Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

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The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
Cap Badge of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
Active	28 March 2006-
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Army
Type	Line Infantry
Role	Air assault/Light role
Part of	16th Air Assault Brigade
Garrison/HQ	Canterbury
Motto	Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (No One Assails Me With Impunity)
Commanders
Royal Colonel	HM The Queen
Insignia
Tactical Recognition Flash
Tartan	Government Sutherland (Pipes and Drums)

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's)
Cap badge and tartan of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
Active	1 July 1881-28 March 2006
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Army
Type	Line Infantry
Role	Air assault
Nickname	Thin Red Line
Motto	Sans Peur, Ne Obliviscaris
March	Quick: Hielan' Laddie Quick: The Campbells Are Coming Charge: Monymusk Funerals: Lochaber No More
Mascot	A Shetland Pony named "Cruachan"
Anniversaries	Balaklava (25 October)
Insignia
Tartan	Sutherland

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Scottish Division.

1 History
2 Battle honours
3 Affiliations
4 Victoria Cross winners
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

[edit] Formation

It was formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 91st (Princess Louise's Argyllshire) Regiment and the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment. The regiment is one of the six Scottish line infantry regiments, and wears the Sutherland as its regimental tartan. It also had the largest cap badge in the British Army. The uniform included the Glengarry as headgear.

[edit] World War I

When the Great War broke out in 1914 the Regiment had two Regular Battalions (1st and 2nd), two Militia Battalions (3rd and 4th) and five Territorial Battalions (5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th each of which split into 1st, 2nd and 3rd-line Battalions). Seven more Service Battalions were raised for Kitchener's Army and they were numbered 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th.

Ten of the Battalions served in France and Flanders (1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 14th) gaining 65 Battle Honours and four served in the Mediterranean area (1st, 5th, 6th and 12th) gaining a further 13 Battle Honours.

431 officers and 6475 other ranks lost their lives and six Victoria Crosses were awarded to the regiment during the war.

[edit] 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.

Lt.Col. Ian MacAlister Stewart (centre), commander of the Argylls advances through a mangrove swamp in Bukit Timah with Major Angus MacDonald (left) and Sgt-Major Munnoch. (right)

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. During the withdrawal of the Indian 11th Infantry Division the 2nd Argylls slowed the enemy advance and inflicted heavy casualties on them. After suffering massive losses themselves, due to being continuosly used as the buffer to protect the retreating army, the remaining Argylls were reinforced with Royal Marines who had survived the sinking of the H.M.S. Prince of Wales and H.M.S.Repulse in December 1941 changing their name to Plymouth Argylls. The battalion surrendered with the rest of General Percival's army in Singapore in February 1942.

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 IXC 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 40lb 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.

[edit] Korean War

On September 22, 1950, the Scottish Highlander Argyll Battalion moved up to attack Hill 282 near Kumch'on. Starting before dawn on September 23, B and C Companies after an hour's climb seized the crest of Hill 282 surprising there a North Korean force at breakfast. Across a saddle, and nearly a mile away to the southwest, higher Hill 388 dominated the one they had just occupied. C Company started toward it.

But enemy troops occupying this hill already were moving to attack the one just taken by the British. The North Koreans supported their attack with artillery and mortar fire, which began falling on the British. The action continued throughout the morning with enemy fire increasing in intensity. Shortly before noon, with American artillery fire inexplicably withdrawn and the five supporting U.S. tanks unable to bring the enemy under fire because of terrain obstacles, the Argylls called for an air strike on enemy-held Hill 388.

Just after noon the Argylls heard the sound of approaching planes. Three F-51 Mustangs circled Hill 282 where the British displayed their white recognition panels. The enemy on Hill 388 also displayed white panels. To his dismay, Captain Radcliff of the tactical air control party was unable to establish radio contact with the flight of F-51's. Suddenly, at 1215, the Mustangs attacked the wrong hill; they came in napalming and machine-gunning the Argyll position.

