Highland Soldiers

 An adventurous spirit surged through th veins of the young men who are the main subject of this book- The Lovat Scouts of the Second World War- as they trained and sported in the wilderness and the high peaks of the Canadian Rockies.

Yet, this relatively carefree interlude in the lives of these men was, of course, a presage to the true brutality of warfare, which many of them encountered in the Italian Campaign of World War Two. 

Highland Soldiers is a history of that famous regiment from the highlands of Scotland- the Lovat Scouts- which had first seen action in the Boer War, and a few years later fought in World War One.

This history is brought to life by Lieutenant Sydeny Scroggie's narrative. It is the very personal nature of Scroggie's writing which carries the reader right into the dry, bright hills of Italy where fear- in the form of mines left by retreating Germans- lay in the dust you were about to tread, where terror screamed from the sky in the form of artillery shells. But you will also experience the warmth and fecundity of the Italian countryside, and the vitality of the cities. And you will accompany Scroggie on a very personal journey of recovery. 

Dr. Taylor has put into a very human framework the story of one regiment from the highlands of Scotland, whose history briefly touched one of the loveliest parts of the Canadian west, and then became a small fragment of the vast forces pressing Germany ever back in the final months of the war in Europe.