Shoulder flash Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) (canvas)

The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army until 1961. It had a history dating back to 1572 and was one of the oldest regiments in the British Army being third in order of precedence (ranked as the 3rd Regiment of the line). It provided distinguished service over a period of almost four hundred years accumulating one hundred and sixteen battle honours. In 1961 it was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment which was later amalgamated with the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment to form the Queen's Regiment which was again amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment, in September 1992, to create the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.

For service in World War II, eight battalions were raised in addition to the two regular and one Territorial units:

• 1st (Regular Army)
• 2nd (Regular Army)
• 4th (Territorial Army) Battalion was captured in November 1943
• 5th (Territorial Army) Battalion formed in October 1939 as a duplicate of the 4th Battalion
• 6th (Home Defence) Battalion formed in November 1939 from No. 1 Group National Defence Companies; redesignated as 30th Battalion in December 1941
• 7th Battalion was formed in July 1940. It was converted to armour in November 1941 as 141st Regiment and joined the Royal Armoured Corps (7th Battalion The Buffs). They continued to wear their Buffs cap badge on the black beret of the RAC.
• 8th Battalion was formed in July 1940 from a cadre of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and converted to 9th Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery in November 1942
• 9th Battalion was formed in July 1940 from a cadre of the Northamptonshire Regiment and converted to an infantry training unit in July 1944
• 10th Battalion was formed in July 1940 and disbanded in October 1943
• 11th Battalion was formed in October 1940 and converted to 89th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery in November 1940
• 30th Battalion was formed in December 1941 by the redesignation of the 6th Battalion and disbanded March 1943
• 70th (Young Soldiers) Battalion was formed in September 1940 from companies of the 6th Battalion; it was disbanded in January 1943

The 1st Battalion served in many different brigades and divisions, mainly with British Indian Army units, and fought in many different battles and campaigns such as the North African Campaign, the Italian Campaignand the Battle of Anzio when they were a part of 18th Infantry Brigade, assigned to the 1st Infantry Division where they were involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The 18th Brigade returned to the 1st Armoured Division in August 1944 but on 1 January 1945 the division was disbanded and 18th Brigade was broken up and used as replacements for other units. The 1st Buffs spent the rest of the war with the 24th Guards Brigade attached to the 56th (London) Infantry Division. With the 56th Division the battalion fought in Operation Grapeshot, the final offensive in Italy which effectively ended the campaign in Italy.

The 2nd Battalion was sent to France in 1940 with the 132nd Infantry Brigade attached to 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division to join the British Expeditionary Force and fought in the short but fierce Battle of Dunkirk and were evacuated at Dunkirk back to Britain. The 44th Division were sent to fight in the North African Campaign where it was broken up due to an apparently poor performance in the Battle of Alam el Halfadespite the division having only the 132nd Brigade under command as other brigades were attached to other divisions. The 132nd Brigade disbanded and 2nd Buffs then was transferred to the Far East with the 26th Indian Infantry Brigade and remained there for the war. In 1944 the brigade was redesignated the 26th British Infantry Brigade which itself became part of the 36th British Infantry Division and served with the British Fourteenth Army in the Burma Campaign 1944–45.

The 4th Battalion Buffs was a 1st Line Territorial Army unit serving with the BEF in France 1940. The battalion was transferred to the island of Malta in 1941 and served throughout the siege. The battalion then joined the 234th Infantry Brigade which included the 2nd Battalion Royal West Kents. The brigade took part in the disastrous Battle of Leros in an attempt to capture the Dodecanese Islands in late 1943. The brigade and other Allied forces, mainly Italian, attempted to hold the island from the Germans but without success. This was due mainly to German air superiority as the Allies had very few planes to cover them. The 234th Brigade Commander, Robert Tilney, ordered surrender after many days of resistance and hard fighting. The Battle of Leros has often been referred to as the Last Great British Defeat of World War II.

The 5th Battalion was reformed in 1939 as a 2nd Line duplicate of the 4th Battalion raised when the Territorial Army was doubled in size. The battalion also saw service in France 1940 with the 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division, which itself was a 2nd Line duplicate of the 44th (Home Counties) Division. The 5th Buffs were serving 6th and 7th Royal West Kents in the 36th Infantry Brigade. Like the 2nd and 4th Battalions they served with the BEF in France in 1940 and fought in the Battle of France and were evacuated at Dunkirk. The 12th Division suffered heavy casualties due mainly to most of the men having little training and the division having no artillery or support units. After returning to England the division was disbanded in July 1940, due to the casualties it sustained. In 1942 the 36th Brigade was assigned to the newly raised 78th BattleaxeDivision and took part in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa, followed by the campaign in Tunisia where the 78th Division, as part of the British First Army, gained an excellent reputation. The division then fought in the Sicilian Campaign, where it gained a reputation as the best mountain division in the British Eighth Army. The 5th Buffs and the rest of 78th Division then took part in the fighting in Italy and served there for the rest of the war until the 1945 Offensive.

The Buffs also raised many more battalions during the war, mainly for home defence or as training units. None, save the 7th Battalion, saw active service overseas. The 7th Battalion was raised in 1940 and was converted to the 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps in 1941 due to the shortage of armoured troops in the British Army.