The 12th Battalion on several occasions sent motor companies to work with armoured regiments, who in turn were under different divisions of the Corps.

When the "Cease Fire" sounded on 5th May, 1945, the 2nd Battalion had reached Hamburg, their advance having taken them through Bocholt, Vreden, Rheine, Neuenkirchen, Bramsche, Deipholz, Sulzingen, the outskirts of Bremen and Luneburg. The 12th Battalion had reached Bremervorde, north-west of Bremen, having advanced through Vaarseveld, Neede, Enschede, Lingen, Kloppenberg, Bremen and Zeven.

The German armies in North-West Germany, Holland and Denmark surrendered unconditionally to Field-Marshal Montgomery on 5th May, 1945. A similar surrender took place to the American Army and on the Russian Front. So ended, in complete victory, the Second World War in Europe.

End Of The War

The advance of the British-American armies into the West of Germany had coincided with the Russian invasion from the east. When hostilities ceased the Russians had occupied East Prussia and Berlin, Hungary and the eastern part of Austria. A line of demarcation between the Allied armies was agreed upon and all the remaining German forces capitulated to the respective occupying armies.

Japan, Germany's last ally, capitulated on 15th August, 1945, after the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The liberation of Burma, Singapore and the French, British and Dutch territories in the East Indies and China followed soon afterwards.

At the end of the war Germany and the countries which had joined her in aggression were occupied by the victorious Allies and the new world organization known as the United Nations was inaugurated to conclude peace and if possible to make it permanent

War Memorials

The names of those who gave their lives are recorded in the Roll of Honour Book of the two World Wars in Winchester Cathedral.

The Memorial Fund has been chiefly allotted to the benefit of some 300 children whose fathers lost their lives in the Regiment during the war.

A Greenjacket Memorial to those of the three Rifle battalions who fell in the defence of Calais, May, 1940, will be erected on the quay of Calais harbour.