Outline of Service
In 1939 the 52nd (Lowland) was a first-line Territorial Division. It comprised three infantry brigades – the 155 Infantry Brigade, the 156 Infantry Brigade and the 157 Infantry Brigade. The Division did not join the main British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France and Belgium but following the Dunkirk evacuation was earmarked to form part of a proposed re-constituted BEF. It landed through Brest, Cherbourg and St Malo on 10 June 1940 and formed part of the covering force for the withdrawal from the Lines of Communication immediately prior to the fall of France.
The Division returned to the UK on 17 June 1940 where it formed part of Home Forces and in May 1942 was selected for specialist training in mountain warfare. In August and September 1944 it was further trained for air landing operations. In the event it was not deployed in either specialist role. It joined the 21st Army Group on 15 October 1944 where it was employed as an ordinary infantry division despite retaining for the most part its special role establishment. Ironically, its original operational area was below sea-level in the Netherlands, tasked alongside the Canadian 1st Army with freeing the Scheldt Estuary. The 52nd Lowland Division fought with 21st Army Group for the remainder of the campaign in Holland and Germany.
Two separate accounts of this battle are offered. The first, written from a Divisional perspective, appeared in The Covenanter: The Regimental Journal of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) 2005.
The second was researched and written by me to provide some understanding of the war experience of my late father, CSM Douglas Haig McCreath (B Company, 7th Cameronians), for his other children (my siblings), his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It offers a detailed account of the role of the 6th and 7th Cameronians in the clearing of the Scheldt Estuary and in the Liberation of Walcheren. It is hoped that it may also be of interest to others – particularly the families of other ex-Cameronians.
A treasure trove of a website that provides a succinct history of the Glasgow Highlanders and records the eminent connections of the Hendry family with that Regiment also provides otherwise-hidden, invaluable insights into the embodiment, training and deployment of the 52nd Division in WW2.
The personal wartime diary of the site author’s father, Col. J. M. Hendry, is the source. The Glasgow Highlanders, a brother regiment of the Cameronians in the 52nd Lowland Division were in the 157th Brigade.
Immediately after the War the 52nd Lowland Division formed part of the occupation force in I Corps District. The Division was disbanded, along with the rest of the Territorial Army (TA), at the end of 1946.