engineer, signal, and other support units being brought up to full strength. The divisional history claims, "within little more than a month of Dunkirk", the division "was better equipped than it had ever been in the dark days in France". On 27 July, Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke, the commander-in-chief, Home Forces, visited the division. He recorded in his diary that he found the division "in a lamentably backward state of training, barely fit to do platoon training and deficient of officers". The division was based initially along the Fife coastline, to prevent any potential German landings, before it moved to Dumfries. There the division trained for the remainder of 1940. On 14 December, Anderson was promoted to lieutenant-general and replaced by Major-General Charles Edward Hudson as GOC; Hudson was a distinguished First World War veteran and a recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), who had previously commanded the 2nd Infantry Brigade during the fighting in France. In January 1941, the division left Scotland and travelled to Cambridgeshire. Subsequently, it moved to Norfolk where it undertook varying duties alongside training; anti-invasion duties that included manning coastal defences, airfield defence, and training Home Guard battalions. The division also conducted field exercises across East Anglia. On 22 May, Major-General Douglas Wimberley briefly took command of the division, after Hudson was demoted on the grounds of being unfit for command of a division. In June, Major-General Miles Dempsey replaced Wimberley, who was reassigned to command the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division. On 24 June, Brooke inspected the division again and noted the improvement in the soldiers' training since his last visit. At the end of October, Dempsey was assigned to the 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division to lead it during its conversion into an armoured division. Dempsey was replaced by Major-General Harold Freeman-Attwood, and the division moved to Kent in November. In Kent, the division established a 'Battle School', and spent the remainder of 1941 and the majority of 1942 training and undertaking exercises. During this period, the division was brought up to full strength. Notably, the division conducted an exercise on Lewes Downs that was watched by Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower. On 19 July, the 137th Brigade left, temporarily reducing the division to two brigades. The 128th Infantry Brigade replaced it on 15 August. This brigade was composed of the 1/4th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment (1/4HR), the 2/4HR, and the 5HR. During late 1941 and