The Royal Fusiliers, 1919 to Present
	Postwar Reorganization Within months of the armistice on 11 November, 1918, the Royal Fusiliers found itself substantially reduced in size.  Over the course of the War, many of the service battalions had been disbanded or transferred to other regiments, and those which remained at the end of the war were almost all disbanded by the end of 1919.   In 1922, the regular third and fourth battalions were also disbanded, so that at the end of the year the Regiment comprised the regular first and second battalions and the fifth, sixth and seventh special reserved battalions as well as the territorial battalions. In 1916, the territorial battalions had been re-designated as the first, second, third and fourth battalions of the City of London Regiment.  The first two battalions have been changed, amalgamated and reduced over the years since, but continue to maintain their connection with the Royal Fusiliers to this day.  The third and fourth battalions were eventually transferred to the Middlesex Regiment and lost their connection at that time. Postings Between the Wars After the armistice, the first battalion was sent to Ireland where it remained until 1922.  In April of that year, it was sent back to India.  It remained there until 23 September, 1939, when it boarded transport in Bombay and embarked for Egypt.  In 1937, it was converted from an infantry battalion into a machine gun battalion and reequipped with Vickers machine guns for service as a specialized part of an infantry division. The armistice found the second battalion on the Western Front, and from there it was sent to India in 1919.  It returned to Aden in 1920 and to Aldershot in January, 1922.  In 1926, it was sent to Germany to form part of the Army of Occupation.  It returned to England in 1929 and remained in Great Britain until September, 1939, when it was sent as part of the British Expeditionary Force to the Continent. Of course, the special reserve and territorial battalions remained in England throughout the period, not being liable for foreign service in peacetime. The Second World War Shortly after the declaration of war in September, 1939, the first battalion arrived in Egypt as part of the 5th Infantry Brigade of the 4th Indian Division.  This Division served with distinction in the Sudan and Abyssinia in 1940, defeating Italian colonial forces there and securing east Africa from Axis control.  Further fighting took place in the Egyptian desert, and these campaigns were followed by invasion of Vichy Syria in 1941, which campaign did not go well for the first battalion.  The battalion was captured by Vichy French forces on 16 June and reformed in Palestine the following week.  In December, 1941, the battalion was transferred to the 17th Independent Infantry Brigade and saw service throughout the Middle East, including Palestine, Iraq and Syria. In 1943, the first battalion as part of the 17th Independent Infantry Brigade was sent to Italy, where it remained until the end of the European war in May, 1945. The second battalion enjoyed a more conventional service.  It had been deployed with the British Expeditionary Force to France and Belgium in September, 1939, and took part in the May and June campaigns in 1940.   After evacuation from Dunkirk, it remained in Great Britain from June, 1940 until March, 1943, when it took part in the Allied invasion of Tunisia, where it fought at the Battle of Peter's Corner on 24 April, 1943. In January, 1943, the second battalion formed part of the 12th Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division and fought in Italy.  In December, 1944, the division was sent to Greece where it remained for the duration of the European War. Although no Royal Fusiliers were awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War, the Regiment was awarded at total of 37 battle honours, ranging from Dunkirk in 1940 to Monte Cassino II in 1944.   Postwar Sadly, one of the first events that occurred for the Royal Fusiliers after the Second World War was its substantial reduction in size.  The ninth territorial battalion was disbanded in 1947, the second regular battalion in July, 1948 and the fifth, sixth and seventh battalions of the special reserve in 1953.   From 1953 onwards, only the regular first battalion and the eighth territorial battalion remained, and the latter became simply the City of London Regiment in 1961.  It, too, was disbanded in 1967. The regular battalion saw service in the Korean War and was granted the battle honour Korea 1952-3 for that service. In 1968, the first battalion Royal Fusiliers were amalgamated with several other fusilier regiments of the British Army to become the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.  The other battalions were the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers, and the Lancashire Fusiliers.  In the new Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the Royal Fusiliers became the third battalion.  The third battalion was amalgamated with the first and second battalions in 1992 shortly after having served in the Persian Gulf War.  The Regiment was subsequently awarded battle honours for Wadi al Batin and Gulf 1991. In 2003, the first battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers served in the Iraq War.  The Regiment was subsequently awarded the battle honour of Iraq, 2003.                                                                                   Home