Description
At the heart of this book is the personal account written by a young Highland Scot, a lieutenant in the famous 42nd Highland Regiment (The Black Watch) caught up in the struggle to get rid of the Dictator then over-running Europe and threatening to invade Britain, exactly as Hitler did some 130 years later.
Donald Mackenzie and The Black Watch were in the thick of it and were ‘in at the kill’ when Napoleon was finally despatched at the Battle of Waterloo. Two days earlier, Donald had attended the Duchess of Gordon’s fabulous Grand Ball in Brussels.
There was a great deal of glamour about the Highlanders in those days; their bright red tunics and the kilts and sporrans they wore even into battle, and the shrill sound of the bagpipes, as well as their tremendous pride in the regiment to which they belonged.
Donald describes graphically they other side of the coin too – the incredible hardships and dangers he and thousands of English and Scottish soldiers endured in the mountains of Portugal and on the searingly hot plans of Spain.
To make the present-day reader familiar with events and the age, a wealth of intriguing and wide-ranging information is included throughout, helping to bring Donald’s account alive as a fascinating story of bravery and determination during the events that led to almost a hundred years of peace in Europe.
