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2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment served with 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division with the British Expeditionary Force in France. They transferred to 144th Infantry Brigade, 48th (South Midland) Division in February 1940. The survivors of the Battalion were evacuated from Dunkirk in late May and in December transferred to 24th Independent Guards Brigade Group. In September 1942, they transferred to the 185th Infantry Brigade, 79th Armoured Division. From mid 1944 onwards they saw action in North Western Europe with 3rd Division.
22nd Jan 1940 Snow
 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment manning a trench in the snow at Rumegies, 22nd of January 1940 © IWM (F 2212)
 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment on parade in the snow at Rumegies, 22 January 1940.© IWM (F 2207)
22nd Jan 1940 Snow
21st May 1940 Counter Attack
28th May 1940 Prisoners
1st Jun 1940 In Action
1st Jun 1944 Preparations
4th Jun 1944 On the Move
5th Jun 1944 On the Move
6th Jun 1944 In Action
6th Jun 1944 In Action
6th Jun 1944 Shelling and Snipers
9th Jun 1944 Fighting Patrol
10th Jun 1944 Mines
11th Jun 1944 Booby Traps
3rd Jul 1944 Reliefs
23rd Sep 1944 Advance
24th Sep 1944 In Action
24th Sep 1944 In Action
29th Sep 1944 Moves
30th Sep 1944 Moves
1st Oct 1944 In Action
3rd Oct 1944 Reliefs
3rd Oct 1944 Attacks Made
8th Oct 1944 Targets Engaged
8th Oct 1944 Orders
9th Oct 1944 Reliefs
9th Oct 1944 Reliefs
12th Oct 1944 Attack Made
12th Oct 1944 In Action
13th Oct 1944 Attack Made
13th Oct 1944 Attack Made
14th Oct 1944 Advance Continues
14th Oct 1944 Barrage
15th Oct 1944 Flank Secured
16th Oct 1944 Advance Continues
16th Oct 1944 Advance
17th Oct 1944 Dug in
 Troops of 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment dug in with a Bren gun along a hedge near Venraij, Holland, 17th of October 1944. © IWM (BU 1206)
17th Oct 1944 Dug in
17th Oct 1944 Gains
17th Oct 1944 In Action
18th Oct 1944 Defences
18th Oct 1944 Advance
19th Oct 1944 Holding the Line
19th Oct 1944 Reliefs
25th Oct 1944 Preparations
26th Oct 1944 Reliefs
19th Nov 1944 Reliefs
24th of December 1944 Op Instruction No. 15
3rd of January 1945 Enemy activity
6th of January 1945 Diversionary attack
6th of January 1945 Move Order No 19
7th of January 1945 Relief
1st Mar 1945 Orders
2nd Mar 1945 In Action
3rd Mar 1945 Prisoners
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Those known to have served with 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment during the Second World War 1939-1945. - Appleby Cyril. Pte. (d.28th/29th May 1940)
- Arnold Edward John . Pte. (d.23rd May 1940)
- Astley DSO. Clarence Frederick. Pte.
- Barrett John Denis. Pte. (d.27th May 1940)
- Bennett Albert Ernest Gerald. Pte. (d.30th May 1940)
- Byron Cyril. Fus. (d.13th Aug 1944)
- Byron Cyril. Pte. (d.13th Aug 1944)
- Gittings George. Pte. (d.10th May 1940)
- Leedham Charles Herbert. Sgt.
- Smith Ernest. Pte. (d.27th June 1940 )
- Sodeau John. Pte. (d.8th July 1944)
- Vanburg Percy Thomas Edward. Pte.
- Welch Thomas. Pte. (d.20th July 1944)
- Wright Rupert Ainsley. Pte.
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
Records of 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment from other sources.
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Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment? There are:1371 items tagged 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Pte. John Denis Barrett 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.27th May 1940) John Barrett served with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment in WW2. He was reported missing from 20th of May 1940 possibly in the region of Hollain, Belgium. He is listed as date of death, 27th of May 1940 on CWGC site, age 25 years and is remembered on the Dunkirk Memorial.
France. Son of John and Ann Marther Barrett of Bow, London.
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Pte. Ernest Smith 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.27th June 1940 ) Ernest Smith is my mother's father who died in Dunkirk in 1940. My mother was very young when he died and does not remember him and has no photographs of him. My mother is now 80 years of age and I know she would dearly love to have a picture of him. My mom's mom died very young as well when my mother was in her early twenties. She was bought up very poor because her mother suffered mentally when Ernest died and never got over it.
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Pte. Percy Thomas Edward "Pete" Vanburg 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment  My father, Percy Vanburg lied about his age and joined the Army. Later, when WW2 broke out he was posted overseas with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was captured at Dunkirk and was taken by cattle truck and ended up in Stalag VIIIB (344) and was a POW for 5 years.
