very very large bownish-green catapllars-hawk moth

[paulgonefishin41]

My wife had a problem with some culprit eating her new fuchsias, she eventually found 2 very large brownish-green caterpillars on the surface of the soil,these she promptly removed and placed in a jam jar, on my return that night she told me what she had found eating her plants and from the size I immediately said that they must be hawk moths of some type, I quickly moved the jar indoors as it was a pretty cool night, she released them the following morning and thankfully they survived their ordeal, they disappeared into the shrubbery in a less volatile area of the garden, later that day one was found outside our back door some distance from the release site, possibly one of the originals or maybe yet another.
They were very distinctive as they were 3-4 inches long with the head end identical to a grass snake, the rear end had a very small horn and each side of the rear end had 2 eye spots, each segment was lined with black and off-white
The last one I released into the undergrowth at my local fishery, to save further confrontation with the wife and hopefully releasing it into a much safer environment, to pupate in the wild so to speak.
Can anyone identify these creatures for me for future reference.

many thanks
Paul

[The Woodman]

Elephant hawk moth larva?

Have a look at this one in the Gallery..http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/pi...moth_Larva.jpg

[paulgonefishin41]

Many thanks for such fast response.

Paul