Tim Saunders

Farmer Tim Saunders manages to incorporate some writing into his days, and here he describes his life through the seasons: Summer, shearing, slaughter, crop harvest, conservation; Autumn, floods, trading stock, drenching, dagging; Winter, maize harvest, lambing; and Spring, docking, pet sheep, weaning.

During winter 1944/45 few German officers believed that the Allies would attack the wooded Reichswald Plug on the narrow neck of land between the rivers Rhine and Maas. Consequently, relying on the natural defenses of the forest, the vaunted Siegfried Line had been allowed to peter out.

This book seeks to explore the little appreciated part in the Battle of the Somme played by the Regular and Volunteer Service battalions of two famous West Country regiments; the Devonshire Regiment and the Dorset Regiment.

Amongst the veterans that Montgomery brought back with him from the Mediterranean to spearhead the D-day invasion, were West Country infantrymen of 231 Brigade. The Devons, Hampshires and Dorsets had already carried out assault landings in Sicily and in Italy and replaced another brigade that had been provisionally allocated to lead XXX Corps ashore on Jig sector of Gold Beach.