There is an entry in the 24th L - War Diary - Whitby 23/1/42 1st Corps Exercise “Overland “ began. No reference here... Military Training in the British Army, 1940-1944 Or in... Churchill's Spearhead Churchill's Spearhead - does however mention a number of other Exercises at around the same time... i.e. "Exercise Dragon" - Aldershot January 1941, and a Northern Command "Exercise Alfred" in April 1942 - where "several sections from 11 SAS represented German parachute troops". Or on Google with "1942"... and "exercise overland" https://www.google.com/search?q=1942+"Exercise+Overland"&sxsrf=AOaemvJgiyDizigVexeRmZjrWmPjSN0avQ:1642919525135&source=hp&ei=ZfbsYYHWBZP5gQbJzbqYBw&oq=1942+"Exercise+Overland" https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Corps_(United_Kingdom) Has... North-West Europe After returning to England (from the 1940 Battle of France) I Corps then remained in the United Kingdom, based at Hickleton Hall in South Yorkshire within Northern Command on anti-invasion duties, preparing defences to repel a German invasion of the United Kingdom. Overall these 24th L War Diary entries are pretty sparse, so it's hard to tie down events particularly... or even see whether for instance 1st Corps Exercise “Overland “ ever ended... we know at least from the War Diary though that it "began" ;-) Whitby 22/1/42 3rd Armoured Group Commander, Major Gen Sir.M.O.M’Creagh, visited the Regiment. Whitby 23/1/42 1st Corps Exercise “Overland “ began. Whitby 30/1/42 The Commanding Officer congratulated Sgt.Malt and Sgt.Thaxter upon they’re winning the Divisional MiddleWeight and Heavy Weight Boxing Championships. "None Had Lances" though does fill in bit of a gap here, albeit with a brief entry at the bottom of page 22, noting a "First Corps Exercise" at "the end of January 1942" - that - "lasted several days" - however no further details unfortunately - other than that it was "comprehensive". There is an online pdf A CONCISE HISTORY OF: I CORPS (HISTORY & PERSONNEL). Author: Robert PALMER, M.A. with... "In late 1941, as part of a reorganisation, the corps was redesignated as I Corps District, reflecting its status as a static command. In 1942, the Corps began exercising battle movement and the handling of armoured divisions. The Corps staff was also exercised to bring them up to operational standards for modern warfare. The 4th Infantry Division transferred from V Corps to join this Corps on 26 October 1942. It left on 6 February 1943 to prepare for deployment to North Africa to reinforce 1st Army. A directive in March 1943 ordered the corps to commence planning and training for an assault against a defended beach. In June of that year, a Corps training camp was established in Scotland, and this coincided with the appointment of Lieutenant General J. T. CROCKER as the Corps Commander. The training built-up from sub-unit exercises, to a full divisional exercise in September and October. There was a lot of issues to discover, identify and solve, ranging from fire support to the employment of airborne troops. Increasingly, the Corps began working with the 79th Armoured Division and specialist engineers. In March 1943, the 3rd Infantry Division joined the Corps, followed by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in December 1943 and the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division in February 1944. The 6th Airborne Division came under command in May 1944, to complete the formations that would lead the invasion of France. The final pre-invasion exercises were held between January and May 1944, and the briefing of troops commenced."
I am puzzled that Google returns hits on Exercise Overland, when in fact is was Operation Overlord. Albeit not in WW2 and in a different organization that used code words I am surprised both names were used. Have you tried this article by David French 'Invading Europe: The British army and its preparations for the Normandy campaign, 1942-44', in a 2010 journal (behind a pay wall). See: Invading Europe: The British army and its preparations for the Normandy campaign, 1942-44 With inspiration from the remarks of a later CO of 1st Corps, how about checking the biographies of the corps and divisional commanders? See: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edit...xercise"+++"1942"&pg=PT25&printsec=frontcover
Usually the passage of time and occasionally rechecking what's new online provides that eureka moment. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that simple typo's creep in, not least those caused in the modern age by "spell checks". Sometimes something even turns up on the IWM albeit it can be quite hard to find, there are possibly ones there of a "1 corps" exercise in late January 1942 within Northern Command that might one day be matched and certainly the biographies of the corps and divisional commanders of 1 Corps could help with that, along with any matching late January 1942 entries in the relevant 1 Corps unit war diaries. I'm never sure if some of these Exercises will be referenced too in civilian accounts, often it can be a long remembered highlight in some area's Second World War, talked about for years afterwards, possibly with very little knowledge though as to "what the fuss was about" - a couple of things particularly caught my eye, the reference (above) to 1 corps "anti-invasion duties, preparing defences to repel a German invasion of the United Kingdom" and the remark in NHL that the Exercise was "comprehensive". Possibly the 24th Lancers - not themselves being in "1 corps" were acting as a Panzer part of the the "German invasion" - as I think can be seen for some other units in some South Coast / Kent exercises covered by the IWM later - Exercise Tiger - 1942 - THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1939-45 H 20265 - DESCRIPTION - Object description - Valentine tank of 11th Armoured Division, marked with crosses to indicate an 'enemy' vehicle, followed by a universal carrier, during exercises in Kent, 30 May 1942. And it is only very rarely that the IWM object descriptions stretch to fully explain what might be seen. Sometimes the associated caption cards can provide useful extra details, sometimes they can contradict :-( .
