A general retreat ensued, and General Auchinleck took personal command. Tobruk fell on 20th June, and the Army reached Alamein on 3rd July. Here Rommel halted to gain strength for a final attack and the conquest of Egypt. The Eighth Army position was on a forty-five-mile front sixty miles from Alexandria.

All three battalions of the Regiment were engaged in the Gazala fighting and the subsequent retreat.

The 1st and 2nd Battalions fought throughout this battle. Lieutenant-Colonel de Bruyne, who was taken prisoner, was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel C. d'A. P. Consett in command of the 1st Battalion. Lieutenant-Colonel W. Heathcoat-Amory succeeded Sismey in command of the 2nd Battalion.

The 9th Battalion held the Retima Box in the Gazala battle and was able to withdraw after heavy fighting before being surrounded. It acted as rearguard on the extreme southern flank during the retreat to Alamein. On 6th July "A" Company carried out a daring and successful raid on Fuka aerodrome.

All three battalions had suffered numerous casualties in these operations and were withdrawn for a brief spell to refit. The 1st Battalion now joined the 4th Light Armoured Brigade of the 1st Armoured Division, and the 2nd Battalion was in the 7th Motor Brigade, 7th Armoured Division.

Disbandment of the 9th Battalion

The 9th Battalion was disbanded in July 1942, to provide reinforcements for the 1st and 2nd Battalions.

Death of Lieutenant-General W. F. E. Gott, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C.

At this time the Regiment and the Army suffered a great loss in the death of General Gott, who was killed in an aeroplane shot down by a German fighter. General Gott started the war in command of the 1st Battalion, and had commanded a brigade, a division and the XIII Corps in the Desert War. A few days before his death he had been appointed to command the Eighth Army.

Battle of Alam Haifa, 31st August to 7th September 1942

On 13th August General Montgomery took command of the Eighth Army, which included six divisions and certain armoured and infantry brigades, faced by five equivalent German divisions and nine Italian divisions.