World War Two

Between the two World Wars the 1st Battalion served in India and Chanak (1922), Malta and Palestine both in (1936). 2^nd  KOSB served in Ireland, Egypt, Hong Kong and India, where it was when war broke out in September 1939.

1st Battalion KOSB embarked for France in 1939 as part of the 3^rd  Division of the BEF. They crossed the Belgian frontier in May 1940. However, with the Germans rapid advance through Belgum and across France, a hallmark of their Blitzkrieg strategy, the KOSB like the rest of the BEF, were outgunned by an enemy of overwhelming numerical superiority, and were ordered to withdraw. Fighting their way to the coast, on the night of 31^st May/1^st June 1940 they were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk and reached England.

Also present in France in 1940 were the 4^th and 5^th (Territorial) KOSB Battalions, with the 52^nd  (Lowland) Division. In a little known campaign, designed to prevent France from falling, they landed as part of a second BEF at St. Malo in Brittany on the 13^th  June 1940. The intention had been to establish a bridgehead with the French Army, but France capitulated and on the 18^th  June 1940 the Battalions were taken off from Cherbourg.

Intensive training followed along with the establishment of no less than thirteen Home Guard battalions of the KOSB. The regular battalions were all given defensive roles. The KOSB Battalions were deployed as follows 1^st Battalion patrolled in Sussex, the 4^th in Norfolk, 5^th in Huntingdon and Norfolk, 6^th and 7^th in Essex.

By the end of 1941 all KOSB battalions except 1^st, 2^nd and 9^th were in Scotland.

From Summer 1942, 4^th and 5^th KOSB trained as mountain troops and later as airborne infantry. But it was 7^th  Battalion who trained for the airborne role as glider airborne troops.

With the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944,1^st Battalion KOSB was there at the forefront, returning to France on D-Day, 6^thJune 1944, landing at ‘Sword’ Beach. They fought through Normandy and around Caen until the town capitulated, and then advanced north through Belgium and Holland to the Rhine and Bremen.

The 4^th and 5^th KOSB Battalion’s found themselves in the Low Countries in the autumn of 1944, taking part on the strongly contested assault landings on Walcheren Island, at the mouth of the Scheldt. They then fought through into Germany taking a notable part in Operation ‘Blackcock’ and also taking part in the capture of Bremen.

The 6^th KOSB Battalion landed on the Normandy beaches on the 15^th June 1944 and took part in the battles around Caen and the River Odon. Fighting through France, Belgium and Holland, and crossing the Siegfried Line, they advanced across the Rhine into Germany.

The 7^th KOSB Battalion trained as glider troops and after intensive training and numerous false starts, they were ‘Off at Last’, as part of the 1st Airborne Division, the Battalion landed in gliders on landing near Arnhem, Holland on Sunday 17^th September 1944 and would fight their epic and only battle of the Second World War at Arnhem.

Of the 46 officers and 719 men that landed, 4 officers and 72 men answered the rollcall on 25^th September 1944 at Nijmegen after evacuating crossing the river Rhine. After the War the official figure for Borderers KIA were 120 of that 12 were Officers and 108 Other Ranks. The oil painting below is  titled ‘The Rally Point’, interpreting from the Regiment’s history, the 7^th (Galloway) Bn KOSB passing through the Battalion’s rally point, after landing in their gliders, its location signalled by the sound of Piper ‘Wullie’ Ford playing on his pipes the Regimental March ‘Blue Bonnets Over the Border’, on Sunday 17^th September 1944, on LZ ‘S’ West of Wolfheze Village, West of Arnhem.

Meanwhile, 2nd KOSB Battalion had been in the East since 1923. Until November 1942 they were at Razmak when they left for Peshawar. After tough training they sailed with the 7^th (Indian) Division to Burma in September 1943.

The 2^nd Battalion crossed into the Arakan and took part in the critical actions at Ngakyedauk Pass and in the ‘Admin Box’, where two Commanding Officers were killed. Later they were flown to the central front at Imphal. In early 1945 they marched towards the Irrawaddy and took part in the assault that turned the Irrawaddy line and encompasses the fall of Mandalay. The Battalion’s last battle 150 miles south took place at Prome in May 1945, by which time Rangoon had fallen and the Japanese Army’s defeat in Burma was assured.