First raised as infantry of the 6th Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry from the Welsh Borders, it was converted to the field artillery role, serving in a Scottish formation in the North West Europe campaign in which it was the first British field artillery regiment to cross the Rhine and Elbe rivers.

In June 1940, shortly after the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) began forming a new 6th Battalion at its regimental depot at Shrewsbury.

A previous 6th (Service) Battalion had been raised as part of Kitchener's Army during the Great War of 1914–18, and the men of the new unit were conscious of its heritage.

[4] The new battalion was officially formed by 4 July 1940 and moved to the Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire to commence basic training.

[8][9] In January 1942, when the battalion was stationed at Melton Mowbray, orders were received to convert 6th KSLI into a field regiment of the Royal Artillery (RA).

The infantry fought their way into the villages of Cheux and St Manvieu but the Odon bridges were still 2 miles (3.2 km) away at the end of the first day.

At one point there was a threat of German tanks breaking through and 181 Fd Rgt prepared to fire in the anti-tank role over open sights.

Early on the morning of 16 July 181's forward observation officer (FOO), Capt Meredith, was advancing with a troop of four 17-pounder guns of 97th Anti-Tank Rgt who got lost.

He called down a defensive fire (DF) task on Évrecy to get his bearings, and found his own shells landing all round him.

15th (Scottish) Division's artillery including 181 Fd Rgt was tasked with firing concentrations in support of the attacking troops in Phase I.

Three-quarters of the 25-pdr rounds were fuzed to Air burst, which was effective over bocage and allowed the tanks to keep close to the barrage in safety.

Launched on 30 July the attack made good progress, with 15th (S) Division getting onto the Estry and Perrier Ridges to support the advancing armour.

[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] After its rest, the division joined XII Corps and was engaged in rapid movements as 21st Army Group advanced to the River Seine.

Here on the night of 14/15 September it seized a bridgehead over the canal at Aart, but it attracted no less than 13 German counter-attacks over the next eight days that reduced it to an area less than 440 yards square.

One attack on the evening of 16 September was held off by small arms fire, while the guns hit the enemy troops in the rear, then caught another counter-attack as it was forming up.

Given the fierce resistance at Aart, XII Corps HQ decided to cross elsewhere, while 15th (S) Division merely improved its position and bridged the Junction Canal.

Despite the artillery Observation Posts being shelled and disrupted, 181's CO, Lt-Col Dick Bethell, organised fire plans that beat off the attacks.

Although Operation Market Garden had ended in failure, fighting continued round Best until 1 October, when the division was finally relieved for rest.

[42] After another short rest, 181 Fd Rgt went into action on 19 October for Operation Pheasant to support 51st (Highland) Division, which was attacking 's-Hertogenbosch.

[43][44] On 3 December the Division carried out a textbook attack on Blerick to eliminate the remaining German bridgehead on the River Maas, opposite Venlo.

[46][47][48][49] The following day the regiment lost one of its best-known members, Gunner Frederick 'Paddy' Mills, a pre-war professional footballer for Leeds United, who dismounted from a vehicle while it was halted in a taped route through a minefield.

[50] 15th (Scottish) Division remained on the line of the Maas for the next seven weeks while Second Army turned to assist US forces to block the German Ardennes Offensive.

By keeping up with the barrage the infantry achieved the first objective successfully, but Operation Sullivan, to breach the Siegfried Line at 21.00, was held up by traffic jams and bad going.

Shaw of D Troop, 178 Battery, took command of an infantry company that had lost all its officers and led it to its objective, while continuing to direct the fire of his guns from his Forward Observation Post.

[54][58][59][60] On 1 March 1945, 181 Fd Rgt was withdrawn to Belgium to begin training for the assault crossing of the River Rhine (Operation Plunder).

15th (Scottish) Division's role was to establish a two-brigade bridgehead at Xanten in Operation Torchlight covered by an intense artillery bombardment.

The artillery fell silent just before 10.00 on 24 March as the aircraft carrying XVIII Airborne Corps went over to drop their troops behind the German defenders in Operation Varsity.

[61][62][63][64] After completing mopping up operations the division was pulled out of action on 29 March and went into billets in German houses; 181 Fd Rgt harboured in Münster.

The men were issued with the Scottish Tam o' Shanter head-dress (the smaller Balmoral bonnet for officers) on which RA 'bomb' badges were worn on a red and blue cloth strip.