Churchill’s Sacrifice of the Highland Division: France 1940

On 12 June 1940, more than a week after the last British troops had been evacuated from Dunkirk, the 51st (Highland) Division, Scotland’s pride, was forced to surrender to General Erwin Rommel at St Valéry-en-Caux in Normandy. 

Drawing heavily upon more than 100 personal interviews with survivors of the battle, upon unit war diaries, personal letters and journals as well as official documents and reports, Saul David traces the story of the Highland Division from its arrival in France, through the excitement of patrol operations in front of the Maginot Line and its magnificent defensive battles on the Somme and the Bresle, to the final, desperate stand in the little Norman seaport of St Valéry.

This book is not only a vibrant account of the infantryman at war, with all its suffering, horror and even humour.  For the first time, the author gives us a historian’s view of the political background which led to Winston Churchill’s decision to sacrifice the Division, despite the protestations of many generals, in the vain hope of persuading the French to fight on.