home posting, and returned to the UK in 1923. Meanwhile, the 2nd Battalion was posted to India, with a five-month interlude in Shanghai at short notice from February 1927 when warring Chinese factions threatened the Shanghai International Settlement. In 1928, the 2nd Battalion returned to the UK and the 1st Battalion was posted overseas, serving three years in Egypt, a year in Singapore and six years in India before ending up in Burma in 1938. Prompted by concerns of an Italian invasion following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the 2nd Battalion was sent at short notice to Egypt in January 1936, returning to the UK in January 1937. The following year, the 5th Battalion became the regiment's sole territorial unit when the 4th Battalion was converted to the 66th (Gloucesters) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery (RA), and the 6th Battalion converted to the 44th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment. On the eve of the Second World War, the Territorial Army (TA), as the Territorial Force had been renamed, was doubled in size, and the 7th Battalion was created in August 1939 as the second-line duplicate of the 5th Battalion. Second World War On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the Gloucestershire Regiment comprised: 1st Battalion – stationed around Rangoon in Burma 2nd Battalion – assigned to the 8th Infantry Brigade in the 3rd Division 5th Battalion (TA) – assigned to the 144th Infantry Brigade in the 48th Division 7th Battalion (TA) – assigned to the 183rd Infantry Brigade in the 61st Division Battle of France The 2nd Battalion deployed to France on 2 October 1939 and was transferred to the 145th Brigade in the 48th Division in March 1940. This brought it alongside the 5th Battalion in the division's 144th Brigade, which had arrived in France on 15 January 1940. In May 1940, during the Battle of France, the German breakthrough at Sedan precipitated a retreat to Dunkirk. The 5th Battalion marched in 83 hours with little food or sleep before eventually picking up transport at Tournai where, on 19 May, the 2nd Battalion lost 194 men killed or missing in a matter of minutes to an airstrike. The regiment gained some respite on 20 May, when the two battalions held positions along the River Escaut (Scheldt) for two days before the British Expeditionary Force resumed its retreat. On 25 May, the 2nd Battalion, having by now suffered 219 casualties,