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.

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'.

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).