The left column also enjoyed early success, taking Danville, Beaurains and reaching the planned objective of Wancourt before running into opposition from the infantry units of Generalmajor Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division.French tanks and troop carriers enabled British soldiers to evacuate Warlus, and the carriers of the 9th Durham Light Infantry helped those in Duisans withdraw to their former positions that night. Next day the Germans regrouped and continued their advance; Frankforce had taken around 400 German prisoners and inflicted a similar number of casualties, as well as destroying a number of tanks. The attack had been so effective that 7th Panzer Division believed it had been attacked by five infantry divisions. The attack also made the German commanders of Panzergruppe von Kleist nervous, with forces left behind to guard lines of communication.