4, underneath a headquarters company which fulfilled various specialist functions including administration, signals, transport, and anti-aircraft defence.

[3] Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay Merritt Inglis,[4] the battalion undertook training in New Zealand before being shipped to Egypt in January 1941.

[5] Further training was undertaken at Maadi Camp, after which the 27th was one of the first units of the 2nd New Zealand Division to go into action in the Greek Campaign in April 1941.

[7] The battalion was next in action during the Italian Campaign during which its Vickers machine guns fired nearly nine million rounds of ammunition.

[8] In the post war period, the battalion was then transferred to the Far East, where it was converted to an infantry unit and served with the New Zealand occupation forces in Japan.