Many of the survivors were captured, and when the battalion reached Carpenza Copse it consisted of only 12 officers and 150 men. Here, under the command of Maj John Whitworth and joined by some dismounted cavalry, they held on doggedly until 14.00 on 22 March before falling back under cover of fog to the 'Green Line' at Hébécourt, where 50th (Northumbrian) Division was hurriedly digging in. The remnants of 66th Division took up position on the Somme Canal at Péronne, where 2/5th and 2/6th Manchesters held 'Bristol Bridge' for the retiring rearguards of 16th (Irish) Division until the Germans entered Peronne late on 24 March. The bridge was then demolished at 18.00 by 180th Tunnelling Company, RE, and the retreat continued to Rosières, where the division narrowly escaped being surrounded, until Germans were halted by a new defence line on the River Luce.  66th Division had suffered some of the heaviest casualties during the battle, and in April its battered battalions were reduced to training cadres. 2/6th Manchesters was disbanded on 31 July, the remaining personnel being transferred to the 1/6th Bn in 42nd Division. This battalion was formed at Hulme in March 1915, with the role of training drafts for the 1/6th and 2/6th Bns. Early in 1916 it moved to Witley. On 8 April that year it was renamed the 6th Reserve Bn, Manchester Regiment, and on 1 September it was absorbed into the 5th Reserve Bn. The Home Service men of the 6th Manchesters, together with those of other TF battalions of the Manchesters and Lancashire Fusiliers, were combined into 45th Provisional Battalion, which became 28th Manchesters on 1 January 1917. It served in 73rd Division and was disbanded in 1918.  42nd (East Lancashire) Division began reforming at home in April 1920. When the TF was reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA) in 1921, the 6th Manchesters was combined with the 7th Battalion (originally the 3rd Manchester RVC) and reformed at Hulme as the 6th/7th Battalion, Manchester Regiment in 127 (Manchester) Brigade of 42nd Division on 31 December. In the 1930s the increasing need for anti-aircraft (AA) defence for Britain's cities was addressed by converting a number of TA infantry battalions into AA brigades of the Royal Artillery (RA).