The first months of the war were spent in and around Niagara-on-the-Lake – a dreary round of guard duty on the Welland Canal and at local power facilities. There was little training and almost no new equipment. The first Bren guns, for example, would not arrive until December 1940. But there was time for setting the foundations for excellent administration and for addressing the usual range of problems associated with turning civilians into soldiers. It was during this period that the notorious “Mad Five” went AWOL, made their way to the Sunnyside amusement park in Toronto and telegraphed the CO – “Having a great time. Wish you were here.” In May 194l the lst Battalion entrained for Nanaimo, B.C., where it underwent several tedious months of route marches alternating with inspections.

September 1941 to May 1943 brought a sojourn in the sun – garrison duty in Jamaica. During this period, the reality of war was brought home by the fate of the Winnipeg Grenadiers (which unit the Argylls replaced in Jamaica) in Hong Kong, and of the RHLI (a sister unit from Hamilton) at Dieppe. It would have been easy for the Battalion to languish here, rum-sodden. Instead, under the command of LCol Ian Sinclair, the unit received new weapons and modern equipment, improved its administration, and began a complete program of small-unit tactics, fitness, and training of all sorts. In addition, the Battalion acquired cohesiveness at all levels, which would have been impossible to achieve under other conditions.

The men of the lst Battalion returned to Hamilton in May 1943 as soldiers. In preparation for overseas service, the unit lost its CO and all senior officers as well as all senior NCOs, except for its by now legendary RSM – Peter Caithness McGinlay. In August 1943 the unit passed inspection in England and joined the l0th Brigade, 4th Armoured Division. Advanced training, specialized courses, and schemes up to the divisional level became the order of the day, all of which were overseen by the new CO, J. David Stewart. The Argylls’ affection for him was instantaneous, and it broadened during training and deepened with the experience of battle. His intuitive sense of battle (which could not be taught), his cool imperturbability, and his refusal to fight according to preconceived notions brought dramatic results.

The unit’s first actions in early August 1944 were small successes fought along the road to Falaise. The first major action, Hill 195 on 10 August, was a brilliant and unorthodox success: Stewart led the Battalion single file through the darkness of night and German lines to capture the hitherto unassailable strong point. It was an act that historian John A. English has called “the single most impressive action of [Operation] TOTALIZE.” Less than ten days later, in the Falaise Gap, a battle group comprising B and C companies of the Argylls, along with a squadron of South Alberta Regiment tanks, captured St Lambert-sur-Dives and held it for three days against desperate counter-attacks.

Night over daylight fighting; infiltration rather than frontal assault; innovation when orthodoxy failed; superb leadership; doggedness; great spirit; excellent administration; and close cooperation with the SARs (whom the Argylls revered above all others) – these were the benchmarks of Argyll success, and they were all evident in that first month of battle.

Of the experience of battle, Cpl H. E. Carter wrote to his mother on 13 August: “That life in the front is not fun, not glamorous – it’s dirty, and fierce and anyone that says they’re not scared is crazy. But I’m not going to talk much about that. We try and keep our spirits up, joke and enjoy yourself under fire and we do an exceptionally good job of it.” That very same day Capt Mac Smith put it best when he wrote to his wife: “The men are simply wonderful. They have done well, and are getting better. They grumble … and dig, and advance and dig, and advance. They stand shelling, mortaring and occasional bombing, and then stand up in their trenches and ask where the hell the food is.”

These first weeks gave the Argylls a “hard core of cynicism and self-satisfaction.” The depth of the former was best revealed when Stewart wrote of trying to protect his men “from our two enemies, the Germans and our own Higher Command.” He saw his trust as being “to save lives and get a job done.” Like all infantry battalions, the Argylls suffered “inescapable losses,” but the Battalion was “never shattered in battle.”

Through Moerbrugge, the Scheldt, Kapelsche Veer, and the Hochwald Gap to Friesoythe, the Kusten Canal, and Bad Zwischenahn, the Argylls were successful against the enemy. But there was more: their losses (285 killed and 808 wounded) were the lowest in the l0th Brigade, and their successes constant. Cynicism is a soldier’s rightful lot and the Argylls never lost it. Self-satisfaction came with, and was sustained only by, success – despite the successive wholesale turnovers in the rifle companies. Neither quality was lost during ten months of battle. It made them, as Capt Claude Bissell once remarked, “a happy regiment and a formidable one in action.”

The lst Battalion provided the headquarters and one rifle company for the Canadian Berlin Battalion, a composite battalion that represented the Canadian Armed Forces in the British victory celebrations in Berlin in July 1945. Here again, the Argylls provided a memorable pictorial legacy of Canada’s participation in that war as the Pipes and Drums led the Canadian Berlin Battalion as Canada’s representatives in victory.

In January 1946, the Battalion returned to Hamilton, where it was dismissed.