Fame brings responsibilities.

The 51st Highland Division was one of the most famous British army units of World War II, and justly so; it fought in North Africa, Sicily, and France, and took far more than its share of casualties. It was well worthy of all the memorials, songs, and tales.

In one sense, the mere existence of this book is a fitting tribute. But I can't wish that it did a better job of telling what it's a tribute to. This is mostly a picture book, with relatively little text, and that mostly a series of excerpts from soldiers' memoirs and letters. It will teach you about some aspects of the Division's career, but it isn't a coherent history. It would be a nice supplement to a real history, but first that history has to be written. Oh, there is Patrick Delaforce's Monty's Highlanders: 51st Highland Division in the Second World War -- but that's a too-technical, overly detailed, hard-to-read examination that's best left to specialists. Having read both, I'm still left with many questions about this famous unit (particularly about its musical traditions, which are my primary interest although, I grant, not the main reason most people have for reading about it).

This isn't really a bad book if you accept its limitations. But even a brief preface giving a history of the 51st would have made a much more useful volume. ( )