Cap badge The Royal Scots

both lugs missing, bicolour

UITVERKOCHT / SOLD
Betaalwijzes

At the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots was at Aldershot as part of 4th Infantry Brigade, alongside the 1st Border Regiment and 2nd Royal Norfolk Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division; accordingly, it deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It moved to Lecelles in September, and in May 1940 moved into Belgium during the Battle of France. The BEF were heavily hit by the German Army's breakthrough, however, and fell back towards the coast; the battalion was deployed at Le Paradis, near Béthune, on 25 May to protect the flanks of the Dunkirk evacuation. After being heavily hit by armoured attacks, the battalion ceased fighting on the afternoon of 27 May. The adjacent unit, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolks, had almost one hundred men taken prisoner and later shot by their captors in the "Le Paradis massacre". Recent research has suggested that around twenty Royal Scots may have suffered a similar fate. The remnants of the battalion were reconstituted in Bradford in June. After Dunkirk, the battalion spent nearly two years on home defence preparing for, what many thought, would be a German invasion of the United Kingdom. The invasion never took place, due mainly to the Battle of Britain.The 1st Royal Scots, along with the rest of the 2nd Division, was sent to British India in April 1942 to train for jungle warfare.

The two Territorial Army units, the 7th/9th, which was the 7th and 9th battalions merged, and 8th Battalions, mobilised in Scotland in September; the 7th/9th was briefly deployed to France with the 155th Infantry Brigade, alongside the 4th and 5th King's Own Scottish Borderers, of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division before the collapse of the French government, but was quickly withdrawn. The regiment raised a fifth battalion, the 12th, formed in June 1940. Originally it was created as the 50th (Holding) Battalion in June 1940 where it would 'hold' men who were medically unfit, temporarily homeless or on a course etc. It was redesignated as the 12th Battalion in October 1940. Also raised were the 10th and 11th (Home Defence) battalions, both raised in late 1939 specifically for defensive duties in the United Kingdom. Both battalions, like most others of the same type, would have consisted mainly of older and less fit men, with previous military experience, together with younger soldiers. The 11th, however, was disbanded in 1940 and, in 1941, the 10th dropped the 'Home Defence' subtitle and was redesignated as the 30th Battalion but was disbanded in 1943.

Most of 1941 passed without active duty for the regiment, and with growing concerns about the stability of the Far East, the 2nd Battalion, still based at Hong Kong, moved into defensive positions around the colony. These fears materialised on 8 December, when the Battle of Hong Kong began a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor; after bitter fighting, the garrison surrendered on Christmas Day. The newly formed 12th Battalion was disbanded and reformed as the 2nd Battalion in May 1942.

In April 1942 the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots was moved to Bombay, and then to Chittagong in December, still with 2nd Infantry Division. It fought in the Burma Campaign, first seeing action in the Arakan operations from March to May 1943, and then withdrawing into India. It later saw action at the infamous Battle of Kohima in 1944 and the Battle of Mandalay in 1945. It was withdrawn to India to rest and refit in April 1945, and moved to Singapore in December.

The new 2nd Battalion was moved to Gibraltar in April 1943, and moved to Italy in July 1944, where it saw action in the Italian Campaign, in the Anzio Campaign and on the Gothic Line, with the 66th Infantry Brigade which was part of the 1st Infantry Division. The 2nd Royal Scots were serving in 66th Brigade alongside the 1st Hertfordshire Regiment and 11th Lancashire Fusiliers. In January 1945 it moved to Palestine with the rest of the 1st Infantry Division, where it was active in security duties in October and November, and was then redeployed to the Suez Canal Zone in December 1945.

The 7th/9th Battalion was still part of the 155th Infantry Brigade and was attached to the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division, which was trained for mountain warfare and airlanding operations, but was never used in this way. In October 1944 they moved to the Netherlands, fighting in the Battle of the Scheldt as part of the First Canadian Army, where the 52nd Division served with distinction, and then participating in Operation Blackcockand the advance to the Rhine; it crossed the Rhine in March 1945 and advanced to Bremen by the end of the war.

The 8th Battalion, Royal Scots was raised on 2 August 1939 as a 2nd Line duplicate of the 7th/9th Battalion. They remained in the United Kingdom as part of 44th (Lowland) Infantry Brigade, alongside the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers and 6th King's Own Scottish Borderers. The brigade was a part of the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, which would gain an excellent reputation in the campaign, and itself was formed a 2nd Line duplicate of the 1st Line 52nd Division. In June 1944 they landed in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord and fought in the Battle for Caen in Operation Epsom and later at the Second Battle of the Odon and Operation Bluecoat. They then fought in the North West Europe Campaign, from Paris to the Rhine, until the end of the war; it entered Belgium in September, crossed the Rhine in March 1945 and advanced to Hamburg by the end of the war.

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