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escotregen · Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:26 pm Post subject: Glaswegians can be very cutting

Part of my light-hearted-laugh-a-minute reading material on holiday this year was recently published ‘Dunkirk, Retreat to Victory’ by Major General Julian Thompson. It is a blistering good read, managing to dump a lot of the superficial ‘Dunkirk spirit’ guff, with a comprehensive and honest appraisal – but still paying acclaim to what was a heroic fighting retreat that by all logic Britain should never have got away with.

I’ll be writing to the author to offer congratulations and maybe to seek a wee bit of verification… like on the less publicised fighting retreats around the Somme and at port Bolougne at the same time as Dunkirk. From Bolougne harbour the Royal Navy destroyer Whitshead blasted her 4.5” naval guns point blank at marauding Nazi tanks on the dockside where the Irish and Welsh Guards were desperately fighting rearguard.

The verification I could well seek is on where the author relates that in a last minute reserve company mission to rescue some stranded men, the fighting got desperate and savage, “Some of the Glaswegians in the reserve company resorting to what was then a favourite Glasgow gang weapon, cut throat razors, in preference to rifles, with which they were less acquainted”

I really dislike the self-generated (and self-demeaning) Glasgow hard man image, but I’ve gotta find out the provenance of this story.

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Alex Glass · Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 7:41 pm Post subject:

Good luck with that one Escot

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peter kemp · Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:38 pm Post subject:

A good book one the same subject I am reading is The Men They Left Behind. About the whole sorry mess but mainly those who fought the rearguard and of course the 51st Highland Division at St Valery. The aftermath and of the treatment by the Germans. Bloody awful in many cases.

cybers · Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:13 pm Post subject:

I am reading a braw book by some shop steward at Sainsbury's ....
Wouldna mind too much but it was an ebay purchase and some pages are missin....

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samscafeamericain · Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 6:43 am Post subject:

something my father once said to me has been triggered reading your comments. He said that 'it was always the Celts that were left to defend the retreats', and reading through the various posts it does seem to be the Irish, the Welsh or the Scots doing most of the near suicide work.

Saltmarketeer · Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 1:27 pm Post subject: