heavy (only 140 men of all ranks survived), including its commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Dobbs who was wounded in the early stages of the battle (he was replaced by Major C. McN. Cochran). Major Cochran then led the remnants of the battalion, along with the remaining five guns of 9th Field Battery eastwards towards the lines of the Scottish (these were the only guns in 5 Brigade which were not captured!), in an attempt to escape. In addition, several members of the unit drowned while on their way to Italy by ship as prisoners of war. The survivors of the regiment served with New Zealand forces until the end of November when they rejoined the remnants of the decimated Brigade at Mersa Matruh. Due to their heavy losses, the South African Irish and 3 Transvaal Scottish ceased to exist as independent infantry units. In February 1942, the survivors of these two battalions joined together to form a composite battalion and it was later reconstituted as 2nd Regiment Botha under command of Lt-Col Boerstra. 2nd Regiment Botha was then further reinforced with replacements coming from the 2nd Witwatersrand Rifles after which, the battalion moved by rail and in New Zealand troop carriers from Mersa Matruh to El Adem. In this form, the remnants of the South African Irish were once again in action during September 1942, during the fighting at El Alamein. 11 Battery, 4 Field Regiment, South African Artillery, returned to the Union of South Africa in 1943 and was reconstituted as 4/22 Field Regiment, South African Artillery. This unit later returned to North Africa as a component of the South African 6th Armoured Division and also took part in the subsequent fighting in Italy. The regiment received four battle honours (see below) for its service during World War II, but they were not awarded immediately because, at the time of the publication of the honours, the unit was an artillery regiment – artillery regiments in the South African Army do not carry any honours. However, when the regiment was later converted back to an infantry unit it became entitled to those honours and they were incorporated into the colour of the regiment. Post-War At the end of World War II, it was requested that the regiment be reformed as an infantry unit. However, as there was no intention at that time to establish additional Active Citizen Force infantry battalions, this