The Home Guard (14 May 1940 – 3 December 1944)

Today is the 75th anniversary of the standing down of the Home Guard. In the darkest days of the War when the British Empire stood alone against the might of Hitler's Reich, the Home Guard, consisting of men otherwise ineligible for military service, either because of age or by being in professions exempt from conscription, volunteered as a last ditch defence force in the event of a German invasion.

Home Guard training. The government was expecting 150,000 men to volunteer for the Home Guard. Within the first month, 750,000 men had volunteered, and by the end of June, 1940, the total number of volunteers was over one million. The number of men in the Home Guard did not fall below one million until they were stood down in December 1944

Veterans of the Great War mustering in the Home Guard

The introduction to the Imperial War Museum's pages on the Home Guard.

The Home Guard was set up in May 1940 as Britain's 'last line of defence' against German invasion. Members of this 'Dad's Army' were usually men above or below the age of conscription and those unfit or ineligible for front line military service.

On 14 May 1940, Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden made a broadcast calling for men between the ages of 17 and 65 to enrol in a new force, the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV). By July, nearly 1.5 million men had enrolled and the name of this people's army was changed to the more inspiring Home Guard.

The Home Guard was at first a rag-tag militia, with scarce and often make-do uniforms and weaponry. Yet it evolved into a well-equipped and well-trained army of 1.7 million men. Men of the Home Guard were not only readied for invasion, but also performed other roles including bomb disposal and manning anti-aircraft and coastal artillery. Over the course of the war 1,206 men of the Home Guard were killed on duty or died of wounds.

With the Allied armies advancing towards Germany and the threat of invasion or raids over, the Home Guard was stood down on 3 December 1944.

The Home Guard were officially disbanded on 31 December 1945 and were immortalised in the BBC television and radio program 'Dad's Army' which ran from 1968-1977.

We will remember them! Lest we forget!