Richard Hughes was an artillery officer with the British Army in World War II. He was sent to Europe twice. The first assignment in 1940 was short lived, as he joined the hopelessly ill equipped and overwhelmed Allied forces in France. The superior German army pushed them back to the English Channel at Dunkirk, and Hughes was one of some 300,000 troops miraculously rescued from the beach by a flotilla of small boats.

In 1944 he returned to France as apart of the Allied invasion, this time as a Major commanding a battery of field guns. The contrast is apparent. Now they were a well equipped, superbly trained and coldly efficient force. With his field battery and associated infantry battalion, Hughes fought numerous battles right through Europe to reach Hamburg, at the final surrender of Germany in May, 1945.

In Sheldrake, Richard Hughes recalls many fascinating memories in his personal account of those traumatic years.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part One A Fortnight in France
  • Chapter 1 The Beginning
  • Chapter 2 A Fortnight in France
  • Chapter 3 England 1940–1944
• Part Two The Second Front
  • Chapter 4 The Landings
  • Chapter 5 Hill 112
  • Chapter 6 Battle for Le Logis
  • Chapter 7 The Incident on Hill 210
  • Chapter 8 The Battle for Leffard
  • Chapter 9 Necy – Tiger Corner
  • Chapter 10 Sweep Through France
  • Chapter 11 Belgium
  • Chapter 12 Voorheide
  • Chapter 13 The Battle for s’Hertogenbosch
  • Chapter 14 Assault Crossing of the Wessem Canal
  • Chapter 15 On the Maas
  • Chapter 16 The Ardennes
  • Chapter 17 ‘Operation Veritable’ Reichswald Forest; Weeze
  • Chapter 18 Crossing of the Rhine
  • Chapter 19 ‘Operation Eclipse’ Final Push Through Germany
  • Chapter 20 Postscript
• Appendix 1 Military Cross and the King’s Letter
• Appendix 2 Mention in Despatches
• Appendix 3 497 Field Battery, Royal Artillery
• Appendix 4 25 Pounder Field Gun
• Glossary 1 Explanation of Selected Terms
• Glossary 2 Divisional Infantry and Artillery
• Glossary 3 53rd Welsh Division – Order of Battle, 1944/1945
• Acknowledgment