After this the 78th Division was, in July, withdrawn to the Middle East for a rest. The 78th Division gained notoriety when on rest in Egypt, in mid-1944, by starting the Cairo riots. Some divisional signs are known to have included 'Cairo' as a mock battle honour. However, the rest did not last long and the division, now commanded by Major General Donald Butterworth (soon replaced in October by Major General Keith Arbuthnott), soon returned to Italy, fighting around the Gothic Line, under the command of Lieutenant-General Sidney Kirkman's XIII Corps once again, which was then under the command of the U.S. Fifth Army. The division's second Italian winter was spent in the mountains, where morale was low. XIII Corps, stationed in the Apennine Mountains, suffered the highest desertion rate in Italy, with over 1,100 men going missing, more than 600, over half, coming from the 78th Division. The division transferred back to the Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Richard McCreery, in January 1945, coming under the command of V Corps, now under Lieutenant General Keightley, the 78th Division's former commander. The division's final battle was in the Battle of the Argenta Gap, part of the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy where the division ended the war in Austria.