History
The 59th Division was reconstituted on 21 August 1939 as a duplicate of the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division. Having been kept in Britain until mid-1944, the division's lead units landed in Normandy as part of the Second Army on 26 June. Attached to I Corps for Operation Charnwood, the division was employed in the north-western outskirts of Caen, fighting heavily against elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division. Subsequently the division was attached to XII Corps in the Odon Valley.
Montgomery named the 59th, along with seven other divisions, as one of the reliable divisions within 21st army group, bemoaning that divisions such as the 7th Armoured, 3rd Infantry and 51st Infantry were not combat worthy after their initial performance, inland, after landing.
It fought in Normandy until 18 August 1944 when, due to the severe casualties suffered by other British units in the British Second Army, it was disbanded and its men used as badly needed reinforcements for the rest of the Second Army. It was chosen because it was the most junior of the British divisions in Normandy.
The Division's last major action was in the town of Thury-Harcourt, where there is now a road named after the commander at the time: the Avenue du General Lyne. In the time after this period, 197th Brigade (containing 5th Bn East Lancs, 2nd/5th Lancashire Fusiliers and 1st/7th Royal Warwicks) became a battlefield clearance brigade, tasked with tidying up parts of the Normandy battlefield and returning any ditched, dumped or lost but serviceable equipment.
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