Alexander Waddell is my brother. He is fifteen months younger than me, but he soon surpassed me in size, strength, and mechanical ingenuity. He was good with his hands as well as his head, far outclassing me in his ability to make things work. This was to stand him in good stead throughout his army career.
In 1937, with Hitler threatening the peace of Europe, he enrolled in the Territorial Army, along with about thirty others from the Perthshire town of Auchterarder. This book describes his experiences from the day he joined until the day he was demobbed. His was no easy war. The Black Watch is a famous fighting regiment, and saw plenty of action, in Africa, in France, and in Norway. He saw die beside him comrades whom he had known since childhood.
His book is no glorification of war. It is a realistic depiction of life in the infantry, as seen by an ordinary, and extraordinary, soldier.
—John Waddell
