Early 20th-century Ordnance Survey six-inch map of the South Downs north of Chichester, showing Chilgrove House, Chilgrove Hill, Stoughton Down and Goosehill Camp, the ground used by 1st KOSB for Exercises "DAD" and "SINNER" on 19 April 1944.

"A" Company acted as advance guard to the Battalion, advancing along the high ground of the South Downs towards Chilgrove Manor, north of Chichester in West Sussex, supported by a section of carriers and a section of mortars.

In January 1944 the 3rd British Infantry Division was training hard in the north of Scotland for the assault landings it would make on D-Day. Exercise FIZZLE was a full divisional assault landing exercise on the Moray coast at Burghead, carried out by the troops of 185 Infantry Brigade with full naval gunfire and artillery support.

In the spring of 1944 the 1st Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers was stationed at Selkirk, part of 9 British Infantry Brigade, 3rd British Infantry Division — the division earmarked to land on SWORD Beach. Alongside exercises with troops on the ground, the officers of the battalion were put through a series of TEWTs — Tactical Exercises Without Troops — in which syndicates of officers walked real ground and talked through how they would fight a battle on it.

"The whole company streaked like mad across the four hundred yards gap." Officers and N.C.O.s encouraged a few who were straggling behind, "Come on, keep going" ... "You ought to have been there by now" ... "Only a few more yards to go" ... because if any had been left on that perilous "course" when the smoke screen lifted they would have been popped off easily by the German machine-gunner.

Group photo of D Company, 1st KOSB prior to Normandy landings

Ten days before D-Day, 37 officers were listed on the 1st KOSB's Field Return — men who had trained together and were about to land on Sword Beach. Three months later, on 2 September 1944 as the battalion prepared to leave Normandy, 32 officers appeared on the roll.

The training took place from 21 August 1944, using a Class 9 FBE bridge, a Class 9 Close Support Raft and six Storm Boats — all part of the operational allotment, which could not be replaced if damaged. A month later, these skills would be put to the test for real when the battalion crossed the Meuse-Escaut Canal in September 1944.

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.

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's p

'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 8th of May report the following: 7th May 1945: The Bn moved to IBBENBUREN leaving DELMENHORST at 0715 and arriving at 1430. The tracked column arrived three hours later and the Bn was settled in by 1800 hrs with positions as follows:- Bn HQ 988091; "A" Coy 991095; "B" Coy 997101; "C" Coy 988088; "D" Coy 990083; "S" Coy 038072. The Bn was co

Prior to the D-Day landings, the 1st KOSB were stationed in Denmead in the New Forest. The day the official War Office Photographer (Sgt Woolridge) chose to visit - 29th April 1944 - was also my Grandad's (David Morrison) 21st birthday. Here's a few photos from the Imperial War Museum's online collection. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections Here's a google map of Creech Wood near Denmead where KOSB and other members of 3rd Infantry were based. Happy birthday, Grandad. Wish you

For those that are interested in the process of researching our 1st KOSB veterans, I wanted to highlight one in particular that is close to my heart. Exhibit A: 'Unknown, undated Wedding photo of 1st KOSB piper' Many years ago (most likely the 80s) I went through my Grandad's photo album with him and scrawled a couple of dates/place names on the pages. I hadn't done it with this photo so knew nothing about it. My only clue was that the piper is also in my Grandad's Wedding Ph

August 19441st KOSB, 'played the pipes in honour of an American airman shot by the SS'.

One of our contributors, Rob Bowie, sent us some images of a 50 Franc French bank note that was signed by members of 1st KOSB's Signals section a week before D-Day. The note was kept by Rob's Father-in law, Norman Bowie, and, years later, Rob tried to find who the people were behind the signatures. We had a look at it but also didn't make much progress until we were checking medal cards for those wounded in action and noticed that, if the soldier survived, they normally sign

The scheme was approved at the end of 1942 and called for approximately 1500 Canadian officers at the outset, however this was reduced to roughly 625 by the time of the Normandy landings (Mostly due to them being needed by their own Regiments by that time).

We have dedicated numerous hours to gather a complete roster of individuals who perished in Normandy, as well as what we believe to be a...