227th Infantry Brigade ( United Kingdom ) 227th Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Army formed for Home Service under various short - lived titles in World War I and the early part of World War II . Later it was upgraded to a field formation composed of Scottish troops , and saw heavy fighting in the Normandy and North West Europe campaign . World War I . On the outbreak of World War I the Territorial Force ( TF ) immediately mobilised for home defence , but shortly afterwards ( 31 August 1914 ) , its units were authorised to raise 2nd battalions formed from those men who had not volunteered for , or were not fit for , overseas service , together with new volunteers , while the 1st Line went overseas to supplement the Regulars . Early in 1915 the 2nd Line TF battalions were raised to full strength to form new divisions , and began to form Reserve ( 3rd Line ) units to supply drafts . The remaining Home Service men were separated out in May 1915 to form brigades of Coast Defence Battalions ( termed Provisional Battalions from June 1915 ) . 10th Provisional Brigade . 10th Provisional Brigade was formed with the following composition : By July 1916 the brigade was at Herne Bay under the control of Southern Army of Central Force . 227th Mixed Brigade . The Military Service Act 1916 swept away the Home / Foreign service distinction , and all TF soldiers became liable for overseas service , if medically fit . The Provisional Brigades thus became anomalous , and at the end of 1916 their units became numbered battalions of their parent units . Part of their role was physical conditioning to render men fit for drafting overseas . 10th Provisional Brigade became 227th Mixed Brigade at Herne Bay in December 1916 , with its units redesignated as follows : By early 1918 the brigade had moved from Kent to Suffolk , with its HQ at Saxmundham , and was attached to 67th ( 2nd Home Counties ) Division . Here it was joined by the following units : In May 1918 each of the Mixed Brigades was called upon to provide a battalion ( redesignated a Garrison Guard battalion ) to reconstitute the 59th ( 2nd North Midland ) Division , which had been virtually destroyed during the German Spring Offensive . 227th Mixed Bde supplied 11th Somerset Light Infantry and immediately raised a new 13th ( Home Service ) Bn Somerset Light Infantry to take over its coast defence duties . The brigade remained with this composition until the end of the war , after which it was demobilised in June 1919 . World War II . In World War II the brigade number was reactivated for 227th Independent Infantry Brigade ( Home ) . formed within Scottish Command on 15 February 1941 , initially for service in the United Kingdom ( the suffix ' ( Home ) ' was dropped on 1 December 1941 ) . The brigade was always composed of Scottish regiments . Order of Battle . The following units constituted 227th Brigade during World War II : During July 1943 three of the brigade ' s Territorial Army and hostilities - only battalions were replaced by two reconstituted Regular battalions of Highland regiments serving in Orkney , the brigade was redesignated 227th ( Highland ) Brigade and assigned to 15th ( Scottish ) Division . Commanders . The following officers commanded 227 Brigade during World War II : ' Scottish Corridor ' . 227th ( Highland ) Brigade landed in Normandy on 18 June 1944 with 10th Highland Light Infantry ( 10 HLI ) , 2nd Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders ( 2 A & SH ) and 2nd Gordon Highlanders ( 2 Gordons ) . It was soon thrown into action in Operation Epsom on 26 June , when 15th ( Scottish ) Division was given the task of advancing five miles to capture the bridges over the Odon , thereby creating what became known as ' Scottish Corridor ' to allow 11th Armoured Division to cross and push on to the Orne and the high ground south of Caen . 227 Brigade was in divisional reserve for this operation . The leading brigades lost heavily during close fighting , and the armour was held up . At 18 . 00 , 15th ( Scottish ) was ordered to resume the advance , and 227 Bde moved up . The " Official History " records that ' The brigade ' s leading battalions started . . . in torrential rain . On the eastern road the advanced guard reached the outskirts of Colleville but the main body was held up near the Salbey stream , about a mile south of Cheux , and got no further that night ; on the western road only the ground skirting Cheux was reached , when the infantry and supporting tanks were embroiled in confused fighting , there and round le Haut du Bosq . In the fading light and blinding downpour there was not enough time left to oust the enemy from their strong hold of the ridge ' . 227th Brigade renewed the attack early the next morning . 