The Home Guard

Down to Business

The first Home Guard patrols were mounted by the Worthing Battalion of the Sussex Home Guard on 15 May. On 17 May Eastern Command issued an order for patrols to be carried out by 1 500 Volunteers in Sussex and Kent.

Churchill took a keen interest in the activities of the LDV and concerned that anti-tank defences were still inadequate, he advanced further ideas. With contacts made while dealing with the German mine threat when he was at the Admiralty, Churchill proposed the development of a "sticky- bomb" which could be thrown at armour. This and other volatile weapons were soon in production and a range of projectors, to supplement basic manpower, were quickly manufactured.

Saloon cars could be transformed into armoured vehicles with the addition of a few strategically placed sheets of boilerplate and chicken wire to repel German stick grenades.

The lethal Fougasse appeared, buried under sandbags at the roadside. This was an oil drum which w hen ignited by pulling a string spewed out a flaming mixture of oil and petrol-thus, it was hoped, ambushing any unsuspecting enemy patrol.

As invasion fever gripped the country the LDV dutifully manned roadblocks, river crossings and country footpaths. Obstacles boasting descriptive names like "Dragon's Teeth" and Hairpins" were established in an effort to deny- the German armour access to main roads. In the fields steel girders and wooden poles were erected to reduce the space available for glider landings.

With so many men armed with unfamiliar and deadly weapons perhaps more accidents than those that occurred could have been expected. In June 1940 enthusiastic but untrained Volunteers were more of a menace to their fellow-citizens than the enemy. The roadblock became a new and potentially lethal hazard for motorists to negotiate. On the night of June 2, for example, four people were shot dead in separate incidents for failing to notice or stop at LDV roadblocks. Fortunately the early days of the Home Guard were characterised by comic rather than tragic events.

Despite their shortcomings the willing volunteers of the LDV helped to shore up the defences of the country during its darkest hour.