Second Battle of the Somme in August 1918, the Battles of the Hindenburg Line and the Final Advance in Picardy. The 16th (Service) Battalion (St Pancras) landed at Le Havre as part of the 117th Brigade in the 39th Division in March 1916 for service on the Western Front. The battalion saw action at the Battle of the Somme in Autumn 1916, the Battle of Pilckem Ridge in August 1917 and the Battle of Langemarck in August 1917 as well as the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge in September 1917, the Battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917 and the Second Battle of Passchendaele in November 1917 before taking part in the Battle of St Quentin in March 1918 and the Second Battle of Bapaume in August 1918. Inter-war deployment In October 1922 the 2nd Battalion was deployed to Turkey as part of the response to the Chanak Crisis, which had followed Turkish efforts to push the Greek armies out of Turkey and restore Turkish rule in the Allied occupied territories of Turkey, primarily in Constantinople. Second World War The 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade was in England on the outbreak of the Second World War, originally part of the 1st Support Group, part of the 1st Armoured Division. In late April 1940, however, the battalion transferred to the newly created 30th Infantry Brigade and landed in France the following month within the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) but was lost at the defence of Calais, where the brigade slowed the German advance and enabled the Dunkirk evacuation to proceed. The battalion was reformed in the United Kingdom and became part of the 2nd Armoured Brigade of the 1st Armoured Division and took part in many battles in the North African Campaign before transferring to the 22nd Armoured Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division in June 1942. Now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Stephens, the 1st Battalion's four 6-pounders were credited with destroying many tanks from the 21st Panzer Division at the Battle of Alam el Halfa on 31 August 1942. The 1st Battalion subsequently took part in the Second Battle of El Alamein and the Tunisian Campaign until May 1943 when the war in North Africa ended with the surrender of almost 250,000 German and Italian soldiers. The battalion, with the rest of the 7th Armoured Division, took part in the Allied invasion of Italy, and the early stages of