The 21st Indian Infantry Division was a division of the

Indian Army during World War II The Indian Army during World War II, a British force also referred to as the British Indian Army, began the war, in 1939, numbering just under 200,000 men.Sumner, p.25 By the end of the war, it had become the largest volunteer army in history, ...

. It was formed in April 1944 in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

and is now part of

IV Corps or Gajraj corps.

History

The 21st Indian Infantry Division was a division of the

. It was formed in April 1944, in

. It never saw any combat and its only sub unit was the 268th Indian Infantry Brigade. The division was disbanded and its units transferred to become the 44th Airborne Division in June 1944. On formation,

268th Indian Infantry Brigade The 268th Indian Infantry Brigade is an infantry formation of the Indian Army, previously of the British Indian Army. History It was initially formed as 268th Indian Armoured Brigade at Sialkot in July 1942, with three regiments of the Indian Ar ...

, converted from 268th Indian Armoured Brigade in August 1942, consisted of 17/

7th Rajput Regiment 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

, 2/

4th Bombay Grenadiers The Grenadiers is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army, formerly part of the Bombay Army and later the pre-independence British Indian Army, when the regiment was known as the 4th Bombay Grenadiers. It has distinguished itself during the tw ...

, 5/4th Bombay Grenadiers, 2nd Battalion, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, 2nd Battalion,

The South Lancashire Regiment The South Lancashire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment, which recruited, as its title suggests, primarily from the South Lancashire area, was created as part of the Childers Ref ...

, 429th Field Company

Indian Engineers The Indian Army Corps of Engineers is a combat support arm which provides combat engineering support, develops infrastructure for armed forces and other defence organisations and maintains connectivity along the borders, besides helping the civil ...

, and

45 Cavalry 45 Cavalry is an armoured regiment in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. The regiment distinguished itself in operations during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War winning one Maha Vir Chakra. Raising The first 45th Cavalry was formed in August 191 ...

. The division was reformed within the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Arm ...

after the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...

and is now part of IV Corps. It was raised in 1963 and assigned to

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

, west of 5 Mountain Division.Kenneth Conboy et al, Elite Forces of India and Pakistan, p.8

Also see

IV Corps (India) The IV Corps, or the Gajraj Corps, is a military field formation of the Indian Army, covering the states of Assam and western Arunachal Pradesh. History IV Corps under Lieutenant General NMS Irwin was deployed from the Middle East in January ...

Eastern Command (India) The Eastern Command is one of the six operational commands of the Indian Army. It is headquartered in Fort William in the city of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal. The Eastern Command was formed on 1 November 1920. The Command is commande ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:21 Indian Infantry Division Indian World War II divisions Divisions of the Indian Army British Indian Army divisions Military units and formations established in 1944 Military units and formations of the British Empire in World War II