In May 1940 the brigade fought the German Army in the battles of Belgium and France and, along with the rest of the BEF, were forced to retreat to Dunkirk and be evacuated to England after the Germans nearly surrounded the entire BEF from the French Army, which would undoubtedly have seen the destruction of the BEF, and the nucleus of the British Army. During the retreat a large number of men from the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment, alongside men from the 4th Cheshire Regiment and the Royal Artillery, were involved in the Wormhoudt massacre which resulted in the deaths of 80 men killed by the German SS. After returning to the United Kingdom, the brigade, with the rest of 48th Division, spent the next few years on home defence, absorbing replacements after heavy casualties in France and training to repel a German invasion, which never arrived.