Table of Contents

1 The General 2 Forming up 3 Disaster at Sea 4 Normandy Landings - 'The Debris of War' 5 Action and First Smell of Death 6 Cheux - A Terrifying Cat and Mouse Game 7 Worcesters take Mouen - 'One of the Slickest Attacks of the War' 8 The Odon 'Death Valley' - Wiltshires and Somersets in Action 9 Odon Bridgehead, 30 June to 7 July 10 Operation Jupiter - The Killing Grounds 11 The 5th Wiltshires - 'Sitting Ducks' 12 The 4th Somersets - 'The Battalion Which Had Landed No Longer Existed' 13 The 4th Wiltshires - 'Like a Combine Harvester' 14 The 5th Dorsets - 'Our First Full-scale Battle' 15 The 4th Dorsets - 'Trapped Rabbits at Harvest Time' 16 The 7th Royal Hampshires - 'A Game of Cat and Mouse in Maltot' 17 The 7th Somersets - 'A Colony of Rabbits' 18 The 1st Worcesters - 'A Hole To Go To?' 19 Cornwall Hill - 'Hold Your Fire until You See the Buggers' Eyes' 20 'That's One From Us' - The Support Arms 21 Operation Jupiter - 'Utmost Ferocity and Without Mercy' 22 Operation Express - 'Bloody Maltot Again' 23 The Worcesters' Night Attack 24 A Short Interlude - 'Carefree Days of Rest' 25 Operation Bluecoat 26 Cahagnes and St Pierre-du-Fresne 27 Advance on Mt Pincon 28 Le Plessis Grimault 29 Operation Blackwater 30 Operation Neptune - The Seine Crossing 31 D-Day, 25 August - The 5th Wiltshires' Attack 32 D+1, 26 August - The Worcesters' Attack 33 D+2, 27 August 34 D+3, 28 August 35 Rest in Rural France 36 Market Garden 37 On the Island 38 Opposite the Reichswald - Early Winter 39 Operation Clipper 40 Winter Campaign - December 41 Winter Campaign - January 42 Winter Campaign - February - Cleve and Goch 43 Winter Campaign - Clearing the West Bank of the Rhine 44 Operation Plunder 45 'Forrard On' 46 The Last Lap - Bremen and Cuxhaven

About the Author

Patrick Delaforce was educated at Winchester College. During the Second World War, aged 17, he was in Churchill's Home Guard and witnessed the London Blitz of 1940 and 1941. Later he served as a troop leader in Normandy with the Royal Horse Artillery of the 11th Armoured Division. Hitler's Wehrmacht blew him up with their mines in Holland, and he was again wounded by a rifle grenade on the banks of the River Elbe. He was with the first battle group into Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, was twice mentioned in despatches, and was awarded the Bronze Cross of Orange-Nassau. In autumn 1945 he served on a War Crimes Tribunal in Hamburg and tried many concentration camp guards. Finally, he was an official British Army of the Rhine witness when Mr Albert Pierrepoint, the British hangman, executed 13 convicted war criminals in Hameln on 13 December 1945. After leaving the army, he worked as a port wine shipper and ran an advertising agency in New York, before becoming a professional writer, mainly on historical and military subjects. 40 books by him have been published with 100 editions (including in Russia). Fonthill Media are publishing 6 of his titles.