Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2008 | Page 55

THE ISLAND AT WAR 1939 - 1945 should the occasion arise.” Fred Hollis was in farming, a reserved occupation, and registered for the LDV on his eighteenth birthday. Mr Cheverton was the Officer Commanding and a high percentage of the men in the Brighstone unit had served in World War One. Fred wore overalls with a number sewn on his jacket and guarded the telephone exchange in the village from 10 pm to 4 am. “I thought it was daft finishing then,” says Fred who went home to milk the cows at 5 am. “What would have happened if the Germans had come after four o’clock?” After the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk in the summer of 1940, re-equipping the Army with weapons and uniforms had to take precedence over the LDV. The Directors of Saunders-Roe Limited at Cowes had made a concerted effort to get as many men as possible to join the “Saro V.P. Unit” attached to the East Wight (Nunwell) Home Guard Battalion. By the end of May, 141 men had enlisted, mostly from the aircraft factory and the local shipyards and by 31 July there were 499 names on the roll. The Directors were then faced with the problem of finding arms. Saunders-Roe purchased 12-bore guns and sporting rifles but with only a few rounds of ammunition available for each weapon, none could be ‘wasted’ in practice firing on the ranges. A Bren gun was acquired by ‘devious means’ and in July the Ministry of Aircraft Production who were responsible for the factory, sent four Vickers machine guns, relics from the last war, along with 50 Ross rifles complete with bayonets. Later the unit received 6 Lewis automatic weapons for anti-aircraft defence with 3,600 rounds of ammunition and two Beverettes (armoured cars fitted with Browning Automatic Rifles). A factory bomb squad was formed to help the Royal Engineers deal with unexploded bombs and in May 1942 they dealt with a 500 kilo bomb on their own. So far the LDV’s role in defending the country hadn’t been established though most of the men who had joined up saw it as a fighting force and not as an armed special life constabulary with the motto, ‘Look, Duck, and Vanish’. Finally, in June the War Office issued its first real order to the LDV: ‘The Local Defence Volunteers are neither trained nor equipped to offer strong prolonged resistance to highly trained German troops and they will therefore best fulfil their role by observation, by rapid transmission of information, and by confirming the enemy’s activities. They will also act as guards at places of tactical or industrial importance.’ Working on a farm, Bill Brett was also in a reserved occupation and like his father before him, was known as “Brassey Brett” from their job of polishing the horses’ brasses. When he joined Bill Brett behind Capt. Lee, officer commanding the Calbourne home Guard at Westover Manor www.wightfrog.com/islandlife 55