outbreak of the Second World War Galloway was commanding the 1st Battalion The Cameronians. In February 1940 he was selected to command, in the rank of acting brigadier, the new Staff College at Haifa in Palestine. In August he was appointed chief staff officer (BGS – Brigadier-General Staff) to Lieutenant-General Henry Maitland Wilson's HQ British Troops Egypt. Wilson lent Galloway to Richard O'Connor, commander of the Western Desert Force to help in the planning of Operation Compass. His substantive rank was advanced to full colonel in December 1940. In early 1941, while still Wilson's BGS, Galloway traveled to Greece (with a pause in Crete where, between 19 February and 7 March, he assumed temporary command of forces on the island) where Wilson was to assume command of 'W Force', the Commonwealth Expeditionary force that arrived during March and April. Overwhelmed by superior German forces in the Battle of Greece, the expeditionary force was forced to evacuate the Greek mainland by the end of April and Galloway returned to Cairo to take command of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, which was in the process of reforming. Galloway was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in July. Although sent as part of 6th Infantry Division to reinforce Australian I Corps fighting in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign, the brigade saw no action and by September Galloway was back in Cairo to take up the appointment as BGS to Alan Cunningham, the commander of the newly formed Eighth Army. On 23 November, during Operation Crusader, learning that the British armour had been heavily defeated by the tanks of Erwin Rommel's Africa Corps, Cunningham drafted orders to discontinue the offensive and withdraw his forces. Galloway, on his own initiative, delayed issuing the orders and contacted Cairo to suggest that Claude Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command, should come forward to review the situation personally. In the meantime, Galloway discussed the situation with Cunningham's two corps commanders and learned that both Willoughby Norrie (XXX Corps) and Reade Godwin-Austen (XIII Corps) felt the offensive should be continued. These views Galloway passed on during the subsequent conference with Auchinleck at Eighth Army HQ. Consequently, Auchinleck ordered Cunningham to continue the offensive. Although Rommel's "dash to the wire", an attempt to sever Eighth Army's lines of supply, caused alarm and confusion in Eighth Army's rear echelon, Rommel's armour was held at the Libyan border with Egypt by