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.

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.