In May 1944 the 1st Battalion received large numbers of replacements from retrained anti-aircraft gunners of the Royal Artillery and became an effective infantry battalion again. The battalion was now assigned to 168th (London) Infantry Brigade, replacing the now disbanded 10th Royal Berkshire Regiment and serving alongside 1st London Irish Rifles and 1st London Scottish, making the brigade a mixture of Irish, Scottish and Welsh. The 168th Brigade was part of the 56th (London) Division, which had just been severely mauled fighting at Anzio. In July the battalion landed in Italy and fought in the Italian Campaign and would remain there for the rest of the war. They took part in heavy fighting on the Gothic Line, one of many German defensive lines in Italy, and in the Croce area where the battalion, and the rest of the 56th Division, suffered heavy casualties. As a result of the casualties sustained, and a severe shortage of British infantry replacements in the Mediterranean theatre, 168th Brigade was disbanded and the 1st Battalion was reduced to a small cadre of 5 officers and 60 other ranks. In March 1945 the 1st Battalion was transferred to the 1st Guards Brigade, serving alongside the 3rd Grenadier Guards and 3rd Welsh Guards and replacing the disbanded 3rd Coldstream Guards, part of 6th Armoured Division, and remained with it until the end of the war. In April they took part in Operation Grapeshot which ended with the capture of thousands of prisoners of war and the surrender of the German Army in Italy on 2 May.