History of the Manchester Regiment: First and Second Battalions 1922-1948

After strenuous service in the Great War, the 1st Battalion of the Manchesters returned to Britain in 1919, but were soon back in action fighting the guerilla action that preceded Irish independence. After garrison duty in various corners of the Empire between the wars, the 1st was converted to a machine-gun battalion in Egypt in 1936, and were rushed to Palestine to quell an Arab revolt. here they took part in the Soecuakl Night Squads counterinsurgency pioneered by Orde Wingate. In 1938 the Battalion were fatally deployed to Singapore, where they were captured by the Japanese following the islands' capitulation. The 2nd Battalion garrisoned Mesopotamia (Iraq) in 1920 where Capt. Henderson won a Posthumous VC in an action against a tribal attack. Another officer attached to the Battalion was Jack Churchill, Winston Churchill's younger brother. During the Second World War the 2nd, 5th and 9th Manchesters formed part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939/40 and got involved in the Dunkirk evacuation. The 2nd subsequently fought in the Burma campaign.