181st Field Regiment, Royal Artillery

181st Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
Cap badge of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.
Active	1 March 1942 – 9 January 1946
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Field artillery
Size	Regiment
Part of	15th (Scottish) Infantry Division
Nickname(s)	"The Shropshire Gunners"
Engagements	Operation Epsom Operation Bluecoat Geel 's-Hertogenbosch Asten Blerick Operation Veritable Operation Plunder Uelzen Elbe
Commanders
Notable commanders	Sir Otway Herbert

The 181st Field Regiment, Royal Artillery ('The Shropshire Gunners') was a unit of the Royal Artillery, raised by the British Army during World War II. 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) formed 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. The bulk of the men (95 per cent) were recent conscripts, mostly from Shropshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, and other parts of the Welsh Borders and the English Midlands. The battalion's four rifle companies were designated W, X, Y and Z and the Commanding Officer of the battalion was Lt-Col Robert Munn, who had served with the KSLI in the First World War and was awarded a Military Cross.