T H E C O V E N A N T E R
to the more recent Argyll and Sutherland that the 46 (Highland) Infantry Brigade
‘Entry to the Crater’ which remembers post- of the 15 Scottish Division was to be a
war service in troubled Aden. Although part of the invading force. The training
the long tradition of piping the infantry of the 9th Cameronians, with its Brigade
into action was abandoned, after a rise in sister regiments and its armoured support
casualty rates, the pipes still accompanied regiment, now intensified, culminating in
their troops up to the line of battle, striking exercises at corps level in Yorkshire.
fear into the enemy, as happened with In May 1944 the Battalion moved to
the Highland Division at El Alamein and Hove in Sussex in final preparation for
elsewhere. It was the pipers who normally Operation Overlord where, in Cameronian
took on the dangerous task of providing tradition, they held their last ‘Conventicle’
stretcher-bearers as Fyffe Christie was to - an outdoor service of dedication. The
discover. After training and a much valued Battalion was to take part in heavier and
course at the Army School of Piping in more continuous fighting than their
Edinburgh Castle, he was posted to the 9th comrades, and suffered far higher casualties.
They landed at Arromanches, their heavy
equipment delayed by the storm which
damaged the newly-assembled and ‘fixed’
Mulberry harbour. When the equipment
caught up with them on 23 June the
Battalion had already been committed to
battle. It was to be a brutal baptism of fire
for unbloodied troops. In the successful
attack on the village of Haut Du Bosq
the Battalion had suffered a hundred-and-
twenty killed and wounded by 27 June.
The stretcher-bearers had a dangerous task,
Battalion the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). in minefields and hedgerows behind which
Joining them would have suited Christie’s the enemy lurked, making the deployment
interest in Scottish history and religion of armoured support vehicles difficult. As
at that time; it was the only regiment in Christie was to recall, no amount of training
the British army to have a religious origin, could equip sight of the brutal effects of
formed from the Covenanters in 1689. high-explosives on the human body.
On Church Parades it mounted armed ‘Behind the Lines’, Normandy 5th July 1944.
sentries and troops carried sidearms. It
was the only Scottish Rifle Regiment, and The most feared weapon was the mortar
sported the black uniform buttons and with which the Germans were particularly
details of such corps. Strongly individual, skilled, and which accounted for many of the
rather than accept amalgamation in 1968 casualties. An insidious enemy was fatigue,
as did others during the painful process for sleep became difficult even during
of army reorganisation, it decided to opt the few periods of quiet; the heightened
for disbandment and a final march into senses of danger were alerted by bizarre
oblivion. battlefield noises such as the gas escaping
The early years of the war was a frustrating from the corpses of diary cattle littering the
period for the 9th Battalion. They trained Normandy farmland. In the ensuing days
hard, but the boredom of seemingly endless hand to hand fighting took yet further toll.
shuffles from one hutted encampment to yet By 30 June casualties were so numerous
another took its toll, and was a challenge to that the Battalion had to be withdrawn
its leaders. The Pipes and Drums were much to the rear of Le Mesnil Patry for a nine-
in demand for such events as War-Weapons day respite, to allow new reinforcements
Weeks, which Christie remembered as all of men and equipment. The first essential
spit and polish. There were many who cast was sleep. That satisfied, the troops were
an envious eye at the other battalions of left to seek their own form of therapy to
the Regiment earning new laurels in North put into perspective their first blooding in
Africa, Sicily, Italy and Burma. action, and to prepare themselves for the
However, by the summer of 1943 when next battle. There being nowhere to go,
the 9th Battalion moved to Alnmouth some kicked a ball about, some read, some
in Northumberland, it was clear that the drank. For Fyffe Christie it was a formative
invasion of Europe was in preparation, and few days. With his sketchbook, he started to

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