(such as transferring men from the Royal Artillery and Royal Air Force to be retrained as infantry), the War Office began disbanding divisions to downsize the army so as to transfer men to other units to help keep those as close to full strength as possible. The 77th (Holding) Division was one of several lower establishment divisions, within the United Kingdom, chosen to be disbanded. The R Force, a British deception unit, seized upon this opportunity to retain the division as a phantom unit to inflate the army's order of battle. A cover story was established to explain the change in the division's status. It was claimed that, with the war nearing an end, several Territorial Army divisions would revert to their peacetime recruiting role and release their equipment and resources to other units. For the 77th, this equipment would be notionally transferred from the 45th Division. With the transfer of equipment, the 77th Division was notionally raised to the higher establishment. The notional division was held in reserve, within the United Kingdom, pending a future use elsewhere. Thaddeus Holt's The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War states after the division was retained for deception purposes, it was "apparently never used." Order of battle Notes Footnotes Citations References External links A member of the 77th Infantry Division poses for a public relations photo on an armed trawler, Devon c.1942. Infantry divisions of the British Army in World War II Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944