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Information provided by: Tim Saunders
First Published: 07 November 2003

Facts and figures

Unit name: 1st Battalion
Force: Army
Designation: Battalion
Type: Infantry
Entered service: 1685-03-01

Chronology

1st Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment

04 Sep 1939 - September 1940: Outbreak of War - Rawpindi, India

1 Devon had been serving in India since 1929 and were, consequently, a well seasoned battalion. The outbreak of war with Germany for the second time in just over twenty years caused the beginnings of political instability amongst the population of the sub continent. Consequently tours of the Indian countryside were designed to show that the Raj still had a commanding presence in the region. Many of the younger soldiers chaffed at the seeming inactivity and in 1940 a significant number volunteered for the newly formed airborne and commando forces. Meanwhile 1 Devon was trained as a fully mechanised Machine Gun Battallion.

September 1940 - April 1941: North West Frontier

Traditionally, word that Britain was under pressure elsewhere in the world, was greeted by particular unrest amongst the tribes of the North West Frontier. Therefore after the fall of France it was no surprise to see the Devons marching north to skirmish with the tribesmen of the region. 'Service on the North West Frontier was still regarded as a backwater and at this stage there was nothing to sugest that the Middle and Far East would become a seat of conflict.'

April 1941 - September 1942: Jallunder - Desert Training

In another iteration of the constant changes of roll, as military threats posed by the Italians, Germans and Japanese loomed and subsided, 1 Devon trained for war in the Deserts of North Africa.

September 1942 - August 1943: Garrison duties Celoyn

With the Japanese invasion of Burma and their capture of Rangoon, 1 Devon’s attention was readdressed from desert training to jungle warfare. ‘The British Army at this stage had very little idea of how to counter the Japanese as they came sneaking through the forest in their soft soled shoes’. In the jungles of Ceylon, the Devons were ‘transformed into a battalion bereft of motor transport and trained to carry a good load on its back — also, what was often more difficult, on the backs of the mules of its Animal Transport Platoon’. 1` Devon were now a part of 80 Infantry Brigade, 20th Indian Division.

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