Bermuda Volunteer/Territorial Army Units 1895-1965 - Second World War

Second World War

Local territorials were embodied on 3 September 1939, with the declaration of War on Germany by Britain and France. Whereas volunteers had continued to perform their civilian jobs, during the Great War, they were embodied to serve full-time for the duration of the Second World War. The strengths of the units were quickly increased as Bermuda, again, assumed a position of great importance as the point of formation of trans-Atlantic convoys. As in the Great War, the BVRC soon detached a contingent for service overseas, with the Lincolnshire Regiment. A small number of soldiers from the BMA and BVE joined with that contingent, travelling with it to England in June 1940, before separating to join other units. Concerned of stripping the garrison, however, the War Office placed a moratorium on any further drafts being sent overseas. Some members of the local units still managed to find their ways to the sharper ends of the War, primarily by volunteering to train as pilots at the Bermuda Flying School, on Darrell's Island. Those who gained their 'wings' were sent on to the Air Ministry to be assigned to the Royal Air Force, or the Fleet Air Arm. The moratorium against drafts was not lifted 'til 1943, when the likelihood of a German attack on the Island had diminished. The Bermuda Militia (the BMA and BMI, together) and the BVRC each detached contingents for overseas service, which trained together at Prospect Camp before being sent their separate ways. The BVRC Contingent was sent to the Lincolns, as with its Great War predecessors. The Bermuda Militia Contingent was sent to North Carolina, where it formed the training cadre of a new regiment, the Caribbean Regiment, which served briefly in Italy before escorting POWs to Egypt, where it remained 'til the end of hostilities.