HISTORY OF THE SOMERSET LIGHT INFANTRY (PRINCE ALBERT’S): 1919-1945

This second of the three-volume history of one of the oldest Infantry regiments in the British Army tells the SLI’s story from the aftermath of the Great War through to the end of the Second World War. IT was written, according to its author, while memories of that conflict were still fresh in the minds of those who fought it. The SLI was in the forefront of the belated mechanisation of the British Army during the 1930s as the threat of war loomed. During the ‘Phoney War’, apart from its 1st battalion in India, the Regiment was on home defence duties. While the majority of the Regiment trained at home for the conflict ahead, the 1st battalion helped fight off the Japanese threat to India in the Arakan campaign. The regiment took part in the invasion of Sicily and Italy, landing art Salerno, and fighting its way up Italy through Rome to Florence. Meanwhile other battalions odf the regiment landed in N ormandy on D-Day as airbourne troops, and took part in the Battle of the Falaise Gap.
In the final phase of the war in Europe, the SLI crossed the Rhine and advanced deep into the heart of Germany. After the Italian campaign, other elements of the regiment helped occupy Greece. The main text is accompanied by 12 appendices, six photographs, seven general maps, and 22 local maps.