Laugh and Be Happy: The Story of the 1st Lothians and Border Yeomanry in France, 1940 by A Karsgaard

Available on Barnthorn Publishing's website:
www.barnthornpublishing.co.uk

Available on Amazon:
https://amzn.eu/d/ehRuZOq

The Lothians and Border Yeomanry were a close-knit group of friends, neighbours, and countrymen from a quiet corner of southern Scotland, who mobilised immediately upon the declaration of war in September 1939.

When the German invasion of France and the Low Countries came, the Lothians were deployed in front of the Maginot Line along the eastern border with Germany. Outflanked by the German thrust to their north, cut off from the rest of the BEF, and off-balance, they made a fighting retreat across eastern and northern France, through the chaos of refugee-choked roads and the collapse of the French Army, to their lonely last stand at the small fishing village of St. Valery, where, as the village burned, and parties of men made desperate individual attempts to escape, the bulk of the regiment went into captivity on 12 June 1940.

The 'miracle of Dunkirk', which happened a few days earlier and a few miles to the east, has overshadowed the story of these men who were left behind after the little ships sailed away. This book tells their story.