Soldiers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Belfast

The Save the Scottish Regiments Campaign said it planned to put up 13 candidates to give Labour "a bloody nose".

A spokesman said the government had refused to abandon "these most unpopular and ill-conceived cuts".

The plans involve cutting one battalion and merging the remainder.

The candidates - many of them ex-servicemen and their families - will attempt to oust Labour MPs from seats across the country, including Dunfermline East, held by Chancellor Gordon Brown.

To some people, it'd be like ripping their family apart Jeff Duncan Save the Scottish Regiments Campaign

Campaign organiser Jeff Duncan declared: "Our message is quite clear - if you're a Labour voter and are sick to the back teeth of everything Labour has done, particularly this latest lunacy in trying to cut regiments when we need everyone we can out there, vote for our candidates, deplete Labour's share and leave the way open for the strongest opposition to win."

The seats, mainly in the Scottish regiment bases, include the Western Isles, Inverness, Moray, Aberdeen North, Aberdeen South, Dundee East, Dundee West, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh South, Ochils and South Perthshire and Stirling.

Save the Scottish Regiments - which is not linked to any political party or regiment - is campaigning against the most radical defence restructuring in a generation.

'Point of no return'

All of Scotland's six infantry regiments are single-battalion regiments and include some of the most famous names in British military history, such as the Black Watch.

Lt Gen Alistair Irwin, Colonel Commandant of the Scottish Division, has insisted there is no question of removing an entire regiment wholesale.

But Mr Duncan, a former RAF serviceman, warned the army was approaching a point of no return and said he was confident the campaign would have strong backing.

Highlander recruits at Redford Barracks

He said. "If there's no change in the final announcement in November and the government's view is business as usual, I'm optimistic we'll be in a fantastic position, if current support is anything to go by.

"It's really having a snowball effect, it's self-generating, so I'm confident we're going to put a huge dent in the Labour vote."

The Dundonian, whose grandfather fell in battle while serving with the Black Watch, added that there was no political motive behind the campaign.

He said it was about protecting hundreds of years of tradition.

"To some people, it'd be like ripping their family apart. It really doesn't add up, it does not make sense," he said.