The regiment fought with distinction in the Second World War, in action in the Battle of France and Belgium, the Far East, and then in the invasion of, and subsequent operations in, North-west Europe.

[10] The regiment embarked for Holland in June 1701 and took part in the siege of Kaiserswerth and of Venlo in spring 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession.

[1] During the Seven Years' War the Regiment won its first formal battle honour as part of the expedition that captured Belle Île from the French in 1761.

[15] It sailed for Cuba with George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle in March 1762 and took part in the siege and subsequent capture of Havana in summer 1762.

[16] Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and the end of the war, the regiment moved to a posting at St Augustine, Florida, where it remained until 1769.

[19] It surrendered at the Battle of Saratoga in autumn 1777 and its men then spent three years as prisoners of war as part of the Convention Army.

[25] In November 1805, shortly after the Battle of Trafalgar, the Regiment suffered a significant misfortune: as the 1st battalion sailed for the Hanover Expedition a storm wrecked the troop transport Ariadne on the northern French coast and some 262 men were taken prisoner.

[29] Following the retreat from Corunna, the regiment buried Sir John Moore (commander of the British forces in the Iberian peninsula) and left Spanish soil.

[59] The war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging in June 1902 and the Battalion stayed in South Africa until January 1903, when 417 officers and men left Cape Town for home.

[66] The 2nd Battalion was serving in Bombay, India in the 18th (Belgaum) Brigade, part of the 6th (Poona) Division, of the British Indian Army, upon the outbreak of war.

The treatment of prisoners after the fall of Kut al Amara in April 1916 mirrors what later befell the Royal Norfolks in the Far East during the Second World War.

[69] A BBC TV drama, All the King's Men (1999), starring David Jason as Captain Frank Beck, was based upon their story.

[65] During the war, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sherwood Kelly, a Norfolk Regiment officer, was awarded the Victoria Cross while leading a trench assault by Irish troops during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.

[80] Five members of the Royal Norfolks, the highest number of any British Army regiment during the Second World War, were awarded the Victoria Cross: The 1st Battalion was a regular army unit that was stationed in India at the outbreak of war and was recalled to Britain, arriving in July 1940 during the Battle of Britain.

The 1st Battalion progressed up the beach and engaged the 736th Grenadier Regiment at the fortified position on Periers Ridge codenamed Hillman Fortress.

On 6 August 1944 at Sourdeval, Sidney Bates of B Company was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his great courage in the Battle of Sourdevallee against the crack 10th SS Panzer Division.

Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, the British Second Army commander, stated that by holding their ground in the battle the battalion made the subsequent breakthrough in August possible.

Privates Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan had hidden in a pigsty and were discovered later by the farm's owner, Mme Creton, and her son.

[85] The bodies of the murdered soldiers were exhumed in 1942 by the French and reburied in the local churchyard which now forms part of the Le Paradis War Cemetery.

Both John Niel Randle and George Arthur Knowland were posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion in the Far East, both for extraordinary heroism.

Throughout most of their existence, all three battalions remained in the United Kingdom assigned to coastal defence duties and training to repel a German invasion and, in October 1941, the division left, destined for the Middle East.

The 51st Division was stationed on the Maginot Line and therefore escaped encirclement with the rest of the BEF during the Battle of France where they spent some time attached to the French 10th Army.

The 7th Royal Norfolks suffered heavy casualties when the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division was surrounded and had no choice but to surrender, on 12 June 1940, with only 31 members of the battalion managing to return to Britain.

On the night of 7/8 August 1944, Captain David Auldjo Jamieson of D Company was awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroic leadership which greatly helped to fend off several enemy counter-attacks in a 36-hour period.

[90] Due to an acute shortage of infantrymen in the British Army at the time, the battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ian Freeland, and division were disbanded in late August 1944 and its men used as replacements for other British divisions in the 21st Army Group who had also suffered heavy casualties in Normandy.

The role of the Holding battalion was to temporarily 'hold' men who were homeless, medically unfit, awaiting orders, on a course or returning from abroad.

This decision was due to a growing shortage of manpower, especially in the British Army and in the infantry in particular and the young soldiers of the disbanded 70th were sent to other battalions of the regiment serving overseas.

There is an extensive and representative display of medals awarded to soldiers of the Regiment, including two of the six Victoria Crosses won.

[101] The dress worn by the Regiment's predecessor units in the late 17th and early 18th centuries included orange and subsequently green facings.

They gained the "Holy Boys" nickname during the Peninsular War from the misidentification by a Spanish soldier of Britannia on their cap badge as the Virgin Mary.