British Home Guard

Defence organisation that existed from 1940 to 1944. It was announced 14 May 1940 in reaction to the German invasion of the Low Countries and the problematic situation in the Battle of France. The force consisted of volunteers and included 250,000 members by the end of May 1940. According to Winston Churchill’s suggestion, the original name of the defence force, Local Defence Volunteers, was changed to Home Guard at the end of July 1940.

Early Development

On 14 May 1940, the British War Secretary, Anthony Eden, gave a radio broadcast announcing that he was looking for volunteers to form a new force, the Local Defence Volunteers. They were supposed to guard certain British territories, public services and businesses of strategic value which might be attacked by the Germans, e.g., stretches of coastline, public utilities, airfields and factories. The existence of the LDV would allow the army to concentrate on other issues and to train inexperienced soldiers. Some of the volunteers had the right to receive minimum means of subsistence. However, most of the soldiers were not paid for their work. Nevertheless, by the end of May 1940, the organisation included 300,000 people.

The weapons did not suffice. Especially after the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, the defence force was not very well supplied with equipment. Initially, just one third of the men could obtain rifles. The others had to use shotguns, sporting rifles and various improvised weapons. The men were trained by veteran commanders in privately initiated training establishments. As a means of preparation for a potential invasion of the Germans, some of the members of LDV were trained secretly as guerrillas.

Later Years

The National Service Act of December 1941 slightly changed the volunteer aspect. Men had to join the home guard just for 48 hours per month. In the same year, rank system was introduced so that the organisation began to resemble “a force of part-time regular soldiers” (Parkinson 160). In time, the British Home Guard was used as a training opportunity for boys of 17 to 18 years before their full call-up and it became a well-armed and trained fighting force. When the probability of a German invasion decreased and the air attacks diminished, the volunteers’ duty was to chase downed aviators and service anti-aircraft batteries. By the summer of 1943, the force consisted of 1,750,000 million men whose average age was below 30. The organisation disbanded at the end of 1944.

After the Disbandment

The Home Guard was re-established in December 1951 because of the threat of the Cold War and it existed until July 1957. Some years later, in July 1968, the writers, Jimmy Perry and David Croft, created a sitcom, ''Dad’s Army'', based on their own experiences during the Second World War. Between 1968 and 1977, eighty-one half-hour episodes appeared on BBC TV.

Sources

• Dear, Ian. The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.
• Parkinson, Roger. The Encyclopedia of Modern War. St Albans: Granada Publishing, 1979.
• The University of Manchester Page. "Revealed: the Real Dad's Army." 2007. The University of Manchester. 14 November 2011 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/dads_army_01.shtml >.