In peacetime, the SDF comprised approximately 4,500 regular Sudanese soldiers.[6] During the Second World War, the SDF expanded greatly to counter the threat from the four neighbouring Italian territories: to the north-west, Libya, to the east Eritrea, Italian Somalia; and the recently (1936) occupied Abyssinia (Ethiopia). To accommodate the extra numbers, a new war-service battalion was formed, the Sudanese Frontier Force.[7] In wartime, the SDF grew to as many as 20,000 men.