During this time he was sent out on many working parties and made a few unsuccessful or short-lived escapes for which he was in solitary for 40 days on two occasions and another 40 days solitary for refusing to work when it was very cold on one working party. Two other men with him refused to work and they were told if they didn't get back to work they would be shot.... so they said well shoot us then. I guess this shows how bad the conditions must have been that they didn't care if they lived or not. The Germans lined them up and raised their guns and then relaxed, and then raised their guns again and when they realized they were serious and prepared to die. They were, instead, sent back to the camp where they did their 40 days solitary with very little food.
Towards the end of the war my father was forced to endure the Death March and saw many of his friends die either from dysentery, fatigue or killed by the German guards because they could no longer go on.
Eventually the guards left them and they had to march as best they could forward hopefully to their advancing own lines. Eventually, my father was picked up by an American jeep, transported back to his own lines and straight away home.
He continued on reserve and met and married my mother. When I was about 3 or 4 he was recalled to fight again in Korea. This time he was with the Northumberland Fusiliers but later once in Korea he transferred to the Gloucestershire Regiment and was at the Imjin River Battle where the Gloucesterhires became known as the Glorious Glosters and were awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation for their heroic stand where they held out for 4 days against l0,000 voluntary Chinese forces until they ran out of ammunition, most were killed or taken prisoner.
Luckily, for my dad he was sent out under fire at a crucial stage in the battle to get back to HQ and tell them about their dire situation and try to get more ammunition. But it was impossible for anyone to get back to them as they were totally surrounded and overrun and air drops of more ammunition simply rolled down the hills to the enemy.
Many of the men he was a POW with in Germany were captured here again and did a further 2 years as POWs only 15 Glosters got out of that battle and my dad was one of them. He was then repatriated home.
During his life he never spoke about the war to me although once he retired he did seem to take an interest in the Army again and joined the various associations and took part in parades and poppy day work.
I think he enjoyed being able to talk with other men about their experiences where they couldn't relate to civilians who had no idea about the awful experiences they had gone through.
On his death, when I was going through his things, I came across some tapes about some of his experiences which is how I have learned all this. I have uploaded them on the web and they can be heard at this link to a Stalag VIIIB site. They are under the Percy Vanburg and make quite interesting listening.
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Pte. Edward John Arnold 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.23rd May 1940) Edward Arnold died on 23rd May 1940. He was my grandfather. He is buried in Hollain Churchyard, Hainaut, Belgium. I am going to visit his grave for the first time.
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Pte. Cyril Appleby 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire (d.28th/29th May 1940) Cyril Appleby was a young 20 year old uncle of mine. We never knew what happened to Uncle Cyril, my mother's brother.
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Pte. Albert Ernest Gerald Bennett 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.30th May 1940) Albert Bennett is buried in Wulverdinghe Churchyard along with Five other soldiers of WW2. He was killed in the defence of Dunkirk in May 1940.
He is remembered on the Abingdon War Memorial.
Son of Lillian Hart of Abingdon.
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Pte. Clarence Frederick Astley DSO. 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment    My father Fred Astley signed up to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment on the 4th of October 1938, before WW2. He served 5 years and 1 month, from 3rd of September 1939 to 4th of October 1944 as a Private. Then transferred to 2nd Suffolk Regiment, Corporal, for 1 year and 3 months, from 5th of October 1944 to 3rd of June 1946 when he was released to Section B Army reserve. He served in France for 11 months, from 23rd of September 1939 to 27th of August 1940. Being a POW in France for 4 months, he escaped and was living in France for another 5 months, he said the French underground assisted him to get back to England, from 28th of August 1940 to 17th of September 1940. He served in Lahore, India for 10 months - his role was Animal Management, from 2nd of May 1944 to 2nd of March 1946 and spent 27 days in a military hospital in Lahore and another 30 days in a convalescence hospital in Dalhousie, from 4th of May 1945 to 29th of June 1945.
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Pte. George Gittings 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.10th May 1940) Unfortunately we never knew Private George Gittings as he died just a few months after dad was born.He has often been in our thoughts and we often wondered what he was like.
RIP dear father, grandfather and great grandfather - thank you for giving us our freedom.
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Fus. Cyril Byron 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.13th Aug 1944) My uncle, Cyril Byron, arrived in France in July 1944 with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
Less than one month later on Sunday August 13th Cyril died aged only 18 years old of injuries he had received. He is buried in Bayeux cemetery, France.
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Pte. Thomas Welch 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.20th July 1944) Thomas Welch was my uncle, who I never met. Thomas is at rest in the Ranville war cemetery.
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