GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

oor Street Station: gwrms2655

Territorials from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were mobilised at the start of the Second World War and here an assortment of Great Western Railway coaches has been assembled to form a troop train for them at Moor Street station. In the first few months of the war the Great Western Railway ran over 3,500 special trains carrying troops and munitions, mostly associated with the embarkation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

This train will be heading to a camp in the south of England, prior to arrangements for the territorials’ embarkation at a channel port. The 1/7th and 8th battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were both first line territorial formations who after February 1940 were joined by the 1st battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry to form the fighting strength of 143rd Infantry Brigade in the 48th (South Midland) Division. This was the first territorial Division to be deployed to France on 5th January 1940, where it came under the command of the BEF I Corps. Regular troops from the 2nd battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were also transferred from the 2nd Infantry Division to the 48th (South Midland) Division in February 1940 to form part of the 144th Infantry Brigade. All the Royal Warwickshire Regiment battalions saw fighting when the Germans invaded Belgium and France in May 1940 and many of the troops were evacuated from Dunkirk.

Robert Ferris

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