The
Royal Berkshire Regiment 1921 to 1959
Summary
From the
end of the First World War until amalgamation with the Wiltshire Regiment in
1959, the Royal Berkshire Regiment was a typical British County Regiment serving at home and abroad.
In the immediate postwar years the regiment saw service against the Bolskeviks
in fruitless activities in North Russia (2nd Bn) and Mesopotamia and north-west Persia (1st Bn) The 3rd
Battalion was disbanded and its men transferred to the 2nd Battalion
in Ireland. The 4th Battalion was
reconstituted and reverted to its Territorial activities. This phase of the
Regiment’s history closely follows on
from the Great War and so is covered in more detail there (click
here and follow ‘Armistice and Aftermath’) All the other wartime Battalions
were disbanded.
The 1st
Battalion became the overseas battalion returning from Persia to serve in India and, after 12 years, to the Sudan. They returned to England in 1934 to be replaced by the 2nd
Battalion who served first in Egypt and then India in 1937.
The 10th
London Regiment was transferred to the Royal Berkshires in 1937 to become the
new 5th Battalion often known as the Hackney Ghurkas.
The Second
World War saw the 2nd Battalion playing a key role in the war in Burma being later joined by the 1st
Battalion which had originally been part of the BEF and became mostly prisoners
of war after holding off the Germans to allow so many other troops to evacuate
at Dunkirk. The 4th Battalion also
had gone to France and suffered terrible casualties
but, though reduced to around 50 men were part of the force which was
evacuated. The 10th Battalion went to the Middle East in 1940 and eventually took part in
the Italian Campaign. The 5th Battalion served as the beach group
for the Canadians after the D-Day landings and later at the crossing of the Rhine. The 30th Battalion was
a ‘Young Soldiers’ Battalion originating in the 8th (Home Defence)
Battalion which expanded to form a 70th (Young Soldiers) Battalion
in September 1940 and in December 1941 they became the 30th
Battalion and remained on home duties until February 1945 when they were
transferred to 21st Army Group in Belgium. It is worth remembering also that Miles
Dempsey, who had been a Captain with the 1st Battalion in Persia, rose to be Monty’s Deputy in the
North Europe Campaign.
After the
war the 1st Battalion amalgamated first with the 6th
Battalion and served as part of the British Army of the Rhine, they then merged
with the 2nd Battalion and moved first to Eritrea in 1949 and then
in 1951 to the Canal Zone. The Territorial Battalions merged into the 4th/6th
Battalion and served as such until amalgamation with the Wiltshires.
The history
of this period will be dealt with in a series of articles as follows:-