page_title: Wiltshire Regiment
section_title: Regular Army battalions
hierarchical_section_title: Wiltshire Regiment / History / The Second World War / Regular Army battalions
caption_attribution_description: English: Infantry of 2nd Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment, supported by Churchill tanks of 6th Guards Tank Brigade, clear a pocket of resistance south of Lubeck in Germany, 2 May 1945. Infantry of 2nd Wiltshire Regiment, 5th Division, supported by Churchill tanks of 6th Guards Tank Brigade, clear a pocket of resistance south of Lubeck, 2 May 1945.
context_page_description: The Wiltshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 62nd Regiment of Foot and the 99th Duke of Edinburgh's Regiment of Foot.
  The regiment was originally formed as the Duke of Edinburgh's, taking the county affiliation from the 62nd Foot and the honorific from the 99th Foot. In 1921, the titles switched to become the Wiltshire Regiment.
  After service in both the First and Second World Wars, it was amalgamated with the Royal Berkshire Regiment into the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment in 1959, which was, in 1994, merged with the Gloucestershire Regiment to form the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, which later amalgamated with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Green Jackets and The Light Infantry to form The Rifles, which continues the lineage of the regiment. The regiment's depot was at Le Marchant Barracks in Devizes.
context_section_description: At the start of the Second World War, the Wiltshire Regiment found its two Regular Army battalions stationed in British India (1st Battalion) and Palestine (2nd Battalion). Eventually two more battalions would be raised for the war. The 1st Battalion remained in British India, performing internal security duties at the outset of the war. During the reorganization of the Burma front in 1943, the battalion became responsible for guarding the lines of communications and support for the Arakan offensive as part of the Eastern Army. The 1st Battalion, Wiltshires were transferred to the 4th Indian Infantry Brigade, which also included the 3rd Battalion, 9th Gurkha Rifles and 8th Battalion, 8th Punjab Regiment, part of 26th Indian Infantry Division, in October 1943. With the 26th Indian Division, the 1st Wiltshires took part in the Battle of the Admin Box. Before General Slim's offensive to recapture Burma, 1st Wiltshires were rotated back to serve along the North-West Frontier.
  The 2nd Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, began the war as part of the 13th Infantry Brigade, which also included 2nd Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (later 5th Essex Regiment), part of the 5th Infantry Division of the British Expeditionary Force in France. The battalion fought in a series of engagements during the Battle of France in May 1940, most notably at the Battle of Arras. After being evacuated at Dunkirk, the 2nd Wiltshires participated in Operation Ironclad, the capture of Vichy-held Madagascar, known as the Battle of Madagascar. On 19 May the Battalion re-embarked on the Franconia to sail to India to rejoin the 5th Division and were stationed in Bombay and Ahmednagar until August. The Wiltshires, as well as the rest of the brigade, were then sent to the Middle East. As part of 13th Infantry Brigade, the Wiltshires spent the end of 1942 until early part of 1943 operating in Iraq, Persia, Syria and Palestine, under Middle East Command. Later, the brigade participated in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, and the follow-on invasion of the Italian mainland in September 1943. During the Italian Campaign, the 2nd Wiltshires would win battle honours for its actions, taking part in the Moro River Campaign and later crossing the Garigliano river in January 1944. From March until late May, the battalion fought in the Battle of Anzio, enduring terrible conditions and fighting in trench warfare, similar to that on Western Front nearly 30 years before. They later fought in the breakout from the Anzio beachhead, Operation Diadem and the subsequent capture of Rome. On 3 June 1944 Sergeant Maurice Albert Windham Rogers was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the first and only to be awarded to the regiment during the Second World War. Eventually the battalion, as well as the rest of the brigade and the 5th Division would be withdrawn from the Italian Campaign and sent to Palestine, where they would remain for the rest of the year, training and absorbing replacements, mainly from anti-aircraft gunners retrained as infantrymen. In early 1945 to relieve the British 1st Infantry Division. However, the 5th Division instead joined the British Second Army, at the time fighting on the Western Front, to participate in the final drive into Germany in April 1945. They took part in the Elbe River crossing as well as the encirclement of Army Group B. When hostilities ended on 8 May 1945, they were at Lübeck on the Baltic Sea. The Battalion moved to Einbeck on 1 July and settled down to occupation duties. As the official history reads, "So ended a journey of over 25,000 miles through nearly six years of war."
caption: Infantrymen of the 2nd Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, supported by Churchill tanks of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade, clear a pocket of resistance south of Lubeck, Germany, 2 May 1945.
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