Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2015 / January 2016 | Page 73

COUNTRY LIFE

The Island’s special
home guard
Sam Biles looks at Islanders’ involvement with Churchill’s British Resistance

W

ith the humour of Dad’s Army
it is easy to forget Britain’s
dire position after Dunkirk in
1940. Hitler’s invasion was thought to be
imminent. In July 1940 Winston Churchill
stated that:- “The regular defences
require supplementing with guerrilla
type troops, who will allow themselves
to be overrun and who thereafter will be
responsible for hitting the enemy in the
comparatively soft spots behind zones of
concentrated attack”.
The GHQ Auxiliary Units were
established - the British Resistance in the
event of invasion. The Isle of Wight was in
the front line of the nation’s defence and
had its own network of Patrols who would
have disappeared into underground
bunkers if the German had invaded.
Under the national leadership of Col.
Colin McVean Gubbins at Coleshill
House, Swindon, operational Patrols of
4-8 men were selected - often farmers &
gamekeepers - men who knew the Island
like the backs of their hands and could
move around with stealth and live off
the land. They were to emerge after the