Beaten Paths are Safest - was the motto of The Reconnaissance Regiment. This book tells the story of the 61st Recce Regiment whose own official history was never completed for the period 23rd Feb 1944 to 1st October 1944. Roy Howard who compiled the book served with the Regiment through the period in question which saw 61st Recce land on "Gold Beach" on D-Day followed by continuous active service up to and including the German Ardennes offensive when the 50th Northumbrian Division, of which the Regiment was a part, disbanded. Roy's book consists of personal memoirs of events together with a considerable amount of material from The Old Comrades Association newsletter. Sadly, the author died in 1996 but the book has been completed by his son Mark, as a tribute to his father and all the members of the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment.

The Home Guard was created in July 1940, and all Officers were listed in the Home Guard Lists which were issued at intervals throughout the war, each covering one of the UK Military Commands. These Command Lists give details of the relevant units down the chain of command. Officers are listed by unit and rank (with details of any decorations awarded during the Second World War up to 1941 or previously). Some entries identify service in previous units. These volumes are of great use to family and local historians wanting to track down the commissioned service of individuals; and for military enthusiasts and collectors they are also a useful way of tracking military service and Defence Medal entitlement. This volume on the South Eastern Command covers the counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

The First World War is history; the last survivors of that conflict are now all dead. Three generations on, public perceptions of the war are formed from books, films and photographs. In the last two decades, revisionist historians have attempted to correct the narrative left to us by the war poets and early diarists; a chronicle of sacrifice, futility and the 'loss of a generation' at the hands of the 'bunglers' and 'butchers'. In spite of the efforts of these writers, commentators find it hard to move beyond the losses of 1 July 1916 and the mud of Passchendaele. The history of the war is 'bookmarked' by a series of iconic battles, from First Ypres, through the Somme, to Passchendaele and Cambrai and the final victory of the Hundred Days. When reading the accounts of the battles it is easy to overlook the very limited perspective of the individual soldiers. Battalions were moved in and out of the line every few days; most were involved in only a few of the battles, and then for only a short period and on a limited front. The troops who participated would have had little idea of how their unit's contribution affected the outcome of a particular operation. The York and Lancaster Regiment had one or more battalion in all of the major battles of the war, but each saw only a small part of those operations. This book uses the war diaries of those battalions to trace the history of the conflict through the limited perspective of those whose horizon was little more than their 500 yards of trench line. Private Patrick Dillon (the author's grandfather) served in three battalions of the regiment. The battalion war diaries show us how limited was the overview of the ordinary soldier and his regimental officers, there is little context to the actions in which they were involved beyond their immediate front and flanks. While this book does outline the broader operations in which the battalions were involved, it is not a 'history of the war', rather it is an account of how those units (often at short notice) were fed into the line of battle.