Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2008 | Page 54

life

THE ISLAND AT WAR 1939 - 1945

their finest hour
-the home guard

A great six part feature in which we look at different aspects which
took place on the island from 1939 - 1945. We talk to survivors, heroes
and in this third part we look at the home guard and the role they
played here on the Isle of Wight. By June Elford

We remember the Home Guard fondly by their nickname of ‘Dad’s Army’ but as Lieut.
Colonel C.F. Aspinall-Oglander said when he retired from commanding a battalion on
the Isle of Wight, “The self-effacing devotion of England’s unpaid army has no parallel
in any other country.”

In October 1939 Winston
Churchill asked, “Why do we
not form a Home Guard of
half-a-million men over forty
(if they like to volunteer) and
put all our elder stars at the
head and in the structure of
these new formations.” But
it was largely the British
public’s concern about Fifth
Columnists and German
parachutists, or ‘parashots’ as
they were known, landing in
Britain in 1940 that forced the
government to act.
The Germans had occupied
Denmark, Norway, Belgium
and France and suddenly the
distance between the French
coast and England seemed
very narrow. The media fed
the public’s imagination with
wild reports about German
paratroopers dressed as nuns,
nurses, monks and tram

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conductors and the Home
Office had issued a circular to
the British public explaining
that ‘German parachutists
may land disguised as British
policemen and Air Raid
Wardens’.
Clearly some action was
needed. On 13 May 1940 the
government worked out details
for a fighting force of Local
Defence Volunteers and on 14
May Anthony Eden, Secretary
of State for War, broadcast
a radio message appealing
to civilians to enrol in local
defence uni ts. They would
carry on with their normal
civilian occupations, but
spare time was to be devoted
to training and to protecting
places vulnerable to enemy
attack. Within twenty-four
hours of the broadcast 250,000
men had put their names

down at police stations around
Britain including 4,000 from
the Island. On 17 May the
LDV achieved legal status with
the passing of a Defence Order
in Council.
The volunteers would
not be paid and had to be
aged between seventeen and
sixty-five or in a reserved
occupation. Inevitably there
were teething problems as
the whole thing had been put
together in the space of one
day and especially concern
about the men’s status if
the Germans invaded and
the volunteers were not in
uniform. Would they be shot as
‘francs-tireurs’?
It was decided that pending
the issue of LDV armbands, or
brassards, they should wear a
white handkerchief on the left
arm of their civilian clothes to

help British soldiers recognise
them at night.
Hampshire and the Isle of
Wight were divided into five
sub-areas. The Island was No.
4 sub-area and divided up into
four Company Sections. The
Southern Railway had its own
Company and the Post Office
Battalions were regarded as
“specialist” battalions. The
head postmaster at Ryde
wrote to Lieut. Colonel
R.N. Hamilton, the Officer
Commanding 23 (P.O.)
Battalion Hampshire Home
Guard:“As many men as possible have
been released for ‘Military
Duty’ and, although the
contingent of the P.O.H.G.
on this side of the water is
relatively small, I am certain
that they will acquit themselves
as “TRUE ISLANDERS”

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