Returning to Northern England in mid-January 1942, the division left soon after, in late March, destined to be sent to India. The war situation had changed by this time, with the Japanese entering the war in December 1941, which was followed soon after by a string of Japanese victories, in Malaya and Singapore, and British and Indian and other Allied forces on the retreat, causing India to be threatened. Reinforcements, therefore, were desperately needed, Berney-Ficklin's 5th Division being among them. The division, stopping briefly in South Africa, then crossed the Indian Ocean, where it lost both the 13th and 17th Brigades to Operation Ironclad, the invasion of Madagascar. The rest of the division arrived in Bombay in May, travelling to Ranchi soon after. The monsoon season, however, brought operations in Burma and India to a close and the division, now reformed with all three brigades, was sent to Persia, after Berney-Ficklin went personally to General Sir Archibald Wavell, the Commander-in-Chief, India and requested that the 5th Division be sent there, instead of the 2nd Division. Wavell agreed. On 13 June 1942, on his fiftieth birthday, Berney-Ficklin was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).