Men of the 4th Battalion, Border Regiment travel in the back of a lorry, France, May 1940. But then at night, the Australian artillery returned the compliment tenfold! The size of a battalion could range from 500 to 1,500 troops. whose name, curiously, was the same as mine, Capt. There was much suffering but also much success, including the taking of many prisoners. R.E. We spent a very pleasant few weeks in Kirkee Barracks, which in peacetime was an R.A. Barracks and in the Officers Mess was the longest dining table of any British Army Officers Mess in the world. Good. Three months later, it became the first British unit to join a major engagement by glider, when it landed in Sicily as part of 1st Airborne Division. David G. Thanks for taking the time to read the article about the 4 Bn Borders in WW2 and your most interesting question. 1 Kings Own later fought in Italy with the 10th Indian Div. Part of the new brigade was the 4th Battalion The Border Regiment. The regiment captured an Imperial Chinese Dragon Standard which hangs in Kendal Church, and was awarded the Dragon as a regimental badge. By then, they were surrounded. 'Orontes' bound for Suez. At first they headed towards Dieppe. 4th Durham Survey Section We subsequently moved across the Ganges to Muzzaffapur, where H.Q. After an uneventful journey through the Suez Canal, with a visit to Simon Artz store in Port Said, and a few days lying in Gibraltar Harbour, we arrived at Greenock. A pathway over sunken ships and merchandise had been constructed from ship to shore and we were guided in the dark by Australians. It continued in British Army service until 1959, when it merged with The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) to form The King's Own Royal Border Regiment. The Border Regiments final independent deployment was to West Berlin in 1957. The 4th Battalion of the Borders were given the task of clearing the woods that were partially held by the Germans. moved from Aleppo to a town called Idlib, some distance away, where we remained for a further three weeks, and then returned to the military barracks in Aleppo. Anyway, I hope this helps you, David. Line of Communication troops were brigaded together as infantry to act as support to those two Divisions. I am aware WW2 Peoples War is soon to close for contributions. All this was in support of the civil police and little or no force was required. On 23 May they were in action near Amiens. Hello Joseph, Five of the new Victoria Crosses were awarded to the regiments. 4 Border Regt., 1940-1945 and R.M.O. Next day the force moved North to regroup. those of the BBC. In May the training period finished and we were transported by the Bengal Assam Railway to Mariani in Assam, passing through one railway town with the Boys Own Paper sounding name of Lumding. The best of luck to you, and thanks again!. As winter was approaching the Bn. We looked up and saw a Japanese officer looking down at us. was attached to the 4th Battalion Border Regiment, as Platoon Commander of 12th Field Company RE . Fighting had broken out at this time in Syria and the Lebanon, so the Bn. It appears the British authorities at the time suppressed news of those left behind while, for understandable propaganda reasons, playing up the relative success of Operation Dynamo. Her ended the war of the 4th Battalion, The Border Regiment. Fighting in the Forest continued for two days in support of the 5th Sherwood Foresters. On the evacuation of Palestine in 1948, it served in Somali-land, and later in the Canal Zone of Egypt. This immediately changed the role of 23rd Brigade. had attacked a strongpoint ahead of us and occupied it and we passed through them with a squadron of Matilda tanks and, by daylight, had occupied an escarpment short of El Adam. On the retreat of the German / Italian Forces, the 4th Battalion The Border Regiment occupied the airfield of El Adem. The regiment also raised 13 Territorial Army and New Army battalions during the war. But then, on hearing that Rouen had fallen into enemy hands, Fcamp became the destination. This was a well-planned and executed campaign, overcoming incredible supply difficulties. Capstick William. Mixed fortunes followed: one company was ambushed before they reached their objective and scattered. troops and travelled by road and rail down through Beirut, Tyre and Sidon to Haifa, where we entrained and eventually ended up at Amyriah transit camp west of Alexandria. This was a regimental formation of men drawn from the towns and villages of Cumberland and Westmorland: Carlisle, Penrith,. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites We arrived at Avonmouth Docks in Bristol and embarked on the liner Orontes. Between 1809 and 1814, 11 battle honours were won by the regiment. Part of the new brigade was the 4th Battalion The Border Regiment. There had been some severe fighting around Marjayoun, a nearby village, but after our arrival the main area of battle moved to the Coastal strip and, apart from twice daily shelling by the Vichy French forces, the only activity on the ground was infantry patrolling in the surrounding villages mostly at night. On the subject of the environment, I would like to make a comment here on the conditions in which the columns were operating. The Bn. The hotel there was situated in an elevated area above a lake with broad steps the whole way down from the hotel to the lake, which, when lighted up at night, was a lovely spectacle. 