Cap badge 52nd Lowland regiment

white metal construction. both eyelets present

UITVERKOCHT / SOLD
Betaalwijzes

The division first saw action in June 1940 where, following the Dunkirk evacuation, the 52nd Division was shipped to France as part of the Second British Expeditionary Force (2BEF) to cover the withdrawal of Allied forces near Cherbourg during Operation Ariel.[7] The division returned to the United Kingdom and, like most of the rest of the British Army after Dunkirk, began training to repel an expected German invasion, which never occurred. From May 1942 until June 1944, the 52nd was trained in a mountain warfare capacity, originally for a proposed invasion of Norway. However, the division was never employed in this role. Following June 1944, the 52nd Division was reorganised and trained in airlanding operations.[5] As part of this new role, the division was transferred to the First Allied Airborne Army.[6] By this time, the 52nd Division, now under the command of Major General Edmund Hakewill-Smith, was the only operational formation in the United Kingdom.

Men of the 5th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry training in the mountains near Inverness, Scotland, 22 October 1942.
Several operations were planned for the division, following the successful conclusion of the Normandy Campaign. Operation Transfigure planned to have the British 1st and American 101st Airborne Divisions capture landing strips near Rambouillet, for the 52nd Division to land at. The three divisions would have then blocked the German line of retreat towards Paris.[8] Operation Linnet proposed using most of the First Allied Airborne Army, including the 52nd Division, to seize areas in north-eastern France to block the German line of retreat.[9] As part of Operation Market Garden, the British 1st Airborne Division was given a subsidiary mission of capturing Deelen airfield, on which the 52nd Division would land.[10] Due to the disastrous course of events that unfolded during the Battle of Arnhem, where the 1st Airborne Division was virtually destroyed and lost almost 8,000 men, the 52nd Division was not deployed

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