History Literature / McAuslan

* BootCampEpisode: The first story is largely this, as it depicts MacNeill trying to get into officer training by passing a series of ropes courses and other tests. In other stories, he reminisces multiple times about his recruit training as a private.

** Occasionally MacNeill as well, who once set himself on fire while lighting a cigarette.

** Subverted with MacNeill, who tries but fails on several occasions.

* GoodLookingPrivates: As a general rule, the men of the battalion are in good physical condition and have been working in a Mediterranean climate for the past while.

* MilitarySalute: Subverted; [=MacNeill=] is forced to salute ''royalty'' left-handed after suffering a wardrobe malfunction.

* SouthernFriedPrivate: It's a Highland battalion. Unsurprisingly, they're more than a little Scotch.
* TheMenFirst: The attitude of pretty much every officer in the battalion--the final commanding officer may be the only obvious exception, and that's only because he's very new.
* MyGirlBackHome: The various families of the men (and of [=MacNeill=] himself). [=MacNeill=] ends up going on a tour of his men's various families and friends when he's on leave in England.
* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Fraser is careful not to identify the regiment or its soldiers for the majority of the series, although in the Highland Games story involving all the Scottish units of the British Army, its identity can be deduced by elimination. Various real mottoes and incidents are also mentioned that can help knowledgeable readers trace the regiment. The last story in the last book, which involves the Colonel asking Fraser to sign copies of the first two books, reveals the regiment as [[spoiler:the Gordon Highlanders]] and names the Colonel: [[spoiler: R.G. "Reggie" Lees]], a genuine hero of WW2, identified in the books as Colonel J.G.F. ''Gordon''. The story also discusses the semi-fictional nature of certain characters, including Wee Wullie and [=McAuslan=] himself.
* PassThePopcorn: Several cases: Troopers cheer on their seniors who are in a political argument, [=McAuslan=] eats steaming chips during the quiz show, and viewers fall over themselves laughing while [=MacNeill=] struggles to complete a ropes course.
* PlungerDetonator: Cunningly invoked to face down a mob.
* PricelessPaperweight: Inverted with a treasure trove of paper bills - that are no longer legal tender now that the war's over and Mussolini's finance ministry no longer exists to validate them.
** Played straight with the table service of the officer's mess, which is made up of priceless booty collected by the regiment over three centuries. The above-mentioned RebelLeader donates a combat knife that becomes the battalion's cheese slicer.
* ProudWarriorRace: Some of the Scots who make up the battalion.
* RebelLeader: The battalion ends up holding onto one of these for the French. They like him better.

* RomanaClef: See NoCommunitiesWereHarmed (above).

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Fraser is careful not to identify the regiment or its soldiers for the majority of the series, although in the Highland Games story involving all the Scottish units of the British Army, its identity can be deduced by elimination. The last story in the last book, which involves the Colonel asking Fraser to sign copies of the first two books, reveals the regiment as [[spoiler:the Gordon Highlanders]] and names the Colonel: [[spoiler: R.G. "Reggie" Lees]], a genuine hero of WW2, identified in the books as Colonel J.F.G. ''Gordon''. The story also discusses the semi-fictional nature of certain characters, including Wee Wullie and McAuslan himself.

* WithDueRespect: The Sergeants' (and the privates') normal approach with the junior subalterns. The Colonel also gets a lick in at TheBrigadier when the latter suggests ''promoting'' Private McAuslan.

->As a subaltern, you get used to doing pretty well anything. In my brief time I had been called on to command a troop-train, change a baby's nappies, quell a riot of Arab nationalists, manage a football team, take an inventory of buried treasure, and partner a Mother Superior at clock-golf. This was in the days when the British Army was still spread all round the globe, acting as sentry, policeman, teacher, nurse and diplomat in the wake of the Second World War, and getting no thanks for it at all. It was a varied existence, and if I'd been ordered to redecorate the Sistine Chapel or deliver a sermon in Finnish, I'd hardly have blinked an eyelid before running to eh RSM pleading for assistance.

* InquisitorGeneral: The battalion is run ragged by an inspection, but it turns out the inspector is more interested in Highland dancing.

* TheKlutz: again, [=McAuslan=], who manages to break or mislay the most improbable things. On one occasion he broke the metal cover of a compass--"a feat comparable to biting a rifle in half"; on another he only avoids firing live ammunition at an inspection where the Royals are present because the Regimental Sergeant-Major snatched the ammo from his gun just in time.

GeorgeMacDonaldFraser's other famous series. Chronicles the adventures/misadventures of young Lieutenant [=MacNeill=] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial (who is in no way Fraser himself)]] in a Highland Battalion in the wake of the Second World War. The series [[SecondaryCharacterTitle is named for]] the dirtiest soldier in the world, who is part of [=MacNeill=]'s platoon and whose horrific exploits are the source of amusement and disgust to both the reader and his fellow soldiers. Basically a sequel to Fraser's memoir of WWII Burma, ''Quartered Safe Out Here''; the first story literally takes up where the memoir leaves off, with Fraser/[=MacNeill=]'s assignment to officer training at the end of the war.

* IronLady: [=MacNeill's aunt=], as related in ''The Gordon Women''.

* NationalStereotypes: Lieutenant Samuels, R.N., a walking example of the Welsh as financially sharp, possessed of low cunning, and capable of pulling all sorts of illegal chicanery in pursuit of hard cash. He even accuses McNeill of being a typical Scotsman at one point.

* ProudWarriorRace: the Highlanders, and [[InvokedTrope they know it.]] Completely PlayedForLaughs; the narrator jokes that the reason the Scottish regiments are all kept far away from each other during peacetime isn't so much that they'll start a Scottish rising as that they'd probably tear each other to bits.

** [=MacNeill=] loses his trousers whilst in a water-filled trench. He uses this as an excuse to fail so miserably at the task of getting ''out'' of the trench that the watching officers take pity on him and allow him to pass officer selection!

* MilitarySalute: Subverted; MacNeill is forced to salute ''royalty'' left-handed after suffering a wardrobe malfunction.

* IronLady[=/=]TheMatriach: [=MacNeill's aunt=], as related in ''The Gordon Women''.

* OldSoldier: Both Wee Wullie and the Colonel joined the battalion in 1914, and have not left since.

* HationalStereotypes: Lieutenant Samuels, R.N., a walking example of the Welsh as financially sharp, possessed of low cunning, and capable of pulling all sorts of illegal chicanery in pursuit of hard cash. He even accuses McNeill of being a typical Scotsman at one point.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Fraser is careful not to identify the regiment or its soldiers for the majority of the series, although in the Highland Games story involving all the Scottish units of the British Army, its identity can be deduced by elimination. The last story in the last book, which involves the Colonel asking Fraser to sign copies of the first two books, reveals the regiment as [[spoiler:the Gordon Highlanders]] and names the Colonel: [[spoiler: R.G. "Reggie" Lees]]. The story also discusses the semi-fictional nature of certain characters, including Wee Wullie and McAuslan himself.

* PricelessPaperweight: Inverted with a treasure trove of paper bills - that are no longer legal tender now that the war's over.

* SergeantRock: the Regimental Sergeant-Major. It's revealed that he used to be drill instructor for Brigade of Guards--the fellows who guard the Royal Family. [=MacNeill=] isn't surprised at all.