became part of Somer Force. This mixed group of units under the command of Brigadier Nigel Somerset, until recently the 2nd Battalion commanding officer, fortified Cassel on the outer perimeter around Dunkirk. The Germans probed the town the next day and began assaulting it on 27 May. Somer Force held out for two days, eventually attempting to withdraw under orders on the evening of 29 May, but few made it to Dunkirk. The 2nd Battalion suffered 678 casualties at Cassel, 484 of them POWs. Meanwhile, the 5th Battalion was given a similar task at the villages of Arneke and Ledringhem, some north-west of Cassel. The battalion took up positions on 26 May, and the first attacks came the next day. By 28 May, the battalion had concentrated at Ledringhem, where it was surrounded, and it withdrew under orders in the early hours of 29 May. The survivors reached Bray Dunes before dawn the next day and were subsequently taken off the beach by little ships. The stand at Ledringham had cost the battalion 87 killed, and when it reassembled in the UK it was 400 strong. Retreat from Rangoon In March 1942, the 1st Battalion provided the rearguard for the British retreat from Rangoon during the Japanese conquest of Burma. It saw its first significant action of the war on 7 and 8 March at the Taukkyan Roadblock, and for the rest of the month operated independently to cover the retreat, fighting battles at Letpadan on 17 March and Paungde on 27 March. In a subsequent battle near Padigong, from Paungde, D Company became isolated for 17 hours and had to fight its way back to the battalion at Shwedaung. In the meantime, the battalion became part of the 63rd Indian Infantry Brigade in the 17th Infantry Division, which had to fight its way to and through Shwedaung when Japanese forces infiltrated between the rearguard and the main column. By the end of March, the 1st Battalion had been reduced to 140 all ranks, its commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Bagot, among the wounded. In mid-April, the under-strength battalion became so dispersed while protecting demolition parties at oil installations around Yenangyaung and Chauk that when Bagot returned from hospital he was informed the battalion had ceased to exist. He was nevertheless able to gather the remnants, now numbering 7 officers and 170 other ranks, at Shwebo on 27 April, and the