Book Description

The units of the 46th (North Midland) Division came from Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Having sailed for France in February 1915 it became the first complete territorial division to serve on the Western Front. It was transferred to the Loos sector in October and hastily thrown against a German strongpoint - the Hohenzollern Redoubt - on the afternoon of the 13 October 1915. The disaster which followed this attack was repeated the following year on the opening day of the battle of the Somme, when it sustained heavy losses during the diversionary attack at Gommecourt. This book details the Division's involvement in the fighting around Lens in the summer of 1917. This much overlooked period of the Division's history helped re-established its reputation as a formidable fighting unit which was borne out the following year when it successfully crossed the St. Quentin Canal - famously breaking the Hindenburg Line.