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- 8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment



2nd Feb 1940 Storms

21st Mar 1940 Night Manning Exercise  location map

19th May 1940 Defense of the West Bank

20th May 1940 Under Shellfire

20th May 1940 Exodus from St. Maur

26th May 1940 Escape corridor

26th May 1940 Position Modifications

27th May 1940 Enemy Attacks

27th May 1940 Attacks and Counter Attacks

28th May 1940 In Action  location map

8th April 1942 Boxing match  location map


If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.



Those known to have served with

8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Blud Leslie John. L/Cpl
  • Blud Leslie John. L/Cpl
  • Burden Victor Henry. Pte.
  • Cheffers Charles Albert . Pte
  • Clayton Albert Edward. Pte. (d.28th Feb 1942)
  • Green John Alexander. Cpl.
  • Hopkins Stanley Reginald. Pte. (d.21st May 1940)
  • Hunt George Frederick. L/Cpl.
  • Jones Leslie William.
  • Leighfield James Lewis. Pte.
  • Smyth John Patrick. Pte. (d.27th May 1940)

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 8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment from other sources.



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Want to know more about 8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment?


There are:1328 items tagged 8th 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.


Pte. Stanley Reginald Hopkins 8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.21st May 1940)

Stanley Reginald Hopkins is listed in Casualty List No 549. Previously shown on Casualty List No 252 as Missing.

Zoe Brewin



L/Cpl Leslie John Blud 8th Btn Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Lance Corporal Leslie Blud served with the 8th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment in WW2.




Pte. Albert Edward Clayton 8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.28th Feb 1942)

My Great Uncle Albert Clayton enlisted into the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment before the outbreak of the war. When war broke out he joined the 8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was sent to France as part of the Expeditionary Force. He was captured at Dunkirk and spent the next 2 years in a POW camp in Poland. I think it may have been Stalag XXA at Torun, but this has not yet been confirmed. He died of TB on 28th of February 1942 and is buried at Malborg Cemetery in Poland.




L/Cpl. George Frederick Hunt 8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment

George Hunt was captured at Dunkirk. He was a PoW at Stalag 20b at Marienburg. He was on the Long March at the end of the war.




Pte. John Patrick Smyth 8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment (d.27th May 1940)

My grandfather, John Smyth was killed in Dunkirk 26 days after his son was born, whom he never met.

Fiona Beaumont



Pte. James Lewis Leighfield 8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment

My great Uncle, James Leighfield volunteered for the British Expeditionary Force at the beginning of the war. He had already done army service in South Wales. He was among the first to arrive in France late in 1939. After the first few months "digging in" in Northern France, the Germans invaded Holland and Belgium and the BEF was marched North. He was involved in heavy fighting and as the French fell back, (he said they ran away), the Germans came in through the Ardennes to the South. The BEF was pulled back, fighting all the way.  His regiment, the 8th. Warwicks, along with a number of other regiments were told to stay back and act as rear guard for the Dunkirk evacuation,  i.e. they weren't going to get away. The order was to fight to the "last round, then every man for himself".

In heavy fighting across the Escaut Canal at Antoing/Courtoing and got shot through the chest. He somehow managed to stay on his feet for 3 days, but was captured by the Wehrmacht several miles away near Wormhoudt, where the 2nd. Warwicks were massacred by the Waffen SS. In that sense, he was lucky. After weeks in a German military hospital, he was taken to a prisoner of war camp in Silesia, now part of Poland. He didn't see  another English person for several months and the family at home didn't get news that he was still alive until well into 1941.

This camp site provided (slave) labour for an adjacent open cast coal mine and that was what he was forced to do, dig "brown" coal. He escaped three times, but was caught twice. On the last occasion in early 1945, he teamed up with other escaped prisoners living wild in the country and they all headed West. With the confusion in Germany at that time, they weren't caught and eventually met up with the Americans. The Yanks brought him home. He only weighed 6 1/2 stone and was a typhoid suspect until 1948.

Kenneth Lamb



Leslie William " " Jones 8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment

My father, Leslie Jones, joined the Territorial Army, served with the 8th Battalion, Royal Warwicks and was held as a prisoner of war.

Graham Paul Jones









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