In April 1942 he rejoined the British Army as Deputy Director Medical Services XIII Corps. "Deputy Director" was the title given to Corps level commanders for the RAMC (and other service corps) in Corps-level formation, originally as a Colonel-level appointment and later Brigadier level. XIII Corps was commanded by Lt-Gen William Gott and was part of the British 8th Army in the North African desert, which had suffered serious reverses. General Claude Auchinleck was shortly to take over. This period of the North African Campaign included the retreat to Tobruk, the defeat at Gazala (at the same time as Phillips was briefly a Prisoner of War, see below), the Mersa Matruh defeat, and the First Battle of El Alamein, which halted the Axis advance and led to the arrival of General Montgomery who Phillips was to follow for the rest of the war, during Operation Torch, the 2nd Battle of El Alamein, then to Italy, France and Germany.