The 2nd Battalion was mobilised on the outbreak of war in September 1939, as part of 160th Infantry Brigade, which also included the 1/4th and 1/5th battalions of the Welch Regiment, attached to the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division. After a long period of training in Northern Ireland and England, they landed in Normandy on 28 June 1944, twenty-two days after the initial D-Day landings, with the rest of 53rd Division and fought in the Normandy Campaign in the Battle for Caen. Soon after arrival, they took part in Operation Epsom, spending two weeks in trenches between Hill 112 and the River Odon.