It provided extensive service in the North African Campaign and many of its units were in action at the Second Battle of El Alamein in late 1942.

In September 1944, it formed the Garden (cross land) contingent of Operation Market Garden; due to the failure of the Market (airborne) contingent to seize the bridge at Nijmegen, XXX Corps arrived too late at the subsequent (25 km (16 mi)) – and ultimate – Arnhem bridge, effectively resulting in the loss of the British 1st Airborne Division in the prolonged Battle of Arnhem.

[3] XXX Corps suffered many casualties, mainly because of obsolete British tank tactics (especially charging anti-tank guns), but finally forced the Panzerarmee Afrika to withdraw to El Agheila in Central Libya.

[5] The depleted XXX Corps pulled back to El Alamein, the last defensible position west of the River Nile.

[6] In July 1942, XXX Corps again suffered many casualties, at the First Battle of El Alamein, although a major Axis offensive was repelled.

[10] On the night of 24/25 October, Lightfoot commenced with a prolonged and intense artillery bombardment, XXX Corps attacked and quickly suffered many casualties but the Australian, New Zealand, South African and Highland divisions continued to attack, creating several gaps in the minefields, before German resistance stopped further advances.

[14] In mid-April, XXX Corps attempted to attack the position head on but made little progress against determined German and Italian resistance.

Progress slowed considerably after that because Sicily's mountainous terrain favoured well-equipped defenders (like the German forces in Group Schmalz) and they managed to move very little.

[17] The order of battle was as follows:[18] General Officer Commanding Lt-Gen Gerard Bucknall (to 3 August 1944)Lt-Gen Brian Horrocks (from 4 August 1944) In Normandy XXX Corps, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Gerard Bucknall, again included the 50th Division which landed on Gold Beach.

It made slow gains facing stiff resistance but by 10 June had linked up with US forces advancing from Omaha Beach.

The next day the Americans launched Operation Cobra, an attack on German positions on the western end of the Contentin Peninsula.

They made considerable progress and the Second Army launched Operation Bluecoat to support the attack and to exploit the momentum.

Montgomery sacked Bucknall and replaced him with Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, a distinguished veteran of North Africa.

After the German collapse, XXX Corps quickly advanced north-east and liberated Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium.

Elements of the Guards Armoured Division and the 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment managed to secure a bridge across the Maas-Schelde canal into the Netherlands.

[33] After the success in France and Belgium, General Montgomery commanding the 21st Army Group turned his attention to outflanking the Siegfried Line and invading the Ruhr in a pincer movement.

XXX Corps, consisting of approximately 50,000 men, would advance along the main axis of the Second Army and reach Arnhem within 48 hours, and continue on to the Dutch–German border.

As XXX Corps advanced north-east, it became obvious that the highway was prone to traffic jams and was extremely vulnerable to enemy counter-attacks.

[37] The lead elements of XXX Corps, the Guards Armoured Division (Major-General Allan Adair) were ambushed by German anti-tank defences, causing delays to the advance.

The Guards Armoured Division advanced and quickly established positions on the north bank to secure the bridge.

[39] Further south, in the 101st Airborne Division sector, many units from XXX Corps had to be detached to fight off repeated attempts by the German 106th Panzerbrigade to cut the highway.

Most of the 1st Airborne Division was killed, surrendered or withdrew to the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade positions, which ended the offensive.

Under command of the 1st Canadian Army and with additional divisions, it was responsible for the difficult advance through the Reichswald Forest that was the first phase of Operation Veritable in February 1945.