Between the wars, the Regiment continued as a cavalry unit, mobilising in that role in 1939, upon the outbreak of World War II, to move to Palestine, as part of the 5th Cavalry Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division. However, in 1940, it converted to Artillery and took part in the defence of both Tobruk and Benghazi as well as the battle of Crete. In 1941, the Regiment converted to armour initially with M3 Grant, M4 Sherman and Crusader tanks, and was assigned to the 8th Armoured Brigade. The Regiment served in most of the major battles of the Eighth Army in the North Africa campaign, including Alam El Halfa and Second El Alamein and the Tunisia Campaign. The Regiment landed in France on D-Day equipped with swimming DD Sherman and Sherman Firefly tanks and was in the thick of the fighting in Normandy and on the advance across northern France and Belgium. The reconnaissance troop was the first British unit to fight on German soil in September 1944, as part of Operation Market Garden, and later took part in the Western Allied invasion of Germany. The Sherwood Rangers were involved in further hard fighting around the Rhine and had pushed onto Bremen and beyond by the end of the war.