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4th (Westmoreland & Cumberland) Battalion, Border Regiment
After the Dunkirk evacuation, two divisions remained in France in battle with the Germans in Picardy, Artois and Normandy. The 4th Battalion The Border Regiment was part of the new 23rd Brigade attached to the 1st Armoured Division. The 4th Border captured three bridges on the River Somme, a reprise of the actions of their regiment in the Great War. Under the 10th French Army the 4th Border cleared German-held Basse Forêt d'Eu and relieved the Black Watch at Incheville. Supporting the 5th Sherwood Foresters, both were driven back by heavy shelling, and eventually many were killed or captured. After withdrawal the 4th moved north towards Fécampe where it met the 7th German Panzers and then withdrew to Le Havre where the 4th Battalion went by ship to Cherbourg. It then moved to Rennes and on to Brest, boarding ship for Southampton on 18th June 1940.
In March 1941 the 4th Battalion left for Suez and on to Sidi Barrani, supporting Wavell's offensive in Syria. The battalion, based in Kiam, patrolled the central sector generally under continuous shelling. As part of the 6th British Division, the 4th returned to the Western Desert, going by destroyer in October 1941 to Tobruk and relieving Australians besieged there since April. During the siege, the Western Desert Force became the 70th British Division, the only British Division of infantry in the Middle East at the time. The eventual taking of Tobruk signalled the second defeat of the German land forces.
The 70th Division, including the 4th Battalion, was sent to India and Burma, becoming part of Wingate's Long Range Penetration groups and remaining there until the end of the war.
May 1940 Holding the Line
 On the Somme Front, May 1940, A soldier of the 4th Battalion, Border Regiment stands by his requisitioned and well camouflaged lorry. © IWM (F 4542)
May 1940 Holding the Line
20th May 1940 Reorganisation
21st May 1940 In Defence
23rd May 1940 Attack
27th May 1940 On the Move
27th May 1940 Withdrawal
28th May 1940 On the Move
7th Jun 1940 Enemy Movement
9th Jun 1940 In Defence
9th Jun 1940 In Defence
Feb 1944 Chindit force preparations In early February 1944 preparations began for the 2nd Chindit Expedition. The Special Force or 3rd Indian Division as it was known consisted of the following units, which were split into Columns.
3rd West African Brigade and 14th Brigade
- 6th Btn. Nigeria Regiment. (Columns 66 & 39)
- 2nd Btn. Black Watch (Columns 42 & 73)
- 7th Btn Nigeria Regiment (Columns 29 & 35)
- 1st Btn. Beds & Herts Regiment (Columns 16 & 61)
- 12th Btn. Nigeria Regt (Columns 12 & 43)
- 2nd Btn. York & Lancaster Regiment (Columns 84 & 65)
- 7th Btn Leicestershire Regiment (Columns 47 & 74)
- 54th Field Company, Royal Engineers
77 Brigade and 111 Brigade
- 3rd Btn. 6th Gurkha Rifles (Columns 36 & 63)
- 1st Btn. Cameronians (Columns 26 & 90)
- 1st Btn. Kings (Liverpool) Regiment (Columns 81 & 82)
- 2nd Btn. Kings Own Royal (Lancaster) Regiment (Columns 41 & 46)
- 1st Btn. Lancashire Fusiliers (Columns 20 & 50)
- 3rd Btn. 4th Gurkha Rifles (Column 30)
- 1st Btn. South Staffordshire Regiment (Columns 38 & 80)
- 3rd Btn. 9th Gurkha Rifles (Columns 57 & 93)
23rd Indian Infantry Brigade
- 1st Btn. Essex Regiment (Columns 44 & 56)
- 2nd Btn. Duke of Wellington's Regiment (Columns 33 & 76)
- 4th Btn. Border Regiment (Columns 34, 55)
- 60th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, deployed as infantry, (Columns 60 & 68)
- 12th Field Company, Royal Engineers
16th Brigade Morris Force
- 1st Btn. Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment (Columns 21 & 22)
- 4th Btn. 9th Gurkha Rifles (Columns 49 & 94)
- 2nd Btn. Leicestershire Regiment (Columns 17 & 71)
- 3rd Btn. 4th Gurkha Rifles (Column 30)
- 45th Recce Regiment (Columns 45 & 54)
- 51st and 69th Field Regiments, Royal Artillery, deployed as infantry (Columns 51 & 69)
- 2nd Field Company, Royal Engineers
Dah Force
Stronghold Defences
- R S & U Troop 160th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery (25 Pounders)
- W X Y & Z Troops 69th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (Bofors)
Divisional Troops
- 219th Field Park Company, Royal Engineers
- Detachment 2nd Burma Rifles
- 145th Brigade Company, R.A.S.C.
