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Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 65, Issue 5525, 16 September 1942, Page 2

HIGHLAND REGIMENTS FINE WORK IN MALAYA The Germans coined the nickname “Ladies from Hell” for Highlanders fighting on the Western Front in the Great War. They disliked the kilt and feared the men who wore it. The Japanese in Malaya, when Counting their dead, probably coined another nickname for Highlanders. “Honourable Wild Cats” I would say at a guess, for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, it now transpires, were in every phase of the Malayan campaign, writes a service correspondent of the Overseas Daily Mail. What is more, the Argyll’s badge is a cat within a wreath of broom. A wild cat is the crest of the Sutherland family and broom is the badge of the clan. Back in Singapore stories are told about the gallant deeds of this glorious regiment. Round Ipoh they were engaged in the fiercest jungle fighting. They got split up into small parties, but, though constantly surrounded, they fought through the enemy’s lines and formed up again to continue the delaying action, which meant so much. They are the only infantry regiment in the British Army to carry “balaclavas' 7 ’on their colours —and afterwards they were known as “The Thin Red Line.” Twenty-seven battalions of the Argyl and Sunderland Highlanders served during the Great War, and in 1927 a drum lost in the campaign was returned to the regiment by a Hamburg gentleman. Drums are clumsy things in a war, but pipes are insepar. able from the pipers. They marched across the Causeway to Singapore Island playing “Cock o’ the North,” it is said. But the tune

would change to “Highland Laddie” as they neared their billets. That is their regimental tune.

The Gordon Highlanders covered the withdrawal. The Japs felt the weight of steel once again from another clan of the “Ladies from Hell.” I feel that whatever nickname the Japs have devised for them it will not be “Gay” Gordons.

The regiment earned this title because the Duchess of Gordon, who raised it in 1787, bestowed on each recruit a kiss. She added a guinea as an afterthought, and the young men of Aberdeen rallied with astonishing rapidity.

Twenty-one battalions of Gordons fought in the last war without kisses or guineas. The Germans hated and feared them as the Japs must to-day.

The Leicesters shared the brunt of the Malayan campaign from the start, and proved intrepid jungle fighters.

“The Tigers” they’re called—a fitting nickname for troops engaged in jungle warfare. The East Surreys also earned laurels in Malaya. Their regimental tune is “A Southerly Wind and a Clou ? ” Sky,” and how they must have yearned for both in the tropical heat of the jungle. This regiment was raised as marines in 1702, and for this reason the officers always drink the King’s health sitting, until ships had more space between decks and the Navy abolished the practice and stood to His Majesty’s toast. The Loyal Regiment from Lancashire were rushed to the rescue near Batu Pahat, when two Australian battalions were surrounded.

If the Loyals whistled a tune as they marched across the Causeway, it would be “The Red Rose,” and the Manchester Regiment awaiting them in Singapore would recognise the tune.

I take off my hat to the entire Imperial Force in Malaya. They fought the hardest of all fights—a long delaying action against overwhelming enemy hordes.