Auxiliary Units
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The Auxiliary Units (or Auxunits) were specially trained highly secret units created with the aim of resisting the expected invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany during World War II. Britain was the only country during the war to create such a resistance movement in advance of an invasion.
The units (occasionally known as the British Resistance Organisation) were initiated by Winston Churchill, who appointed Major Colin Gubbins (an expert in guerrilla warfare who would later head up the Special Operations Executive), to found them, attached to GHQ Home Forces.
approximately 5000 units were formed, consisting of Special Duty Sections, Signals and Operational Patrols. Auxiliary Unit members were vetted by a senior local police chief (who, according to sealed orders given to the Operational Patrols to be opened only in case of invasion, were allegedly to be assassinated to prevent the membership of the Auxiliary Units being revealed).
The units were stood down only in 1944. Their existence did not generally become known by the public until the 1990s.
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Special Duty Sections and Signals
The Special Duty Sections were largely recruited from the civilian population, with around 4000 members. They had been trained to identify vehicles, high ranking officers and military units, and were to gather intelligence and leave reports in dead letter drops. From these they would be collected by runners and taken to one of over 200 secret radio transmitters operated by trained civilian Signals staff.
Operational Patrols
Operational Patrols consisted of between 4 and 8 men, often farmers or landowners and usually recruited from the most able members of the Home Guard, who also needed an excellent local knowledge and the ability to live off the land. As cover, the men were allocated to "Home Guard" battalions 201 (Scotland), 202 (northern England), or 203 (southern England) and provided with Home Guard uniforms, though they were not actually Home Guard units.
Around 3500 such men were trained on weekend courses at Coleshill House near Highworth, Wiltshire, in the arts of guerrilla warfare including assassination, unarmed combat, demolition and sabotage. Recruits for Coleshill reported to the Highworth post office, from where the postmistress Mabel Stranks arranged for their collection.
Each Patrol was a self contained cell, expected to be self sufficient and operationally autonomous in the case of invasion, generally operating within a 15 mile radius. They were provided with a concealed underground Operational Base, usually built by the Royal Engineers in a local woodland, with a camouflaged entrance and emergency escape tunnel; it is thought that 400 to 500 such OBs were constructed. Some Patrols had an additional concealed Observation Post. Patrols were also provided with a selection of the latest weapons including a silenced sniper's rifle and Fairbairn-Sykes "commando" knives, quantities of plastic explosive, incendiary devices, and food to last for two weeks. It was not expected that they would survive for longer. Members expected to be shot if they were captured, and were expected to shoot themselves first.
The mission of the units was to attack invading forces from behind their own lines while conventional forces fell back to the last-ditch GHQ Line. Aircraft, fuel dumps, railway lines, and depots were high on the list of targets, as were senior German officers. Patrols secretly reconnoitred local country houses, which might be used by German officers, in preparation.
See also
- Special Operations Executive
- British military history of World War II
- British military history
- special forces
Further reading:
- A. Ward. Resisting the Nazi Invader (Constable, 1997)
- Stewart Angell. The Secret Sussex Resistance. (Middleton Press) ISBN 1873793820
External links
- Auxunit News: Record of the Auxiliary Units 1940 - 1944 (http://www.btinternet.com/~david.waller/index.htm)
- http://www.warlinks.com/pages/auxiliary.html
- Photos of UK World War 2 Invasion Defences - includes Aux Unit hideouts (http://www.pillboxesuk.co.uk)
- http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/h/hurstpierpoint_au_hideout/index.shtml
- http://www.millsgrenades.co.uk/box.htm
- http://www.btinternet.com/~david.waller/Oxendenbook.htm