The stand-down of the Home Guard

On Sunday 3 December 1944 the Home Guard, the British volunteer home defence force formed in 1940 against the threat of a German invasion, took its leave of the country. In London several thousand of its members – about 7,000 is the figure most often given, while the American CBS correspondent Bill Downs wrote of ten thousand – marched past King George VI, the formation’s colonel-in-chief, who, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth and both princesses, took the salute in Hyde Park. Similar farewell parades were held that day and in the following weeks in cities and towns throughout Britain. In the evening the King made a broadcast in which he thanked the volunteers for more than four years of service. These ceremonies were remembered as the “stand-down” – the Home Guard’s move to an inactive status.

The decision to end service

The end of the Home Guard was a consequence of the changed war situation in 1944. After the Normandy landings, the German defeat in France and the liberation of Belgium, the threat of a landing in the British Isles had practically disappeared. As early as 6 September the government suspended compulsory drills and training, and from 11 September service became voluntary again; this was announced together with the replacement of the blackout by the “dim-out”. The Secretary of State for War, Sir James Grigg, explained in the House of Commons on 3 October that the military situation on the Continent had justified a relaxation of the Home Guard’s duties, and that orders to this effect had been passed to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, as early as 6 September.

In the second half of October the decision was taken to end service altogether. According to a later statement in the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for War, Jack Lawson (12 December 1945), the orders provided for the Home Guard to stand down on 1 November 1944. By the end of October Grigg was already answering MPs’ questions about which items of uniform the volunteers would be allowed to keep (they were allowed to retain their battledress, among other things, but leather belts, which the army was short of, had to be handed in), and on 31 October he announced that the King wished every member of the force to receive a certificate signed by him. The ceremonial farewell was set for Sunday 3 December. Formally, therefore, this was the end of active service and not the disbandment of the force: the Home Guard remained a dormant reserve, and its members could be called up again in an emergency.

The parade in London

The procession in the capital was made up of detachments sent from all over the country. According to the report of Grace Herbert of the Daily Express, the volunteers, in greatcoats and steel helmets, some with new rifles and others with weapons dating back to the previous war, marched through Hyde Park past the stand on which the royal family stood, then along Piccadilly to Piccadilly Circus, up Regent Street and along Oxford Street to Marble Arch, dispersing back in the park. The journalist noted the range of ages among the marchers – seventy-year-olds walked beside seventeen-year-olds – and the fact that the spectators were applauding not professional soldiers but “shopkeepers, bank managers, husbands and sons”. Crowds lined streets damaged by bombing, while at the same time German V-2 rockets were still falling on London.

The King’s words

In his evening broadcast George VI said that his hope that the comradeship born in the Home Guard would endure had been strong in him that afternoon, when “many thousands of you” marched past him in one of the most impressive and memorable parades he had ever seen. He listed the tasks the volunteers had taken over from the regular army: as anti-aircraft and coast gunners, as sentries at vital points, as bomb disposal units and in many other ways, he said, the Home Guard had played its full part in the defence of its country. He also addressed the volunteers themselves, telling them that they had gained something for themselves and had discovered new capabilities within themselves. The monarch assured them that he was very proud of what the Home Guard had achieved and offered them all his “heartfelt thanks”.

From the LDV to the Home Guard

The force was born in the darkest weeks of 1940. On 14 May, four days after the start of the German offensive in the west, the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, appealed over the radio to men aged 17 to 65 who were not serving in the forces to report to police stations to join the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV). Around half a million volunteers had been expected; by the end of June about one and a half million had come forward. At the insistence of Winston Churchill, who found the name LDV uninspiring, the force was renamed the Home Guard in July 1940.

At first it was an armed, uniformed citizens’ militia, independent of the army and the Territorial reserve. The volunteers had no military ranks, were not subject to military discipline and could leave at any time. Weapons were in short supply: in the summer of 1940 many units drilled with shotguns, private revolvers and improvised weapons until hundreds of thousands of M1917 Enfield rifles arrived from American stocks. Over time the Home Guard grew closer to the army: officer ranks were introduced in 1941, and from 1942, under the National Service Act, men up to the age of 51 could be directed into it where volunteers were lacking. From 1943 women were also accepted as auxiliaries (Home Guard Auxiliaries), but only for non-combatant duties – in offices, in signals or as drivers.

Strength and tasks

At its peak, at the beginning of 1943, the Home Guard numbered more than 1.7 million men according to the most frequently cited figures (some studies speak of almost 1.8 million), and its strength never fell below a million. In 1940 the volunteers’ task was to watch the coast and the sky, report landings, delay the enemy’s advance, if only by a few hours, until regular troops arrived, and defend communications hubs, bridges and factories against paratroopers. When the threat of invasion receded after the German attack on the USSR, the Home Guard increasingly replaced the army in home defence, releasing soldiers for service overseas. Its members manned anti-aircraft batteries – especially the rocket batteries protecting industrial centres – and coastal artillery guns, stood guard at military installations and infrastructure, and after the raids of the Blitz searched for unexploded bombs, secured danger areas and helped to evacuate residents. Home Guard gunners are credited with shooting down a number of Luftwaffe aircraft and, in the summer of 1944, V-1 flying bombs as well. Besides the ordinary units there were the top-secret Auxiliary Units – sabotage groups which, in the event of invasion, were to go to ground in underground hides and operate behind enemy lines.

The “Dad’s Army” myth and reality

In post-war memory the Home Guard has been fixed above all by the BBC comedy series Dad’s Army (1968–1977), about a hapless platoon in a seaside town. The series, whose co-writer Jimmy Perry had himself served in the Home Guard as a teenager, captured something of the improvisation of the early months, the shortage of weapons and the age range of the volunteers. Historians stress, however, that the image of pensioners with broomsticks applies mainly to the summer of 1940. In 1942–1944 the Home Guard was a relatively well-armed and well-trained force, in which many young men served before being called up and many workers in the armaments factories combined service with long hours of work.

Nor was the service safe. According to frequently cited figures, more than 1,200 members of the Home Guard were killed or died of wounds on duty – in air raids, dealing with unexploded bombs, on exercises and in accidents; according to some studies, bomb disposal work claimed the most lives. A number of volunteers were decorated for bravery, including with the George Cross, the highest British award for gallantry not in the face of the enemy.

Significance

The stand-down of the Home Guard was one of the first signs that for Britain the war was entering its final phase: the threat of invasion, which in 1940 had called into being a volunteer army a million strong, belonged to the past, even though rockets were still falling on London and heavy fighting was still going on on the Continent. The Home Guard never had to face a German landing, but for more than four years it relieved the burden on the regular army, and in 1940 it gave society the sense that everyone could contribute to the defence of the country.

The force remained in a dormant state for another year to make it easier to return weapons and equipment. On 12 December 1945 the Secretary of State for War, Jack Lawson, announced in the House of Commons that it would be disbanded with effect from 31 December 1945; officers kept their honorary ranks, and the uniforms left with the volunteers became their property. In 1952, during the Cold War, the Home Guard was revived in a limited form, and it was finally disbanded in 1957.