The 2nd Battalion , Royal Warwickshire Regiment , a Regular Army unit , had been serving in England since 1931 and , upon the outbreak of the Second World War , was serving alongside the 2nd Battalion , Dorset Regiment and the 1st Battalion , Queen 's Own Cameron Highlanders in the 5th Infantry Brigade , part of the 2nd Infantry Division . In late September 1939 , the battalion was sent overseas to France to join the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) on the Franco-Belgian border , where it remained for many months , not involved in any major engagements . On 5 February 1940 , due to official BEF policy , the battalion was exchanged in the brigade for the 7th Battalion , Worcestershire Regiment and transferred to the 144th Infantry Brigade , which was attached to the 48th ( South Midland ) Infantry Division , a Territorial division . Serving in the brigade alongside the 2nd Battalion were the 8th Battalion , Worcestershires and the 5th Battalion , Gloucestershire Regiment . The battalion , now under command of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Hicks ( an officer of the regiment who would serve with distinction in the war ) , fought in the Battle of France in May 1940 , fighting at the defence of the Escaut , Wormhoudt , where they from the Wormhoudt massacre and fought on the Ypres-Comines Canal during the retreat to Dunkirk , from where they were evacuated to England , most of the remaining men arriving on 1 June 1940 . After Dunkirk , the battalion moved , with the rest of the brigade and division , to Somerset to counter a German invasion . In early December , however , the battalion was transferred to the 24th Independent Guards Brigade Group , alongside two battalions of Foot Guards , the 1st Scots Guards and the 1st Welsh Guards , and was not , unlike most of the rest of the Army , committed to beach defence duties . At the time , the brigade was stationed in London under command of London District . In September 1942 , the battalion was transferred to the 185th Infantry Brigade , which was originally assigned as the motorised infantry brigade of the 79th Armoured Division . However , the brigade was then transferred to the 3rd Infantry Division , and landed on D-Day on 6 June 1944 with the first assault on the Normandy beaches and fought from the Battle for Caen and the break out from Normandy to the Rhine crossing . The brigade also took part in the capture of Bremen , the last major action of the North West Europe Campaign . From D-Day until the end of the war , the 2nd Battalion , Royal Warwickshire Regiment lost 286 officers and men killed in action , with nearly another 1,000 all ranks wounded , missing or suffering from exhaustion
Wormhoudt massacre
Wormhoudt massacre
Royal Warwickshire Regiment