Devonshire Regiment were posted to Plymouth, while the 12th Battalion defended Budleigh Salterton, Devon. As the division was engaged full time in its defensive role as well as maintaining constructed defences, it found little time to provide its battalions with field training. As a result, battalions were switched out with those from the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division for a period of one month. In the event of an actual invasion, it was intended that the battalions return to their original assignments. For example, the 4th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Ox and Bucks) moved to the coastal area and replaced a battalion from the Devon and Cornwall Division who then moved inland for training. The regimental history of the Ox and Bucks noted that they had to leave behind equipment and rear area and specialist personnel in order to make up the equipment deficiencies of the beach defence units in order for them to complete their training. The division did not solely rely on the 48th to provide training, and did engage in its own training activities. However, in an analysis of the use of umpires during such exercises, historian Timothy Harrison Place highlighted an example involving the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment: "Lance-Corporal R.I. Higgins ... took part in a night patrol that captured the opposing brigadier and his staff. For their trouble the umpires made Higgins and his comrades the victims of a retrospective artillery concentration and the brigadier carried on as if nothing had happened – as indeed did Higgins' patrol, resurrected after a short rest." Demise On 22 June 1941, Germany launched a massive attack upon the Soviet Union; this attack all but removed the threat of a German invasion of the United Kingdom. However, the British still had to consider the threat due to the possibility that the Soviet Union could collapse under the German onslaught and the ease in which Germany could transfer troops back to the west. In late 1941, the arrival of autumn and winter weather meant that the threat of invasion subsided. This, coupled with the production of new equipment for the British Army, allowed the War Office to begin steps to better balance the army due to the large number of infantry units formed during the preceding year and a half. As part of this reform, the County Divisions were disbanded. The 140 recently raised infantry battalions