The 61st Carnarvon and Denbigh (Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, was a Welsh unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) formed after World War I from existing Royal Garrison Artillery and Yeomanry Cavalry units. In World War II it fought in the Battle of France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. It returned to North-West Europe in June 1944, participating in the battles in the Orne valley and the bocage south of Caumont before the breakout from the Normandy beachhead, operations to close up to the Maas, and the assault crossing of the Rhine (Operation Plunder). The regiment continued in the postwar TA, and a successor unit continues in today's Army Reserve. Origin The Welsh (Carnarvonshire) Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) and the Denbighshire Hussars were units of Britain's part-time Territorial Force (TF), which had served in World War I. When the TF was reformed on 7 February 1920, the prewar Welsh (Carnarvonshire) RGA was initially reformed as 12th (Carnarvon and Denbigh) Medium Brigade, RGA, which was to have had its headquarters (HQ) and two batteries at Colwyn Bay and one battery at Bangor. However, when the TF was reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA) the following year the unit was redesignated 61st Medium Brigade, RGA, with probably only one battery (241st Medium Bty) at Bangor. Similarly, the Denbighshire Hussars, a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment headquartered at Wrexham, was reformed as a mounted unit in the TF, even though it had ended World War I fighting as infantry. Wartime experience showed that the army had too many mounted units, and so only the 14 most senior Yeomanry regiments were retained in the TA as horsed cavalry, the remainder being converted to other roles. On 1 March 1922 the Denbighshire Hussars were converted to artillery and merged with the new medium brigade to form 61st Carnarvon and Denbigh (Yeomanry) Medium Brigade, RGA as with the following organisation: HQ at Drill Hall, Colwyn Bay, from Denbighshire Hussars 241st (Carnarvon) Med Bty at Bangor, from 61st Medium Bde 242nd (Carnarvon) Med Bty (Howitzer) at Llandudno, from Denbighshire Hussars 243rd (Denbigh) Med Bty (H) at Colwyn Bay, from Denbighshire Hussars 244th (Denbigh) Med Bty (H) at Wrexham from Denbighshire Hussars The commanding officer (CO) was Acting Lieutenant-Colonel W.F. Christian, DSO, of the RGA, with Major W.H. Hughes (the Welsh Heavy Battery's prewar CO) as senior major. No prewar officers of the Denbigh Yeomanry were carried