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1st KOSB EXERCISES

EXERCISES & TRAINING

1944

Between the landing rehearsals of early 1944 and the end of the war, the 1st Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers trained constantly: on Scottish beaches and Border hills, on the South Downs, and behind the lines in Normandy and the Low Countries. These pages bring together the orders, appendices and War Diary entries for each exercise, alongside tactical exercises without troops (TEWTs), specialist training and plans that were drawn up but never carried out.

Each entry gives the original documents transcribed in full, a map plotted from the grid references in the orders where the ground can be identified, and our own notes on what the exercise tells us. Taken together, they show a battalion being shaped for the assault on SWORD Beach, and then for every river, wood and town that followed.

PREPARING FOR D-DAY

Scotland & the South Downs · January – May 1944

EXERCISE · ASSAULT LANDING

3

JAN

1944

EXERCISE GRAB

Assault-landing rehearsal on the Moray coast: 1st KOSB embarked in L.C.T.s at Fortrose, landed on the Moray coast in a ten-foot swell, and took the Greens of Burgie, January 1944.

Fortrose, Black Isle, to the Moray coast (Greens of Burgie, near Forres) · Scotland

EXERCISE

27

JAN

1944

EXERCISE FIZZLE

The CO, three officers and eight NCOs of 1st KOSB watch 185 Brigade's assault landing at Burghead from a landing ship offshore, five months before D-Day.

Burghead, Moray Coast · Scotland

TRAINING · JEEP TRIAL

25

FEB

1944

EXERCISE FOURDRIVE

A 9th Brigade jeep trial: a timed cross-country course of at least ten miles, with marks lost for every minute over schedule and a prize of cigarettes for the winning driver.

Selkirk area, Scottish Borders · Scotland

EXERCISE

20

MAR

1944

EXERCISE CAIRN II

A dress rehearsal for D-Day on dry land: the battalion "lands" on C Beach at a bridge outside Selkirk, seizes a crossing over the Tweed as a firm base and races to its concentration area at Caddonlee.

Selkirk to Caddonlee, Tweed valley · Scotland

TEWT

21

MAR

1944

EXERCISE TEWT

The battalion's officers walk the ground near St Boswells and plan a full battalion attack, from first light to consolidation, patrols and artillery, less than three months before D-Day.

Roxburghshire · Scotland

EXERCISE · MOVE

2

APR

1944

EXERCISE HANDS UP

The code name for the Battalion's move south: by road convoy and troop train from Selkirk to a tented camp at West Walk, near Wickham in Hampshire, eight weeks before D-Day.

Selkirk to West Walk, near Wickham, Hampshire · Britain

EXERCISE · D COY

18

APR

1944

EXERCISE BOUNCE BACK

"D" Company attacks the same earthworks on Stoughton Down from the opposite direction, the afternoon after "B" Company's Exercise BOUNCE, with carriers and mortars in support.

Chilgrove, South Downs · England

EXERCISE · B COY

18

APR

1944

EXERCISE BOUNCE

"B" Company advances as advance guard onto the old earthworks on Stoughton Down in a one-hour live-firing exercise, the first of four company exercises over two days.

Chilgrove, South Downs · England

EXERCISE · C COY

19

APR

1944

EXERCISE SINNER

"C" Company takes over as advance guard and pushes south from Chilgrove against an enemy platoon at the Earthworks, the afternoon after Exercise DAD.

Chilgrove, South Downs · England

EXERCISE · A COY

19

APR

1944

EXERCISE DAD

"A" Company advances as advance guard along the South Downs ridge to Chilgrove Manor in a live-firing exercise, seven weeks before D-Day.

Chilgrove, South Downs · England

NORMANDY

June - August 1944

TRAINING

20

AUG

1944

RIVER CROSSING

Storm boats, rafts and a folding-boat bridge on a lake at La Chapelle: the battalion trains for an assault crossing of the Seine, a crossing the speed of the German retreat made unnecessary.

La Chapelle-au-Moine · France

BELGIUM & HOLLAND

September 1944 onwards

OPERATION · CANCELLED

7

OCT

1944

FRATERNISE

A Top Secret plan to break into a heavily defended wood with Churchill tanks, flails, AVREs and 58 armoured carriers: briefed on a cloth model on 7 October 1944, cancelled the next day.

Lille-Saint-Hubert · Belgium

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