.The history of the 51st Division, 1914-1918.

[206thCEF]

Written by Major F.W. Bewsher DSO,MC. (formerly Brigade Major 152nd Infantry Brigade and GSOII,51st Highland Division) and dated 1921.

This book was started during the conflict and has no appendices at the end (read the preface). The firsts chapters are form the mobilisation, Festubert, the "Labyrinth", the Ancre and Beaumont Hamel, and ends with with the capture of Greenland Hill and then Valenciennes.

From the American Libraries Internet Archive files.

Joe

http://www.archive.org/details/historyof51sthig00bews

[Guest gordon3]

this is a great book, shame the author could not use all of his source material (where is it now? I have tried but he doesn't seem to have any family left who knows about it)

the only drawback with the book is the lack of decent sized maps, they are far too small, they refer to coloured lines of battle objectives but are in black and white, it is not easy to distinguish between the 'dotted and dashed' lines and the 'dashed with two dots' lines. and the writing is miniscule , never mind

the book could have done with a table of casualties as an annexe

good read

gs

[JimSmithson]

Welcome to the Forum gs

Before being too critical of the book be grateful that it exists. Not all divisions have a history, even the regulars only have 7 out of 15. They are all usually the result of one man or a small group deciding to complete one and Major Bewsher completed the work under quite difficult circumstances. It is better than some others I have and in fact, even the maps are better! Publishing in 1920 was not what it is today. If you ask any of the authors who have produced regimental histories such as the Pals books, tables of casualties require a tremendous amount of effort. Bewsher simply did not have the luxury of the time required so we have to take the book for what it is.

Jim