Cap badge Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) was an infantry regiment of the British Army until amalgamation into The Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2006.

The regiment was created in 1881 as an amalgamation of the 91st and 93rd Regiments of Foot. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was expanded to 15 battalions during the First World War and nine during the Second World War. The regiment sent an active battalion to serve in the Commonwealth Division in Korea and gained a high public profile for its role in Aden during 1967. As part of the restructuring of the infantry in 2004, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was amalgamated with the other Scottish infantry regiments into the seven battalion strong Royal Regiment of Scotland. Following a further round of defence cuts announced in July 2012, 5 Scots (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) is to be reduced to a single public duties company called Balaklava Company, 5 SCOTS (A&SH), Royal Regiment of Scotland.

World War II

There were nine Argyll and Sutherland battalions raised during the Second World War.

The 1st Battalion fought in the Western Desert Campaign, Crete, Abyssinia, Sicily and in the Italian Campaign. The first action for the 1st Battalion was at Sidi Barani where they joined the battle on 10 December 1940 as part of the 16th Brigade. On 17 May 1941 the battalion moved to Crete where they formed part of the defence based on the east side of the island at Tymbaki. Most of the Argylls marched from Tymbaki to the airfield at Heraklion on the night of 24 May to help support the 14th Infantry Brigade in the fighting at that airfield. They were successfully evacuated on 29 May from Heraklion but their convoy suffered air attacks and many casualties on the route away from Crete. The Argylls left at Tymbaki were captured when the island surrendered. The 1st Battalion was shipped to Alexandria and after garrison duties followed by a raid into the Gondar region of Abyssinia, they were sent back to the Western Desert where they were eventually attached to the 10th Indian Infantry Division and fought at the Battle of El Alamein. The 1st Battalion landed on Sicily during Operation Husky in 1943 and fought throughout the Italian Campaign with firstly the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and then the 8th Indian Infantry Division.

The 2nd Battalion fought valiantly against the Japanese Army during the fighting in Malaya and Singapore (See Battle of Bukit Timah). Led by the tough Lieut. Col. Ian Stewart they were one of the very few British units that was prepared for the jungle warfare in Malaya. In the months before the invasion of southern Thailand and Malaya in 1941, Stewart took his battalion into the harshest terrain he could find and developed tactics to fight effectively in those areas. This training that the 2nd Argylls went through would make them arguably the most effective unit in General Percival's Malayan Command, earning them the nickname 'the jungle beasts'.

During the withdrawal of the Indian 11th Infantry Division the 2nd Argylls slowed the enemy advance and inflicted heavy casualties on them. During these actions the battalion became so depleted by battle that it was ordered back to cross the causeway into Singapore. Two days later, an Australian staff officer in company with the 2000 or so men of the 22nd Australian Brigade (the absolute tail guard of the British forces) arrived at the causeway. He was amazed to find all 250 of the ASHR, the proud remnants of the whole battalion who had been in action almost continually since the Japanese invaded six weeks previously, camped on the Malay side of the water. When asked what they were doing still in Malaya when they could have been in the relative comfort of Singapore their commanding officer, Major Ian Stewart, replied “You know the trouble with you Australians is that you have no sense of history. When the story of this campaign is written you will find that the ASHR goes down as the last unit to cross this causeway what’s more - piped across by their pipers”

Having suffered the massive loss of some 800 men due to being continuously used as the buffer to protect the retreating army (especially at the Battle of Slim River), the remaining Argylls, upon arriving in Singapore were reinforced with Royal Marines who had survived the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in December 1941 changing their name to Plymouth Argylls (in reference to the Argylls affiliation to the Plymouth Argyle Football team and that all the Marines were from the Plymouth Division). The battalion surrendered with the rest of General Percival's army in Singapore in February 1942. Many Argylls died in captivity as P.O.W's or in the jungle trying to avoid capture. Two Argyll soldiers even managed to avoid capture throughout the war in Northern Malaya, where they had remained since the Battle of Slim River. Only 22 of the Plymouth Marines (out of 210) and 52 Argylls reached Ceylon.

A few Argylls managed to escape to India, including Lt.Col.Stewart, where they lectured on Jungle warfare tactics. After this the evacuees became part of No.6 GHQ Training Team which organized training exercises and lectures for the 14th Indian Infantry Division and British 2nd Infantry Division.

In May 1942 the 15th Battalion was redesignated as the new 2nd Battalion. This battalion took part in the Normandy battles with the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division and ended the war on the Elbe River.

In March 1942, two British privates of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Macfarlane and Goldie, escaped from Stalag IX-C at Bad Sulza in Thuringia. They jemmied their way out of their barrack hut wearing their blue work detail overalls over their battledress. These were boldly marked 'KG' (Kriegsgefangener, prisoner of war) on the back in red.

Throughout their escape bid, both men wore 40 lb rucksacks that concealed the markings and which they never took off in public. One of them later recalled, 'We attracted a certain amount of attention on the road because of our large packs but we made a point of keeping ourselves clean and shaven and also cleaned our boots regularly. No one stopped us on the way.'

After enduring a week in a salt wagon bound for Belgium, the two men made contact with an escape line there and, by mid-summer, they were safely back in Scotland.