Swanley History Group – February 2023 meeting
The television sitcom programme “Dad’s Army” about The Home Guard during WW2, was broadcast by the BBC between 1968 and 1977 (with many repeats since). Did the TV show tell the real story of The Home Guard or was it a flight of fantasy to amuse the TV audience? A bit of both according to Mike Brown the speaker at our February meeting.
Firstly Mike explained the background of why The Home Guard was formed and who volunteered for this service. He outlined the major differences between how the allies and enemy engaged in warfare – the thousands of men creeping forward in trenches in WW1 compared to the deployment of more complex mechanical weapons including tanks and aircraft in WW2. When recruitment for military service started in 1939 veterans who had fought in WW1 came forward but many were turned away, reasons being they were the wrong age, medically unfit, in exempt occupations or importantly did not have relevant skills.
A chilling recording was played of the radio appeal by Prime Minister Anthony Eden on 14 May 1940 for men, aged 17 to 65, to join the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV). The danger of invasion was very real, as was the activities of the so called ‘Fifth Column’ of Nazi sympathisers – rumours abounded of spies dressed as nuns being dropped! 250,000 volunteered in the first two days. As suggested by Winston Churchill the LDV quickly became known as The Home Guard – a title which clearly gave the purpose.
Volunteers were supplied with weapons as promised – but these fell far short of expectations. Mike showed us some examples of drums of pepper to spray on an enemy, bayonets from old Enfield rifles, hand grenades with the explosives removed stuck on broom handles to be used as clubs. This was hardly sufficient so museums and stately homes were relieved of any weaponry they could use and America sent Enfield rifles and bayonets – shame the bullets got stuck when firing! The Home Guard platoons manned road blocks and inspected identity cards. Around vulnerable coastal areas members of the Anti Invasion Force of the Home Guard were stationed in pill boxes and given the grand total of 30 bullets instead of the usual 2. Volunteers who worked in factories modified their vehicles into tanks. Later they were provided with anti-aircraft guns and Z rockets. British resistance groups hid stashes of weapons in underground shelters – some are still being discovered.
The uniforms of these part time volunteer recruits created a social divide. Officers in WW1 paid for their own, often bought in Harrods, so kept them after the war. Regular soldiers had to hand theirs back so some members of Home Guard platoons were smartly and expensively dressed and others only had cloth arm bands sewn onto their everyday clothes. Sturdier but ill-fitting green denim jackets and hats were issued in 1941/42. Despite opposition from government The Women’s Home Defence League, founded by Dr. Edith Summerskill, was formed in 1943. The Home Guard was disbanded on 4 December 1944 but reformed during the nuclear threats of the 1950’s.
The writers of ‘Dad’s Army’ were David Croft and Jimmy Perry who was in the Local Defence League himself. He compared himself to the character Pike. There is apparently a statue of Captain Mainwaring (the Bank Manager and self appointed platoon leader) sitting on a bench in Thetford, Norfolk where most of the exteriors for the TV series were filmed.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser