World War 2
In September 1939 Johnston joined the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, and was sent for officer training to Sandhurst after which he was posted to the Grenadiers Training Battalion, based at Windsor, in the spring of 1940 where he served as a Technical Adjutant. They were due to join the British Expeditionary Force in France during May but these plans were overtaken by the retreat from Dunkirk. He remained stationed in the UK until the invasion of Europe in the summer of 1944 when his battalion landed at Arromanches on the Normandy coast some three weeks after D Day. In the winter of 1944 and early spring of 1945 Johnston and his armoured division were in the thick of the allied advance, crossing the Rhine and fighting their way up to Bremen and Hamburg. He was later awarded the Military Cross in 1945.
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