46th (North Midland) Division

46th (North Midland) Division

The British 46th (North Midland) Division was a 1st Line Territorial Force division in World War I. At the outbreak of the war, the 46th Division was commanded by Major General Hon. E.J. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley. Originally called the 'North Midland Division', it was redesignated as the 46th Division in 1915.

The division was sent to France in February 1915 and served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War. During the Battle of Loos the Division was decimated in an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13 October 1915.

It was later involved in the Battle of the Somme (1916), where in the opening phase as part of VII Corps, the southern-most corps of the Third Army, the Division took part in the diversionary attack at Gommecourt on the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, which was a catastrophic failure resulting in heavy losses to its numbers, and the event of which dogged the Division afterwards with a poor reputation until 29 September 1918, when it re-established its name at the St. Quentin Canal where, utilising life-belts and collapsible boats, it crossed the formidale obstacle of the canal and used scaling ladders to surmount the steep gradient of the opposite bank and captured multiple fortified hostile machine gun posts covering that point.

The division was disbanded in 1936, but the 46th Infantry Division was formed in 1939.

• The 46th (North Midland) Division memorial.

• The memorial honouring the casualties of the 46th Division at the Hohenzollern Redoubt

• 46th Division Memorial near Bellenglise (Hindenburg Line)