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The Charge of the 1st Battalion Queens Own Cameron Highlanders at Escaut Canal, Belgium, 21 May 1940 by David Rowlands. The last Highland Regiment to wear a kilt in battle.
Many Scottish units wore the kilt in combat during the First World War. In particular, the ferocious tactics of the Black Watch led to their acquiring the nickname “Ladies from Hell” from the German troops that faced them inthe trenches. The Highland regiments of the Commonwealth armies entered the Second World War wearing the kilt, but it was rapidly recognized as impractical for modern warfare, and in the first year of the war was officially banned as combat dress. Nonetheless, individual exceptions continued, and it is believed the kilt was last widely worn in action at the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940. However, on D-Day, June 1944, Lord Lovat, commander of 1 Special Service Brigade, was accompanied by his personal piper Bill Millin, who wore a kilt — and played the bagpipes.
