The 7th (Service) Battalion and 8th (Service) Battalion landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 41st Brigade in the 14th (Light) Division in May 1915 for service on the Western Front. The 8th Battalion took part in the Second Battle of Ypres, which had begun on 22 April 1915 and the action at Hooge in July 1915 where they saw the first use of flamethrowers by the Germans. Second Lieutenant Sidney Woodroffe, of the 8th Battalion, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in this battle. The battalions also saw action in the Second Battle of Ypres which had begun in April 1915 and an action near La Brique in Belgium where Corporal Alfred George Drake, also of the 8th Battalion, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 23 November 1915. The battalions then took part in the Battle of Delville Wood in September 1916, the Battle of Flers–Courcelette in September 1916 and the advance to the Hindenburg Line as well as the Battle of Arras in April 1917, the Battle of Langemark in August 1917 and the Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917 before taking part in the Battle of St Quentin in March 1918 and the Battle of the Avre in April 1918.