A Time of Tyrants: Scotland and the Second World War

Trevor Royle examines Scotland’s role in the Second World War from a wide range of perspectives. The country’s geographical position gave it great strategic importance for importing war matériel and reinforcements, for conducting naval and aerial operations against the enemy, and for training regular and specialist SOE and commando forces. Scotland also became a social melting pot with the arrival of Polish and eastern European refugees, whose presence added to the communal mix and assisted postwar reconstruction. In addition to the important military aspects—the exploits of the Army’s renowned 15th Scottish and 51st Highland Divisions in Europe and North Africa and the role played by the RAF and the Royal Navy from Scottish bases—Scotland was also hugely important as an industrial power house and the nation’s larder. Based on previously unseen archives in the Scottish Record Office, A Time of Tyrants is the first comprehensive history of the unique part played by Scotland and the Scots in the global war to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

Trevor Royle is a broadcaster, a historian, and an author specializing in the history of war and empire. He is the author of several books, including Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660, Flower of the Forest: Scotland and the First World War, and Patton: Old Blood. He is an associate editor of the Sunday Herald and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.