[8]) In May 1758 it marched to the Isle of Wight as part of the forces (14,000 soldiers in five brigades and 6,000 marines) stationed on the island at the request of Britain's ally Frederick the Great of Prussia.

[9] The first expedition (3 Guards, 9 line regiments[10]) anchored at Cancale Bay, near St Malo, on 5 May, the grenadier company being part of the forces that destroyed four King's ships, 60 merchantmen and several privateers in Paramé.

The governor of Brittany, the Duc d'Aiguillon, led a force of 6,000 regulars, several squadrons of cavalry and the "Garde de Cote" militia against the British, who fought a rearguard action while evacuating the beach.

With losses in expeditions (mostly from the poor conditions aboard ship)[14] and providing a draft of 173 men to the 61st regiment, it was very weak, and recruiting parties scoured the country to refill its ranks.

News of the Peace of Paris caused a mutiny, especially among those men who had signed up only for 'three years service or the duration', and the regiment was put ashore from the transport ships it was in.

[30] The Brigands were defeated on 18 June 1796, but the 68th played no part, having been reduced by fighting and especially yellow fever to 61 fit men,[31] and after a draft to the 63rd regiment, 10 officers and 27 other ranks returned to Britain in September.

[c][42] The regiment spent the winter in Ripon, where by December 1807, after receiving recruits[d] and drafts from militias from Ireland, Durham and West Yorkshire, it had a strength of 436 rank and file.

[45] The invasion of Walcheren by an army of nearly 40,000 men in 15 brigades was an attempt to simultaneously destroy a French fleet together with the Antwerp shipyards and distract Napoleon from Austria.

[56] Returning to Portugal on 19 January the regiment set off South on 20 February, crossing into Spain on 16 March, and again formed a covering force during the siege and capture of Badajoz.

[59] Late in the day the regiment, reinforced with a company of Brunswick Oels (owing to its still weakened state), was ordered off the heights and down into the village of Moresco.

With detachments blocking each street and lane, the regiment fought off French attempts to take the village until ordered to retire back up the hill at nightfall.

[67] Late the next day the 51st, 68th and the Chasseurs Britanniques assaulted fortified buildings in the Buen Retiro Park garrisoned by some 2,000 French troops who surrendered on the morning of 14 August.

[68] Wellington's army continued its advance besieging Burgos in September, with the 68th at Olmos covering the siege and constructing breastworks in the valley at Monasterio de Rodilla in mid October.

[69] The French now showed signs of attacking, and attempting to out-flank the British forces around Madrid, and Wellington began another retreat back to Portugal in the rain and mud of autumn.

[70] Due to its weakened state, 235 men fit for duty and 247 sick, it was briefly threatened with being combined with another weak regiment into a 'Provisional Battalion'.

[73] Now advancing east, the regiment, with the 2nd Brigade, came under heavy cannon and musket fire: I really thought that, if it lasted much longer, there would not have been a man left to relate the circumstance.

[76][f] In July 1813 the British advance continued into the Pyrenees, with the French leaving garrisons at San Sebastián and Pamplona, and the bulk of the army retreating into France to be reorganized by Soult.

[81] At the end of the month, Soult again attempted to relieve San Sebastián, using two divisions in a diversionary attack across the river Bidasoa around Vera.

[82][g] In October 1813 Wellington crossed into France, and on 10 November attacked the formidable, but undermanned, position which Marshal Soult had been three months fortifying on the Nivelle.

[87] The 7th Division advanced across the Nive and took up positions south of the Adour, in order to distract Soult from Wellington's main effort to the west.

When the regiment returned to Britain, its first inspection at Fermoy showed it had suffered from the peace, with many of the officers and sergeants too old and unfit for active service.

The 68th numbered only four companies (243 all ranks), two still being in the trenches, and as they wore their greatcoats over their ammunition pouches while on guard had taken these off and were (initially) the only British regiment in red coats.

[h][114] The regiment faced a sortie by the Russians from Sevastopol, on 12 January 1855 (the Orthodox New Year) which overran an outpost, resulting in 15 missing and 6 wounded.

[117][118] The regiment remained in the trenches, with the supply situation slowly improving, and was in reserve for the assault on the Redan both on 18 June and the final attack on 8 September.

[124] The regiment was given new colours on 5 November by the Duke of Cambridge, and in December, with the suppression of the Indian Mutiny incomplete, it left for India, arriving at Rangoon on 30 March 1858.

[130] In August 1863 the regiment was in line to return to Britain when the governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey KCB, requested reinforcements to deal with a new outbreak of hostilities with the Māori.

[142] On 21 June, after days of reports of movements of bodies of armed Māori, a patrol of ~600 men from the 68th, 43rd and a local regiment, the 1st Waikato Militia, led by Lt.

Colonel Greer of the 68th, found a similarly sized body preparing rifle pits across a ridge some three miles from Te Papa.

[147] The regiment remained split until both parts moved to Auckland in February 1866, and left New Zealand in March, reaching Portsmouth between mid-June and early July.

"At the battle of Inkerman, when the regiment was ordered to retire, Private John Byrne went back towards the enemy, and, at the risk of his own life brought in a wounded soldier under fire.