SO FEW GOT THROUGH: Gordon Highlanders with the 51st Division From Normandy to the Baltic

by Martin Lindsay

Few British soldiers landing in Normandy in 1944 had more of a score to settle than the 51st Highland Division. The original 51st had gotten separated from the main British army before Dunkirk in 1940 and had been captured at St. Valéry, the surrender being taken by Irwin Rome in person. The reconstituted 51st had fought Rome in the desert and knew that 10,000 Scotsmen were now entering their fourth year in German prison camps.

The original edition of So Few Got Through appeared just after the war and chronicles the campaigns of the 1st Gordon Highlanders from Normandy to V-E Day. Martin Lindsay was the Gordons' commander and his book has long been considered the best account of a British battalion in the war.

Genres: History, World War II

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 22, 2000

Reviews

[MR ANDREW TUCKER · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a regiment

Reading this book I was amazed by the amount of fighting this division did a brave commander who took over platoons because of the high officer casualties. A really good read

[Jack Kefferty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Felt like you were with them every step of the way , brings home the brutality and devastation that war creates

[John Pearse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good factual account, recounting what soldiers had to go through during.that bloody war.

[J S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Officer's memoire from WWII. Tends to underplay the drama and emotion, as so many of his generation do, but a good read.

[Michel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice read on the British side of the Campaign from Normandy to the heart of Germany.
At times difficult to follow / understand because of the language used (not being a native speaker), the many names and all the units with their typical names.

Lindsay gives a good insight in the day-to-day live of a British officer.
What struck me were two things: the distance between officer's and "ordinary jocks" and the heartfelt grief on so many friends that were killed.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. A fascinating account by an officer who obviously had a tremendous affection for the men he commanded. It reads a little but as though he used a personal diary as its basis, very much against regulations.