After the Second World War a reserve 11th Battalion was formed by the Territorial Army (TA) in 1947, but it was disbanded nine years later.

Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, during the Battle of France, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops.

'A' Company and the mortar and machine gun platoons parachuted onto the island of Kos in the Dodecanese and captured the airfield.

[12] Under heavy fire the attempt stalled and to relieve the pressure on the assaulting troops, the 11th Battalion was asked to carry out a left flanking attack on the German positions.

Orders were being issued for the assault, when the divisional commander Major-General Roy Urquhart personally intervened, forbidding the battalion to take part in what he now considered a futile attack.

A move to gain some high ground to the north was discovered and the battalion was caught in the open and decimated, with only around 150 men left.

[15] They were withdrawn to Oosterbeek where the division was forming a defensive perimeter, digging in on the south eastern side with their right flank on the river.

[17]The defenders were involved in a number of desperate actions, and hand-to-hand fighting keeping the Germans out of the divisions perimeter.

[18] One of the men Lance-Sergeant John Baskeyfield of the South Staffords anti-tank platoon, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.

[21] On 24 September the decision was made by Lieutenant-General Horrocks commander XXX Corps to withdraw what was left of the division south of the Rhine.

[25] The casualties sustained by the battalion were never replaced and it was disbanded after the battle of Arnhem and the men sent to the 1st Parachute Brigade.

It was formed by the conversion of the 8th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, and had Euston Baker as its honorary colonel.