10th HLI were held up by tanks of 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend , but 2nd Argylls made rapid progress against light opposition , taking the last two miles to the Tourmauville Bridge at a run and seizing a bridgehead for the Sherman tank s of 23rd Hussars from 11th Armoured to cross over . The fllowing day ( 28 June ) 2nd Argylls were ordered to move upstream towards the Odon bridges at Gavrus . Patrols found them undefended , and the battalions seized these as well . But while still isolated , they were counter - attacked by tanks and infantry of the newly arrived 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg . However , they held on to the bridges until reinforcements arrived . Bluecoat . In the early part of July 1944 , 15th ( Scottish ) took part in the fighting round Caen , then at the end of the month it moved west to the Caumont sector , where it was to joint in VIII Corps ' s break - out southwards from the Normandy bridgehead ( Operation Bluecoat ) . Its attack on 30 July was led by 227 Bde advancing alongside 11th Armoured on the right and 43rd ( Wessex ) Division on the left . 227 Brigade was organised as a brigade group , with an additional infantry battalion , supported by 4th Tank Battalion , Grenadier Guards from 6th Guards Tank Brigade ( Churchill tanks ) and accompanied by flail tank s to deal with the mines sown thickly by both sides during the previous two months of stalemate . They began their advance a few minutes before 07 . 00 . First the Highlanders had to clear two village strongpoints within a mile of Caumont and then capture les Logues and Point 226 ( or Quarry Hill ) a few miles further south . ' As soon as the leading troops showed themselves on the forward slopes of the Caumont ridge they ran into heavy defensive fire , and seven of the Churchills and two flail tanks were put out of action by mines ' . However , the surviving flails made passages , the tanks caught up with the infantry and the first objectives were taken by 10 . 00 . While the infantry carried on mopping - up , the tanks drove on to Point 226 . 43rd ( Wessex ) had been held up , so 6th Guards Tank Bde took Point 306 on the left as well , and then had to hold on until 18 . 00 when the first infantry caught up . Now they came under heavy shelling followed by an attack from Jagdpanther s of " 654 schwere Panzerjäger - Abteilung " ( 654th Heavy Anti - Tank Battalion ) , which drove over Point 226 . However , with the arrival of more of 227 Bde ' s infantry , the position on Point 226 was consolidated , the tanks remaining all night while the infantry continued mopping up . Over succeeding days VIII Corps advanced towards Mont Pincon , beginning the process of closing the Failaise ' Pocket ' . Crossing the Seine . In late August 1944 , 15th ( Scottish ) was transferred to XII Corps and chosen to seize a bridgehead over the Seine for that corps . On 27 August 227 Bde began crossing the 300 - yard wide river at two points . At le Mesnil Andé , D Company of the 2nd Gordons in the lead suffered heavy casualties from machine gun fire directed against the vulnerable storm boats , and all those who got across were captured . 2nd Gordons ' attack was halted , but at St Pierre du Vauvray , two miles downstream , 10th HLI had crossed without opposition , and the brigade was ferried over in DUKW s . Before midnight on 28 August the engineers had bridges open and XII Corps began to pass through the Scottish bridgehead . Market Garden . During Operation Market Garden , XII Corps played a subsidiary role securing the left flank of XXX Corps ' main thrust , but 15th ( Scottish ) had five days ' hard fighting in securing the town of Best , just beyond the Wilhelmina Canal . Veritable . In the opening of Operation Veritable ( 8 February 1945 ) , 15th ( Scottish ) , operating as part of XXX Corps , had the task of breaching the northern extension of the Siegfried Line , consisting of anti - tank ditches , minefields , concrete emplacements and barbed - wire entanglements , and then seizing the key ground around Cleve . The division led with 46th ( Highland ) Bde on the right and 227th ( Highland ) on the left . The opening phase went well , the troops having more difficult with mud and mines that the enemy . By dark , 227 Bde had captured Kranenburg . But the follow - up attack by 44th ( Lowland ) Bde , carried on tanks and in Kangaroo APCs , and preceded by flail and bridging tanks , was held up on the rough tracks . However , the Corps commander , Lt - Gen Sir Brian Horrocks , heard that the Scots were entering Cleve , so he launched 43rd ( Wessex ) Division to pass through 15th ( Scottish ) . He afterwards referred to this as ' one of the worst mistakes I made in the war ' . 15th ( SCottish ) had not got as far as reported , and the arrival of 43rd caused ' one of the worst traffic jams of the whole war . . . The language heard that night has seldom if ever been equalled ' ( Horrocks ) . The battle then turned into ( in Horrocks ' s words ) ' a slogging match ' . 15th ( Scottish ) finally took Cleve on 11 February , and then had to face a counter - attack by XLVII Panzer Corps the following day . During the second phase of Veritable on 22 February , 15th ( Scottish ) again faced heavy opposition , from Panzer Lehr Division , as well as mines , mud , and an anti - tank ditch , but the division pushed the front to within 2 miles of Weeze and took many prisoners before being relieved by 3rd Division . Torchlight . 