The terrible tragedy was over in two minutes and left the hilltop a sea of orange flame. Survivors plunged fifty feet down the slope to escape the burning napalm. Maj. Kenneth Muir, second in command of the Argylls, who had led an ammunition resupply and litter-bearing party to the crest before noon, watching the flames on the crest die down, noticed that a few wounded men still held a small area on top. Acting quickly, he assembled about thirty men and led them back up the hill before approaching North Koreans reached the top. There, two bursts of enemy automatic fire mortally wounded him as he and Maj. A. I. Gordon-Ingram, B Company commander, fired a 2-inch mortar. Muir's last words as he was carried from the hilltop were that the enemy "will never get the Argylls off this ridge." But the situation was hopeless. Gordon-Ingram counted only ten men with him able to fight, and some of them were wounded. His three Bren guns were nearly out of ammunition. At 1500 the survivors were down at the foot of the hill.

The next day a count showed 2 officers and 11 men killed, 4 officers and 70 men wounded, and 2 men missing for a total of 89 casualties; of this number, the mistaken air attack caused approximately 60.^[1]

[edit] 1945 - 2006

In 1948 the 2nd Battalion was amalgamated with the 1st Battalion which then saw service in Palestine, Korea, British Guiana , Berlin, Suez, Singapore, Borneo, Hong Kong and the Falklands .

The beginning of the 21st century saw the battalion's contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process being recognised by the award of the Wilkinson Sword of Peace.

In 2004, as part of the restructuring of the infantry, it was announced that the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders would be amalgamated with the other Scottish infantry regiments into the single Royal Regiment of Scotland.

In 2004, twenty-eight Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Land Rovers were surrounded by one-hundred Iraqi insurgents. Though pinned down and outnumbered, they bayonet charged into the insurgents, killing thirty-five of them before they retreated, and taking only three casualties(all wounded).1 2

The regiment's last role before amalgamation was in the air assault role as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade. The regiment now consists of a regular battalion (5 SCOTS), a company of a Territorial Army battalion (7 SCOTS) and an Army Cadet Force battalion.

[edit] Battle honours

Cape of Good Hope 1806, Rolica, Vimeira, Corunna, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse, Peninsula, South Africa 1846-7, 1851-2-3, Alma, Balaklava, Sevastopol, Lucknow, South Africa 1879, Modder River, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899-1902.

THE GREAT WAR - Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, 18, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Messines 1914, 18, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1915, 17, 18, Gravenstafel, St Julien, Frezenberg, Bellewaarde, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916, 18, Albert 1916, 18, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917,18, Scarpe 1917, 18, Arleux, Pilckem, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917,18, St Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Rosières, Lys, Estaires, Hazebrouck, Bailleul, Kemmel, Bethune, Soissonnais-Ourcq, Tardenois, Amiens, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, Canal du Nord, St Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Kortrijk, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Italy 1917-18, Struma, Doiran 1917,18, Macedonia 1915-18, Gallipoli 1915-16, Rumani, Egypt 1916, Gaza, El Mughar, Nebi Samwil, Jaffa, Palestine 1917-18.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR - Somme 1940, Odon, Tourmauville Bridge, Caen, Esquay, Mont Pincon, Quarry Hill, Estry, Falaise, Dives Crossing, Aart, Lower Maas, Meijel, Venlo Pocket, Ourthe, Rhineland, Reichswald, Rhine, Uelzen, Artlenburg, North-West Europe 1940, 44-45, Abyssinia 1941, Sidi Barrani, El Alamein, Medenine, Akarit, Diebel Azzag 1942, Kef Ouiba Pass, Mine de Sedjenane, Medjez Plain, Longstop Hill 1943, North Africa 1940-43, Landing in Sicily, Gerbini, Adrano, Centuripe, Sicily 1943, Termoli, Sangro, Cassino II, Liri Valley, Aquino, Monte Casalino, Monte Spaduro, Monte Grande, Senio, Santerno Crossing, Argenta Gap, Italy 1943-45, Crete, Heraklion, Middle East 1941, North Malaya, Grik Road, Central Malaya, Ipoh, Slim River, Singapore Island, Malaya 1941-42.

Pakchon, Korea 1950-51.

[edit] Affiliations

The Regiment has created several alliances with regiments in the Commonwealth during its history. An official alliance with the 91st Regiment (Canadian Highlanders) of the Canadian Militia was later recognized by that regiment changing its official title to The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Princess Louise's) and adopting the dress distinctions of the Regiment in Scotland.

In 1924, the Argylls formed an alliance with The Calgary Highlanders, and that unit also adopted the dress distinctions of the Imperial Argylls.

Several Australian and New Zealand units had also formed affiliations with the Argylls during the 20th Century, including the Byron Scottish and the Royal Australian Regiment.