When the men arrived at the train station near Achnacarry, it was raining – a very common occurrence in Scotland, especially in the West Highlands. It was also 9 p.m., though the depot was far enough north that it was still light.

The Rangers had left their camp at 0500 – five a.m. Most were tired and maybe stiff from the long ride.

Tough.

Whistles sounded. The men assembled on the platform to the bellows of their first sergeant, who urged them to fall in smartly. Barracks bags and packs were manhandled as the Rangers, tired and a little rumpled from the twenty-six hour boat ride from Ireland, found their places.

Though only about eighty miles as the crow flies from Glasgow, Achnacarry was isolated, distant from not only the war but most of Britain. Loch Ness – the famous home of the bashful sea creature “Nessie” – was nearby, but few people cared to hunt for fabled monsters when the ocean held dangers all too real. Aluminum plants helped the war effort, and West Highlands natives had opened their homes to relatives and other refugees from the bomb-ravaged areas of southern England, yet the area remained thinly settled.

Narrow paths ran by waterfalls, skirted moors, paralleled streams. The few roads were narrow, bounded by moss-crusted rocks. Mountains rose all around them; most days they were shrouded in mist.

To the arriving Rangers, the main building looked like a castle – no coincidence, since it was the ancestral home of the clan Cameron. The fields before it were filled with tents and Quonset huts – the latter called Nissen huts by the Rangers. Jim Altieri likened the eight-man tents to wigwams; the men arranged themselves like the spokes of a wheel around the center post when they bedded down each night.

The British Commandos had taken over a castle and the surrounding grounds at Achnacarry, Scotland for their basic training, and it was there that the Rangers began learning the skills necessary for small-group and special operations warfare. By far the most dangerous part of the exercises were the landings conducted under live-fire. The Commandos posing as the enemy used real bullets. While they were supposed to aim above the Rangers’ heads, there are a number of stories about close calls, and at least one Ranger was in fact shot, though his wounds were not serious.

The use of real rounds was considered essential by the British, who had discovered that green troops,  not used to seeing or hearing bullets flying over their heads, often froze when first introduced to combat.

Many of the precepts and even the exercises used at Achnacarry are used by today's Rangers.

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