On 26 December 1941, following the Japanese invasion of Malaya, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered Gen Auchinleck to send an armoured brigade to the Far East. Auchinleck sent 7th Armoured Brigade Group, including A Bty, 95th A/T Rgt, under Maj R.A. Hemelryk with three Troops each of four 2-pdr guns. The brigade group could not leave Port Suez until the end of January 1942 and was intended for Java, but that island was captured by the Japanese before it was due to arrive in March. Instead it sailed via Ceylon and landed at Rangoon in Burma on 21 February.