The army’s enforced idleness—disregarding their unsuccessful foray to France in May 1940 and disastrous defence of Hong Kong in December 1941—led to discontent in the army, the public and the government. In this atmosphere, the timing was ripe for Lord Louis Mountbatten’s ill-advised and unauthorized raid-in-force. The Rileys lost hundreds of its young men on a single day in 1942, when they were effectively wiped out as a fighting force at Dieppe.