1/4th Border Regiment 2/4th Border Regiment (home service battalion) 3/4th Border Regiment (depot/training battalion) Roll of Honour[edit| edit source| hide] By January 1915, it was back in Britain and later that year fought at Gallipoli. Soon, other battalions of the regiment were formed. During the day there were frequent attacks on the Company positions by Stuka dive-bombers, but I only remember two fatal casualties from all these attacks. 1st battalion, 8th infantry, 4th infantry division vietnam. I was unlucky enough to develop malaria, but, as I carried plenty of Mepacrine tablets, I treated the attacks myself and did not go to hospital. The date of the first contact with the enemy was early on the morning of 24th May 1940. After re-training for D-Day, the battalion eventually had to wait until August 1944 to deploy to North-West Europe. The fighting continued all day in the beautiful spring day until nightfall when all the companies withdrew, taking numbers of prisoners with them. This was the old date for 'Empire Day'. The 3d Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment was reactivated on 16 October 2009 in Germany as part of the 170th Infantry . 4th (Westmoreland & Cumberland) Battalion, Border Regiment during the Second World War 1939-1945. After that it was Suez, Egypt, and a transit camp, until we entrained for the Western Desert. GOOD, T.D., R.A.M.C. As the troops were pretty tired from lack of sleep and the exertions of the two days march, I doled out a dose of Benzedrine tablets, which had a miraculous effect in shrugging off the inertia. It was then sent to South Africa in 1899, where it fought throughout the Boer War (1899-1902). 6 Royal Ulster Rifles, (T.A.) Just before Christmas we again moved, this time to Malvern, in the neighbouring county of Worcester, the home of a famous English school. Intensive field training was carried out but, in addition, we enjoyed the considerable amenities of Hereford. No escort could be provided but all casualties evacuated by these means arrived safely at Brigade H.Q.. Before Dunkirk, 1 Border, 4 and 5 Border and 5 Kings Own fought in France. 18 It was redesignated '1st Battalion, The South Saskatchewan Regiment, CASF' on 7 November 1940, 19 and on 15 December 1940 it embarked for Great Britain. The other regular battalion were hastily brought home from the East, Kings Own to fight in France, and Border to join the Incomparable 29th Div. They had not been informed as to our whereabouts. This would have prevented later train traffic. The troubles at Gaya were not serious and we returned to Ranchi after two weeks. The officers were billeted in, and had the Officers Mess in, the school buildings, the school having been evacuated by staff and pupils. 21 It landed again in Occupying the village of Kiam in the central sector, the battalion were engaged in patrolling. Capt. The Brigade now moved into Imphal and was thereafter moved by truck to railhead at Dimapur. 11th Sikh Regiment, 4th . With the 34 Column of 4th Battalion Border Regiment, they departed from Mokokchung on 22 April having begun building the airstrip there as described in the previous Blog. It is of interest that one of our officers, who was wounded on a night patrol, was Anthony Steele, who later became a British film star and was married to Anita Ekberg!! This is a list of battalions of the Border Regiment, which existed as an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1959. But it was in the Napoleonic wars, and particularly in the Peninsula War that the regiment gained its battle honours. The Lancastria was sunk during the afternoon of same day. Moved to the West Indies to counter the French threat, the 4th and 55th share the battle honour St. Moved to billets in Blackpool. In October 1940 I joined 4 Border at Kington Camp, Hereford, where I had been posted as Regimental M.O., following my officer recruitment training at RAMC Depot, Crookham, Aldershot. Whilst waiting to board the riverboat, a Japanese Zero fighter flew over but did not attack and that was all we saw of the Japanese during this period. The regiment's territorial components formed duplicate second and third line battalions. Little in the way of operations were carried out, though the battalion did march to Shabe Bazar and B company was sent to a supposed area of Japanese activity at Taung Bazar, but despite active patrolling no contact was made with the Japanese. Two whole Divisions, plus many lines of communications and troops were drawn into battle with the Germans. [All the above were present throughout the siege]. Whilst 1 Border served in BAOR and Berlin, the Kings Own served in Aden and Kenya. Not in any way belittling the heroic battles fought around Kohima by the 2nd British and 7th Indian Divisions, the harassing operations by 23rd Brigade of which 4 Border Regt. Meanwhile, 2nd Battalion had returned to Britain from South Africa in 1907 and deployed straight to France in September 1914. The Durham Light Infantry Bn. Our force consisted of two platoons and a headquarters platoon. This story has been placed in the following categories. The 1957 Defence White Paper stated that the Border Regiment was due to amalgamated with The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), to form The King's Own Royal Border Regiment on the 1 October 1959.
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