Britain’s Home Guard
- Britain’s Home Guard
Well known to our readers for his scholarly studies, in this issue writes from observation on Britain in her crisis.
Footnotes
1. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 27, 1941.
2. Speech broadcast on Feb. 9, 1941.
3. One of these stories, alleged to be true, and typical of dozens, may be offered as a specimen. A farm-labourer in East Kent enquired why so many soldiers had suddenly appeared in the neighbourhood, and was told that they expected soon to be fighting a battle against a foreign invader. He is said to have replied: “They can’t have a battle in this village, because the green isn’t big enough and Squire wouldn’t lend his park.”
4. It would be true to add poachers, whose deadly aim and exhaustive knowledge of their locality were to find legitimate scope in national defence. I am not sure about professional burglars, but I should not be surprised if some of them were included.
5. I cannot give chapter and verse, but I remember that about this time a request was broadcast to the public on behalf of the Ministry of Home Security to the effect that anyone seeing an airman descending in his neighbourhood by means of a parachute should report the occurrence to the nearest police station, giving details of the time and place. It was added that the police would, if they thought it advisable, communicate with the military authorities.
6. It is probable that Mr Eden was influenced in some degree by a letter addressed to The Times by the Duke of Montrose, and appearing on the day of his broadcast. The Duke proposed the formation of a “National Guard,” to be composed of volunteers accustomed to the use of a rifle but not likely to be required for military service. “These men might be organised on a ‘Commando, basis for regional operations. They would not wear uniform but a simple armlet. They would not receive payment except when on service…. Their duty would be to attack, snipe or round up the air soldiers, or parachutists, as quickly as possible, and also to act as guides to any troops that may come to operate in the district.” So far as this scheme differs from. Mr Eden’s, it is a more exact forecast of the form which the Home Guard was to assume by the middle of July, when it first acquired that name.
7. ln a broadcast speech on Feb. 7, 1941.
8. Hugh Slater, Home Guard for Victory, p. 12. I have quoted this because it conveys a true impression, but it is not quite accurate as a statement of fact. If ever the local Vicar took charge the case must have been exceptional, as the Archbishop of Canterbury had refused permission to the clergy to join the Local Defence Volunteers in accordance with the rule forbidding them to join a combatant force except as chaplains. The allusion to the choice of “officers” also needs some qualification. It was at first decided that there should be no commissions in the Local Defence Volunteers, and, though this decision was reconsidered at the end of 1940, when the force had assumed greater importance as the Home Guard, the first commissions have only just been granted at the time of writing, with effect from February 1. The “officers” to whom Mr Slater refers would be local organizers who had consented to act provisionally, though most of them would have held commissions in the last war.
9. I cannot say what the usual proportion was, but it is within my own knowledge that a retired naval Commander who had been made responsible for a certain area had instructions not to accept more than two hundred of the number available. He already had over a thousand completed forms, all approved by Scotland Yard, and the end was not in sight. The Commander’s comments on the problem before him had a certain nautical ring.
10. It was stated officially that the number who had availed themselves of this privilege during the first six months was less than 5,000, out of a total...