15th ( Scottish ) Division had returned to XII Corps by the time of the Rhine crossing ( ' Operation Plunder ' ) , and it was chosen for the Corps ' main assault crossing opposite Xanten , codenamed ' Operation Torchlight ' . 227 and 44 Brigades were extensively trained for this operation , with two practice crossings of the Maas ( ' Exercise Buffalo ' ) on 14 and 15 March 1945 to rehearse with the Buffalo amphibious vehicles that would carry them . The attack went in at 02 . 00 on 24 March , five hours after 51st ( Highland ) Division began crossing a few miles downstream . Brigadier Colville planned 227 Brigade ' s attack , codenamed ' Nap ' , to assault with 10 HLI on the right and 2 A & SH on the left , aiming to seize the villages of Overkamp and Lohr respectively . 2 Gordons would then cross and relieve the other two battalions . Although 44 Bde ' s assault went well against weak opposition , 227 Bde ' s crossing did not go well . For one thing the Buffaloes ( crewed by the East Riding Yeomanry ) had difficulty climbing the far bank of the river , and secondly the opposition ( from the German 7th Parachute Division ) was tougher . The leading companies of 10 HLI crossed without casualties , but were landed several hundred yards to the right of their objective , leaving a gap between the assaulting battalions . They then found the dyke strongly held and suffered numerous casualties . The second ' flight ' of Buffaloes also went astray , battalion HQ ended up in no - man ' s - land , and the Observation Post of 131st Field Regiment , Royal Artillery was wiped out , delaying supporting fire . However , by dawn 10 HLI was secure in the outskirts of Overkamp . 2 A & SH had similar difficulties : the Buffaloes carrying D Company fund it impossible to land on the Eastern side of an inlet and had to land on the western side and march round it . They lost surprise and got into a tough fight with German paratroops . By first light they were joined by C company and together the companies cleared Hübsch , though with heavy casualties . Meanwhile A and B companies had pushed north towards their objective ( ' Area X ' ) . However , an attempt to capture Roperhof failed , and daylight revealed it to be a strongpoint occupied by paratroops . At 06 . 15 , A Company of 2 Gordons began to cross the river in stormboats , expecting to support 10 HLI , but drifting down to 2 A & SH ' s landing place , losing men to snipers along the riverbank . B Company , due to follow , suffered mortar fire at their launching place and abandoned the attempt . The rest of 2 Gordons crossed at 10 . 30 and joined 2 A & SH in clearing Lohr , which was compledte by 13 . 30 . During the morning the divisional reserve , 46 Bde , began landing on 227 ' s right with Buffaloes and Sherman DD amphibious tanks of 44th Royal Tank Regiment . Beginning at 17 . 15 , 9th Cameronians and A Squadron of 44 RTR attacked Haffen from the SE , while 2 Gordons attacked from the West . By 23 . 00 15th ( Scottish ) was in a firm position on the East bank of the Rhine , though the holdups to 227 Bde meant that not all the objectives had been reached . The division had also made contact with the US 17th Airborne Division , which had dropped beyond the river that morning as part of Operation Varsity . Over following days , 15th ( Scottish ) continued to advance northwarsd against stubborn resistance and repeated counter - attacks until on 26 March it made contact with XXX Corps and secured a bridgehead over the River Issel , which it expanded next day . The division had suffered 824 casualties over the four days of the battle . Drive to the Elbe . 15th ( Scottish ) joined VIII Corps for the final drive on to the River Elbe . On 11 April 1945 the division led the corps advance on the Celle – Uelzen axis , with 11th Armoured Division using mnor roads on its left . The division reached Celle against patchy opposition on 12 April , where it had to bridge the Aller . Switching to minor roads to avoid demolitions on the main road , the Scots made rapid progess during the night of 13 – 14 April , and by dawn were almost into Uelzen . There they ran into an advancing German force from Panzer Division Clausewitz and 233rd Reserve Panzer Division . There was bitter fighting that day and night , but on 15 April the Scots closed in on the town , while 11th Armoured and 6th Airborne Division bypassed it to north and south respectively to hem in the garrison . Although a group of Clausewitz Division got away during the night of 17 April , the town was captured the following day . On 29 April , 15th ( Scottish ) made one last assault crossing with Buffaloes , stormboats and Sherman DD tanks , to get over the Elbe . With overwhelming artillery and tactical air support , opposition was limited . Three days later negotiations began for the surrender of all German forces in North Germany .