A highland Reel

Three lassies dancing a reel atop the WW2 gun emplacement.


The Reel of the 51st Highland Division is a modern Scottish country dance written by three officers, Lt. Jimmy Atkinson (Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders), Lt. Peter Oliver (4th Seaforth Highlanders) and Lt. Col. Tom Harris Hunter (51st Division Logistics Group RASC) while in a POW camp during the Second World War. Captured, together with the vast majority of the British 51st (Highland) Division while defending the retreat from Dunkirk in 1940, they spent the rest of the war as POWs in Oflag VIIC at Laufen Castle, near Saltzburg. Their idea of a reel with a St Andrews cross in its key formation was intended to symbolise Scotland, and the Highland Division, in adversity.

Atkinson's letter home with instructions for the dance was intercepted by the German security service, the Abwehr, who spent the rest of the war trying to break the code! The "code" reads:

1-2 1s set; 
3-8 1s cast two places, meet and lead up to face first corners; 
9-12 1s set and turn first corners by the right, finishing 2M1L1M3L in line on the first corners' diagonal; 
13-14 2M1L1M3L balance; 
15-16 1s turn by the left; 
17-20 1s set and turn second corners by the right, finishing 3M1L1M2L in line on the second corners' diagonal; 
21-22 3M1L1M2L balance; 
23-24 1s cross by the left to own sides in 2nd place; 
25-32 2s1s3s 6 hands round and back.