Editing Sorley MacLean (section)

===World War II===
[[File:A mine explodes close to a British truck as it carries infantry through enemy minefields and wire to the new front lines.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A [[land mine|mine]] explodes during the [[Second Battle of El Alamein]]]]

Upon the outbreak of war in 1939, MacLean wanted to volunteer for the [[Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders|Cameron Highlanders]] but was prevented due to the shortage of teachers.<ref name="larach" /> He was drafted into the [[Royal Corps of Signals]] in September 1940 and was sent overseas to North Africa in December 1941.<ref name=world/>{{r|day|p=146}} In the [[North African Campaign]], he served in the [[Royal Horse Artillery]] and was wounded on three occasions, but on the first two not severely enough to be classified as a [[military casualty|casualty]].<ref name=alumnus/>{{r|displacement|p=5}} His military career ended in November 1942 during the [[Second Battle of El Alamein]]. A land mine exploded near the command post where MacLean was working, throwing him {{convert|30|ft|m|abbr=off|0|sigfig=1|spell=on}} through the air. He was wounded in the leg and broke several bones in his feet.<ref name="open" />{{r|displacement|p=5}}{{efn-lr|In one of his poems, ''Latha Fogair'' ("An Autumn Day"), MacLean satirizes the [[Calvinist]] [[religious doctrine|doctrine]] of [[unconditional election]] by describing an explosion of a [[land mine|mine]] which killed six of his comrades but, for no particular reason, spared MacLean.{{r|open|p=35}}}} MacLean wrote a few poems about the war in which he challenged the traditional Gaelic exaltation of heroism, exemplified by [[Sìleas na Ceapaich|the lament for Alasdair of Glengarry]]; he viewed physical courage as morally neutral, since it was also valued by Nazis and used for evil ends.{{r|open|p=29}}

MacLean returned to Britain for convalescence in March 1943. He was discharged from [[Raigmore Hospital]] in [[Inverness]] in August 1943 and released from the army in September.{{r|world|rse}} In the fall of 1943, he resumed teaching at Boroughmuir, where he met Renee Cameron in 1944.{{efn-lr|Cameron's mother was not of Gaelic ancestry, but her father, an Inverness joiner, was raised in [[Kilmuir, Black Isle|Kilmuir]] on the [[Black Isle]] when it was still Gaelic-speaking.<ref name="Renee" />}} They married on 24 July 1946 in Inverness and had three daughters and six grandchildren. According to friends, their marriage was happy and peaceful, as they complemented each other well, and MacLean "mellowed" with age and family life.<ref name=Renee/><ref name="Edinburgh"/>{{r|contexts|p=5}} He had never been a card carrying member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]],{{r|open|p=17}} and the [[History of Poland (1945–1989)|Soviet occupation of Poland]] after the war caused MacLean to break with his former admiration for the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Stalinism]]. As a member of the [[Anti-Stalinist left]], however, MacLean always remained a strong believer in [[social justice]].{{r|open|p=32}}{{r|contexts|p=4}} During this period, he frequently reviewed poetry and continued to make friends in literary circles, including the younger poets [[Iain Crichton Smith]] and [[George Mackay Brown]].{{r|contexts|p=4}} He became particularly close to [[Sydney Goodsir Smith]], who shared a flat with MacLean and his family for more than a year. In 1947 he was promoted to Principal Teacher of English at Boroughmuir, but MacLean wanted to return to the western Highlands.<ref name="Edinburgh" />