AS PROMISED - SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM SCOTTISH MILITARY DISASTERS - > Book Extract
* He was an Eighteenth Century Scottish Forrest Gump - Stobo
** Here's one that combines Canadian and Scottish themes - Tunnelling for Victory
*** Those who enjoyed reading about the Royal Scots’ Armistice Day battle with the Bolsheviks in 1918might be interested in the same fight as seen from a Canadian viewpoint - Canada’s Winter War
***** Read about the blunder that made Canada an easy target for invasion from the United States - Undefended Border
****** Read about the Second World War's Lord McHaw Haw
******* Serious questionmarks over the official version of one the British Army's most dearly held legends - The Real Mackay?
********** It's been a while since I posted a new article. This one's called Temptation
********** Read about how the most Highland of the Highland regiments during the Second World War fared in the Canadian Rockies - Drug Store Commandos.
************* We now have a Guide to Scottish military museums on this site.
************** Just weeks before the outbreak of the First World War one of Britain's most bitter enemies walked free from a Canadian jail - Dynamite Dillon
*************** Click to read - - Victoria's Royal Canadians - about one of the more unusual of the British regiments.
*************** Read an article about the Royal Scots and their desperate fight against the Bolsheviks on Armistice Day 1918 - Forgotten War A second article, looks at the same battle but through a Canadian lens .
***************No-one has got back to me with a German source for the claim that the kilties during the First World War were known as The Ladies from Hell . See My Challenge to You
***************** A map showing the old Scottish regimental recruiting districts can now be seen by clicking Recruiting Area Map .
****************** The Fighting Men 1746 article now includes the estimated strengths of the Jacobite clan regiments which marched into England in 1745 See Clan Strengths
****************** **I've posted a fresh article - Scotland’s Forgotten Regiments. Guess what it's about.
******************** The High Court Hearing in London in May 2012 attracted a lot of visitors to this site. See Batang Kali Revisited
********************* Why not have a look at Book of the Year
Tax on Speech
Canada is now in a trade war with Trump's America. Or maybe it's more accurately called an Anti-trade War. I'm still not convinced that the old draft dodger understands what a tariff is or how they work. Anyway, here's an idea for a 50% tariff Canada can impose in retaliation. If the contributor cheque for a radio programme is being sent to an address in the USA then there should be a massive tariff imposed. Canada's state subsidised broadcaster, the CBC, seems to prefer American commentators and "experts" over the homegrown variety, even when the subject matter is Canadian and a US contribution is pretty much worthless. I'd far rather see my taxpayer dollars going into Canadian pockets. In the modern world not having American voices and opinions rammed down my throat is a major challenge. Of course, there will be occasional times when a US viewpoint is worthwhile but no-one said tariffs are a pain free option. But let's make it that the US voice is only used when it's essential.
Up to You
For a long time I was able to keep up here in Canada with the British news by listening online to the opening news bulletins on Good Morning Scotland and The World at One. Then the BBC cut me off coz I didn't live in the UK and therefore wasn't paying the licence fee. You don't have to pay the licence fee in the UK to listen to BBC Radio. The BBC then directed me to their news website bbc.com. It was no real substitute for the online broadcast news bulletins. Now they are demanding money for access to the website articles. I don't think so. I just worked out why the website is so awful. The items on the UK page are not chosen because they are of national interest. They are chosen on the basis of representing the various BBC regions equally on the page. So, nearly every day a story about the air service to the Channel Islands, the ferries to the Isle of Man and often reports of house fires in Solihull. So, I guess I'll need to get my news elsewhere; from folk who think The Tottenham Hotspurs are a "soccer" team and there is an English city called Cornwall. Well done the BBC for contributing to ignorance about what's happening in the UK. If you want to behave like a normal commercial news outlet maybe you shouldn't be demanding a public subsidy.
Shameless Plug #9 - With Wellington was among the books recommended as an excellent Christmas present by the prestigious The Society for Army Historical Research. There was another mysterious surge in sales of With Wellington last summer. At the end of May it was the third best selling book about the Peninsular War on the website of one of Britain's biggest booksellers and Number Eighteen in the table for all Napoleonic books. Last December's sales surge turned out to be a combination of the venerable Scots Magazine declaring it Book of the Month in its January 2015 edition and a highly favourable review in the Napoleonic Association's newsletter. Scots Magazine's reviewer, nature writer and author, Jim Crumley, declared "I don't much care for military memoirs, but I could not put this one down". Other reviewers have been equally enthusiastic - "If you are interested in the memoirs of British soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars this book is a MUST!... You don't get many Napoleonic memoirs as good as this" and "It is the most candid memoir of the British Army I have ever read... does not pull any punches ... highly entertaining, but also thought provoking..." To have a look at the full reviews check out more about With Wellington
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