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The Border Regiment was a formation of men drawn from the towns and villages of Cumberland and Westmorland: Carlisle, Penrith, Keswick, Grasmere, Longtown, Brampton, Hexham, Alston and many others. The HQ of the battalion was in Kendal, then in Westmorland.
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 beseiged 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.
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