During World War Two, many men from Kirklees joined local military units such as Huddersfield’s Medium Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, the Huddersfield Rifles, and regiments like the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the West Yorkshire Regiment, and the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.
Drawn from workplaces, sports clubs and local communities, these men formed part of Huddersfield’s Medium Battery, a unit of the Royal Artillery responsible for operating heavy guns in key battles. They were sent into some of the toughest fighting of the war. In 1940, the Battery fought in France, taking part in the desperate retreat to Dunkirk under heavy air attack. Later, in 1944, they returned for the Normandy invasion, facing poor weather and constant enemy fire while supporting Allied troops on the front lines.
Other Kirklees soldiers served in challenging campaigns in Burma, India, North Africa, and across Europe, enduring extreme weather, dangerous terrain, and the ever-present risk of injury or death.
Their service took them far from home, but their absence was deeply felt in local communities, where families and workplaces adjusted to life without them until the war’s end.
