Any Argylls historians here ?

Can someone please shed some light on certain units of the Argylls at the start of WW2 – particularly the mysterious 4th Battalion ?

As I understand it, by the end of WW1 and in the interwar-years, the 1st and 2nd Regular Batts were maintained, the 3rd Regular Reserve and 4th Extra Reserve Batts were dissolved, the 5th and 6th Territorial Batts were merged to form the 5/6th Batt, the 7th, 8th and 9th Batts were maintained and all Kitchener and wartime Territorial Batts were disbanded by 1919.

Now the tricky bit ! I believe the following happened in the run-up to WW2 and the Munich scare of 1938, when re-armament was stepped up, steps taken to mobilize forces and protect the public and the TA was ordered to double its strength. The big fear was air attack and the army belatedly tried to address mothballed projects and equip. As of early 1939:-

The 1st and 2nd Regular Batts were performing their internal security duties (Palestine and NWF respectively);

The 5/6th Batt (TA) had duplicated by splitting to re-form the separate 5th and 6th Batts;

The 7th Batt (TA) duplicated a second-line battalion, the 10th, which was brigaded into the new second line division the 9th (Highland) Division – sister of first line 51st (Highland) Division.

The 8th Batt (TA) duplicated a second-line battalion, the 11th, which was brigaded into the new second line division the 9th (Highland) Division – sister of first line 51st (Highland) Division.

The 9th Batt (TA) formed a duplicate battalion, the 4th Batt (TA).

Following a general shortage of artillery and special support units in the expanding British Army in preparation for war, the 9th A&SH was converted to Light-Anti Aircraft artillery, becoming 54th LAA (A&SH), while the 4th A&SH became the 58th LAA (A&SH).

Meanwhile the 5th and 6th Batts both became Machine Gun battalions (A&SH).

All the TA Argylls units saw action with the BEF in France/Belgium in 1940. The 4th Batt (58th LAA) was part of GHQ Reserve, 2nd AA Bde. The 5th Batt was part of I Corps, Corps Troops (MG). The 6th was also part of I Corps, Corps Troops (MG) ? The 7th was part of 154 Bde, 51st Highland Div as was 8th Batt. The 9th Batt (54th LAA) was part of III Corps (Corps Troops) (HQ RA).

After Dunkirk and St Valery, the 10th and 11th Batts were absorbed by the surviving elements of the 7th and 8th Batts. The 9th (Highland) Div was used to reconstitute the new 51st (Highland) Div.

The 5th was absorbed by the 6th Batt and was converted to Self-Propelled Anti-Tank artillery, becoming the 91st AT Regt RA (A&SH) which fought in NW Europe in VIII Corps 2nd Army, while the 54th LAA ( A&SH) was also converted to SP-AT and became the 93rd AT Regt RA (A&SH) and fought in North Africa and Italy with V Corps, 1st army then 8th Army. The 58th LAA remained in service as mobile light anti-aircraft artillery and fought in NW Europe with 11th Armoured Div.

Of course, other battalions were raised as drafts, training and home defence units and disbanded during the war – such as 12th, 13th and 14th Batts and 30th, 50th and 70th Batts. Most famous was the 15th Batt, a reserve battalion, which in a special 1942 parade was informed it would become known as the 2nd Batt and inherit the 2nd’s traditions and colours. The original regular 2nd Batt had recently been destroyed in the fight to defend Malaya from the whirlwind Japanese offensive. The new 2nd Batt became brigaded with 227 (Highland) Infantry Brigade, which in 1943 became part of the newly-activated 15th (Scottish) Division. It fought in hard battles in NW Europe (notably against Waffen SS armour and infantry in Normandy) and was one of the best divs of 2nd British Army.

Lastly, the 1st Battalion moved to Egypt in 1940 and joined 8th Army’s 14th Infantry Bde, 8th Infantry Div then 4th Indian Div, fighting at Sidi Barrani, Crete, El Alamein, Sicily then joining 8th Indian Div in Italy.

I would be grateful to anyone know if I am on the right track or not.