From The Glasgow Herald, January 14, 1957 ZEAL, DISCIPLINE, AND FAMILY FEELING The Scots Guards at War by Bernard Fergusson The Third Guards trace their descent from a regiment raised by the great Marquis of ARGYLL in March, 1642. Contemporary as he was with Gustavus Adolphus, he might not have been surprised that the 1st Battalion began the last war fighting in NORWAY; but he would have been considerably puzzled that the tercentenary of his receiving his Letters Patent should have been celebrated by the 2nd Battalion in the barren desert west of TOBRUK. It had played a gallant part in the desert fighting in the autumn and winter of 1941; and some of its members, under Major Michael CRICHTON-STUART, had nonchalantly traversed the Libyan Desert and the Sahara many times as a patrol of the LONG RANGE DESERT GROUP. Scattered Battalions All this and much more is recorded in Captain ERSKINE’s massive volume* of more than 600 pages, which is pretty well a model of what a regimental history should be. He has admirably surmounted the familiar difficulty of how to tell a story which insists on unfolding itself simultaneously in different continents, according to where the several battalions found themselves. That difficulty has been enhanced in this case, as two stray companies each found themselves serving actually with other regiments for a period of 10 months; “S” Company, which had a most distinguished run for its money, with the 2nd Battalion of the COLDSTREAM in ITALY; and “X” Company, which did the same thing with the IRISH and WELSH in North-West Europe. Captain ERSKINE could not possibly have omitted them, so much did they contribute in their exile to the glories of the regiment. Norwegian Campaign Norway was a hideous campaign in every respect; ill-conceived, ill-launched, and ill-fated; and to crown all, the commanding officer, possibly one of the ablest of his contemporaries, fell foul of his immediate temporary commander, whom most would hold to be not of the same calibre. Not even the SCOTS GUARDS can achieve the impossible; but at least they achieved the incredible. There is a nice tale her of how, when a reconnoitring German aircraft came over, the men were told to hold their fire for fear of betraying their positions; but it was too much for one man, who fired a bust of Bren at it. The well-known SCOTS GUARDS cry of “Take that man’s name!” was bellowed and re-echoed across the snowy wastes - but the aircraft faltered and crashed. The man’s name was not taken, but his identity was established; and he survived, to be killed as a sergeant in TUNISIA two years later. Much had happened to both battalions before they met in TUNISIA after the final Allied triumph there. History had been made by such heroic figures as Major John MacRAE of Feoirlinn, killed, after a hundred chances, on what, two months later, was to be the field of ALAMEIN; of the gay Lord LYELL, who won his posthumous VICTORIA CROSS near LONGSTOP HILL, charging an 88mm. gun single-handed after two days of incessant fighting which he personally dominated. The both 1st and 2nd Battalions moved on across the Mediterranean. More than half of the SCOTS GUARDS killed in the war fell in ITALY. The 2nd Battalion took part in the initial landings at SALERNO in September, 1943, when they lost 15 officers and 170 other ranks. The 1st Battalion landed at ANZIO, where in a single day they lost 3 officers and 42 other ranks killed - the higher figure of killed in the regiment on any one day of the war. For an account of ANZIO, Captain ERSKINE has prayed in aid the first-hand account written contemporaneously by the then Adjutant; and very vivid and moving it is. After five weeks of the hardest fighting imaginable the battalion was withdrawn to a rest area (in so far as such a thing existed in such a small bridgehead) to embark for a quieter part of ITALY, so as to re-form and re-organise; but before they could do so some odd shells came over and killed five officers, including the indomitable Colonel David WEDDERBURN. Armoured Division The 1st Battalion finished its war on the Isonzo River, proceeding thereafter to TRIESTE. The 2nd Battalion, after a period of training at home, reached North-West Europe in time to be in at the finish. It was on March 7, 1945, that one of their finest fighting men was killed, C.S.M. LUMSDEN, D.C.M., M.M. and Bar. But the 3rd Battalion, formed in October, 1940, had begun convering to armour a year later; and was more than ready for the fray when it disembarked in FRANCE on June 23, 1944. From then until the end, it played a leading part in the GUARDS ARMOURED DIVISION, being closely associated with the 15th SCOTTISH. And the 4th Battalion, raised in 1941 but destined never to go to war as such, was not only represented in the other three by officers and men whom it had trained: “X” Company, already mentioned as having made its own private contribution to the history of the regiment, was entirely the 4th Battalion’s offspring, until it was absorbed into the 2nd in March, 1945. Sense of Atmosphere This book must obviously appeal most to members of the regiment and their families; but it is a delight for any soldier to read, as well as a privilege to review. Captain ERSKINE has handled his mass of material with a skilful hand. His photographs, his appendices and especially his maps are excellent. He has brought in just enough of the main current of the war to show how at each juncture, the contribution of his regiment made itself felt. His lighter touches and his anecdotes are never sloped on or dragged in, and are sometimes gloriously funny. One is aware throughout not only of the discipline and the zeal essential to an instrument of war, but of the family feeling lying behind them - an atmosphere not always easy to convey. The tale he had to tell was complicated as well as splendid. Not even the fiercest of his seniors can fault him for the manner in which he has discharged his task. *The Scots Guards, 1919-1955. By David Erskine. 50s: William Clowes.
