After undertaking defensive duties in the United Kingdom from mid-1940 until early 1941, the battalion then fought in the Battles of Greece and Crete where it suffered heavy casualties and lost a large number of men who were taken as prisoners of war.

Sailing on the transport Empress of Britain, they made port calls at Perth, in Australia, Cape Town, and Freetown before arriving at Gourock, in Scotland, in June.

Following this, the battalion spent the remainder of the year on garrison duties in the south of England where they were positioned to respond in case of a cross-Channel invasion by the Germans in the wake of the Fall of France.

[5] Arriving in Athens in early April on board the Hellas, the 22nd Battalion deployed forward to Katerini initially, but just after the German invasion of Greece it was pulled back to the Olympus Pass, where the 5th Brigade established blocking positions.

[7][8] On 20 May 1941, the Germans launched an airborne invasion of the island, and during the subsequent Battle of Crete the 22nd Battalion was tasked with the defence of Maleme airfield and the overlooking hill, Point 107.

[9] After the battalion's experience on Crete, in June 1941 it was reconstituted at Garawi, a camp outside Alexandria, where a batch of 365 reinforcements arrived from New Zealand to bring it back up to full strength.

[11] After taking part in the fighting in the Western Desert, the 22nd Battalion was withdrawn to Kabrit where it received a batch of 200 reinforcements to replace its losses in Libya, and undertook further training.

They subsequently took part in the fighting in the First Battle of El Alamein, including a disastrous action at Ruweisat Ridge where, after their anti-tank guns had been knocked out, over 350 members of the battalion were taken prisoner after being surrounded by German armour.

Improvising, the battalion pressed a local ferry into operation and after establishing a bridgehead on the other side of the river, continued the advance towards Trieste, fighting its final actions of the war against the Germans around Miramare.

[25] Sergeant Keith Elliott was the 22nd Battalion's sole Victoria Cross recipient during the Second World War, receiving the award for actions around Ruweisat, Egypt, on 15 July 1942.