The 42nd Battalion, C.E.F. Royal Highlanders of Canada - 1931 - by C. Beresford Topp (by Download)

Cat No.:   CA0281-DL: File Size 60.3 MB:

In his opening address the author, Lieut.-Colonel C. Beresford Topp, D.S.O., M.C., declares this book to be ... based on the 42nd Battalion official War Diary ... Any reader, however, who has ever struggled to fully comprehend the content of any official war diary will soon recognize this as an understatement of the amount of work and care he has put into making this a clear, concise and readable history of the activities of the Battalion.

The Battalions formation in February of 1915 as the second Royal Highlanders active service Battalion to spring from the roots of the 5th Militia Regiment in Montreal, conferred on it the coveted association with the famous Scottish Black Watch Regiment. The C.O. even managed to pulled a few strings to obtain the same 42nd assignation. Embarking for Europe in June 1915 as a part of the second Canadian contingent the 42nd soon took its place in the battle lines where it completely fulfilled the reputation of the Black Watch as a hard fighting, indomitable force through such battles as Mount Sorrel, The Somme, Vimy Ridge, Avion, Passchendaele, Amiens, Arras and Mons, to mention but a few.

As one would expect the chapters of this history relate the part taken by the Battalion as a whole in the fighting, including how it interacted with the other active units in the same areas. It also manages, however, to include many stories of the individual soldiers as they carried out their duties, or in many cases, far exceeded them in acts of selfless valour.

In concluding the book Lieut.-Col. Topp provides several fact filled appendices including an Honor Roll, a Nominal Roll of Officers and Other Ranks and an Itinerary of all movements and Principal Operations. Amply supported with photographs of the battlefields and portraits of the officers, many of the battles are illustrated by fold out maps showing the locations and movements of the fighting forces. We must mention however that in preparing the master for this digital edition we were surprised to find that the map of the Battle of the Somme appeared in two locations and that the map showing the capture of Vimy Ridge was missing. Thanks to the Museum and Archives of the Black Watch (RHR) of Canada we have corrected this situation and this version now provides a full compliment of maps.

As usual we have made the text of the book fully searchable. We have also extracted a few of the book's pages into a sampler and made that freely downloadable from our Downloads page so you can browse before you buy.

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Delivery of physical products (CDs) IS STILL AVAILABLE see CA0281 for the CD version of this product.

No. of CDs is:  0;   Format is:  PDF ;   Searchable?:  YES;