Our Darkest Hour
It is 1940; the Nazis have swept through Europe leaving a trail of death and destruction. The British and
French armies have been defeated at Dunkirk. Britain stands alone against the Nazis. Hitler is across the channel waiting
for the time to invade. This is Britain’s Darkest Hour. Desperate times call for desperate measures and this is why
on the 14th May 1940 Anthony Eden gave a radio broadcast to the nation. He urged men between the ages of 17-65
(who had not been drafted into the army for what ever reason) to go down to their local Police station and sign up for the
LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) Although the ages were meant to be between 17 and 65 there were several people reported signing
up aged well into their eighties. The desperation of the situation bought the patriotic side in many people and by the end
of the fist day of recruiting 250,000 men had volunteered for the LDV. The LDV generally had no uniform. If a platoon was
lucky they would get a denim battle dress, most platoons only had an armband with ‘LDV’ written on it.
A Change of Name
After only about a month and a half of being know as the LDV, Winston Churchill changed the
LDV’s name to the Home Guard. This was meant to sound more impressive and to scare the Nazis into abandoning their invasion.
With the change of the name also came a better uniform. This new uniform consisted of a green denim battle dress and a green
armband with Home Guard written on it. This made the members of the Home Guard feel more important because they at least looked
like a normal soldier. Eventually the Home Guard was also equipped with steel helmets and Great Coats.
The Job of the Home Guard
The Home Guard had many responsibilities when protecting Britain from invasion. This jobs consisted of:
manning aircraft batteries to shoot down the Luftwaffer planes; patrolling waterways (canals, lakes, rivers), railway stations,
coastlines, factories and aerodromes; clearing up debris after an air raid; searching through the rubble after an air raid looking for survivors; offering assistance
to the real army; building of defence lines including anti-tank mines and barbed wire along the beech; placement of obstacles
in fields to stop Luftwaffer planes landing; blacking out or removing signposts; guarding Buckingham Palace (the palace had
its own special Home Guard); checking I.D. cards; and also bomb
disposal.
Weaponry
At the beginning the LDV had no kind of weaponry. Recruits were told to bring anything that could be used
as a weapon. The commonly used weapon was a broom handle with a kitchen knife tied to one end. Recruits bought many things
to use as weapons varying from a spade to a World War I Lee Enfield rifle. In some Home Guard platoons they even had to resort
to carrying around bags of pepper to throw in the enemies eyes. It didn’t take long for Churchill to realise that armed
like this the LDV would have no hope against the well-armed German army. As a result of this Churchill asked the public to
hand in any firearms that they might have so that they could be used by the Home Guard. However as the war went on the Home
Guard became equipped with more modern and better weapons. Some platoons even got hold of Lewis Machine guns and the reasonably
newly developed American Thompson Machine Gun (nicknamed the Tommy Gun). The Home Guard were also
trained
in sabotage and high explosives. When America joined the war they made a very generous donation of 500,000 300 American rifles.
Triumphs and Disasters
Although the incompetence of the Home Guard was considered very funny it
did have a serious element. While the Home Guard was in service a total of 1206 members were killed and 557 seriously wounded,
and this was without an invasion. There was also a story about a young child who was shot by a Home Guard soldier. The boy
was cycling home when he went pass a Home Guard checkpoint. The soldier on guard shouted for the boy to stop, the boy didn’t,
he shouted gain, yet again the boy didn’t stop. The soldier fired a warning shot into the ground, the bullet ricocheted
off the ground and hit the boy in the head. The reason the boy didn’t stop, he was deaf. Another sad story is a Home
Guard soldier was cleaning his rifle in the kitchen. He wife was also there standing and talking to him. When the soldier
was cleaning his rifle he had forgotten to unload the weapon and put the safety catch on. While cleaning around the trigger
he accidentally set the gun off. He shot his wife dead. There has also been some funny stories about the Home Guard, a man
was arrested by Home Guard soldiers because the women whose house he was staying at had reported him being a German spy because
he didn’t flush the toilet. There were also some successes for the Home
Guard. A Home Guard soldier managed to shoot down a Luftwaffer plane using only his rifle. It has also been found out that
Hitler feared the British Home Guard and feared they could provide fierce resistance and halt the German advance.
