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.