During a period of rest and consolidation at St Hubert in Belgium, the battalion seized the opportunity to run a structured five-day cadre course for junior NCOs drawn from every company. Capt JB Cranston was placed in charge, with Capt A Macaulay as his assistant. The subjects covered — weapons training, fieldcraft, map reading, mine handling, man management and drill — paint a vivid picture of exactly what skills the battalion felt its junior leaders needed to sharpen befor

By November 1944, the 1st Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers had been fighting continuously since landing on Sword Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944. The cumulative toll of five months of combat — from the bocage of Normandy through Belgium and into the Netherlands — had left the battalion critically short of men. Reinforcements were not arriving quickly enough to replace the losses.

On 7 October 1944, the 1st Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers discussed orders for Operation Fraternise — a planned assault on a heavily defended wood using Churchill tanks, Flail tanks, AVREs and 58 armoured carriers. The operation was ultimately cancelled, but the original Top Secret operational order survives, providing a rare and detailed insight into how a battalion-level attack was planned and coordinated in the latter stages of the Normandy campaign. 1st KOSB Wa

If you have a relative's service number but don't know when they joined, check the dates/numbers below to give you a rough idea of enlistment date. 3185091 14/03/1928 Cpl R. Lang 3186650 23/11/1931 Pte. J.A. Rankin 3186724 18/03/1932 Sjt James Wedderburn 3188184 27/03/1936 Pte J. Harkness 3188534 13/08/1937 L/Cpl W. H. Temple 3188821 08/11/1937 Pte W. Renwick 3189236 04/06/1938 L/Sjt Donald Ferguson 3189399 28/11/1938 Sjt G. A. Coupland 3190051 01/06/1939 L/Sjt Robert McGhie

We were contacted via Facebook by Chalky White, whose father was Lance Corporal Noel White . Noel wearing his pal's Piper uniform He had a couple of photos of his Dad with his mates and wanted to confirm if one of them was Private Mark Tucker . Chalky said, " Dad was a Bren gunner and they came under fire and were pinned. My Dad got himself into a bit of trouble so Tucker ran to help him, he was killed pulling my Dad to cover. My Dad never got over that, ever". Since his Dad'

'Victory in Europe' day, 1945 was spent in a small town in Germany. The War Diary for 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers on the 7th and...