- 61st Air Supply Company, R.A.S.C.
- 2nd Indian Air Supply Company, R.I.A.S.C.
Feb 1944 Chindit force preparations
10th May 1944 Orders
18th May 1944 Enemy Position
19th May 1944 Plans
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Want to know more about 4th (Westmoreland & Cumberland) Battalion, Border Regiment? There are:1332 items tagged 4th (Westmoreland & Cumberland) Battalion, Border 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. J Hutchinson 4th Btn. Border Regiment Pte.J Hutchinson served with the 4th Btn. Border Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Pte. William Capstick 4th Battalion Border Regiment There are casualty records for William Capstick of the 4th Battalion, Border Regiment in France in 1940 and 1945. My father believes these are for his uncle Bill who was born in Bolton in 1916. Bill returned from the war with a severe wound and though he emigrated to Australia in the early 1950s he returned home. My father remembers Bill's stories about fighting in India. Unfortunately, he never fully recovered from his wounds and died in the late 1950s.
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Pte. John Cartwright 4th Btn. Border Regiment Thought to have been captured in the Dunkirk rearguard action in 1940.
Jack Cartwright sent a postcard to his family from Poland stamped Stalag XX1d
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Pte. James Alexander Grant 4th Battalion, D Company Border Regiment Jimmy Grant was called up in 1939. He underwent basic training in Carlisle, based in a tented camp at Carlisle Castle. He was posted to Malvern immediately before leaving for the Middle East, by sea via Durban. He served in the desert and relieved the Australians in Tobruk.
He was then posted to India and then Burma with the Chindits and served in a Special Glider Born Force known as Bladet.
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Col. Eric Ainsworth Redfern 4th Battalion Border Regiment The attached war service record written by my grandfather Col. Eric Redfern may be of interest as it has very specific dates and places. It details his movements with 4th Battalion, the Border Regiment until July 1944. While the rest of the Battalion then went to Burma, he did not.
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Pte. Nathan Todd Royal Artillery  Nathan Todd was my uncle. He joined up in 1940. He was, initially, in the Royal Artillery until October 1943 when he was attached to the 4th Battalion, Border Regiment. He served in the Chindits behind the Japanese lines.
He told me that at one stage he and a fellow soldier contracted malaria and dysentery and were very ill. Because they were behind the Japanese lines they could not be taken along with their group. The commanding officer told them that they would taken by the Naga tribesmen on mules to try to get back to the British base. He handed my uncle and his colleague a revolver each with the instruction, "Five bullets for the enemy and one for yourself". With that they were placed on the mules, I think he said that they were sort of slung over them, and taken by the Naga tribesman to begin their journey back to base. It must have been a long journey because he was posted missing in action.
He told me very little of his experiences despite my questions.
He told me that one morning, before he was taken ill, he woke up in his sleeping bag to find that a python had wrapped itself around him. He could just move his hand and managed to shoot it with his revolver.
He was discharged in 1946.
My uncle died 40 years later - the irony was that he died following an intense bout of malaria which he suffered with all his life after his military service.
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Lancelot Robert Marshall 4th Btn. Border Regiment My father, Lance Marshall of the 4th Battalion Border Regiment was captured at Incheville on 14th June 1940 and was a POW at Stalag 8B until the end of the war in 1945. His prisioner number was 16641. He would never speak about his time in the war and I am now trying to find some information about his time there for his grandson.
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Cpl. James Mossop Rothery 4th Btn. Border Regiment (d.Nov 1945) My Grandfather, James Mossop Rothery, served in the 4th Battalion The Border Regiment from 1940 - 1941. He was an iron ore miner in Bigrigg, Cumberland and died at the age of 41 in November 1945.
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L/Cpl. John Hudson 4th Btn. Border Regiment
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