The 6th Battalion, created on 31 July 1939 as a duplicate of the 5th Battalion, was serving as part of the 199th Infantry Brigade, initially part of the 66th Infantry Division, alongside the 7th Manchesters and the 2/8th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. On 23 June 1940, the 66th Division was disbanded and the 199th Brigade was transferred to the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division. On 5 May 1942, the battalion was redesignated as the 1st Battalion, to replace the original battalion, which had been lost at Singapore in February. In October 1943, the new 1st Battalion transferred to the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, where it was to remain for the rest of the war. On 27 June 1944, the 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment landed in France, 21 days after the initial invasion had begun on 6 June, D-Day. With the rest of the 53rd Division, the battalion saw fierce fighting in the Battle of Normandy and took part in a number of engagements in the area around Caen, scene of much bitter fighting, which was captured by British and Canadian forces on 9 July, and later fought in the Battle of Falaise. The battalion advanced across Northern France, reaching Antwerp in Belgium in early September. The 1st Manchesters, along with the rest of the 53rd (Welsh) Division, moved to Turnhout, before advancing later that month into the Netherlands, where the 1st and 7th Manchesters saw heavy action, with the 7th, now as part of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division, fighting in the Battle of the Scheldt under command of the First Canadian Army. The 1st Manchesters, after entering German territory in the face of the Wehrmacht's defences, crossed the Rhine with the 53rd Division in late March. The 7th Manchesters with 52nd Division saw its last fighting in Bremen, when that city was captured on 26 April. The 1st Battalion ended the war in Hamburg when that city surrendered on 3 May.