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Boy Scout Suicide Squad.

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Stitcher

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The above few lines are taken from a two page story in yestedays Sunday Mercury. The man and his wife are still alive and well, he is now 88 and they still live close to Birmingham.
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

It is interesting - there is much yet to come out about the preparations for Resistance fighters for the expected German invasion
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Hello Aidan, of course you are so right. As I said this is just a small part of a very interesting 2 page article with photographs. I refrained from posting more of it because it was in the press and I suppose a lot of members will have read it.
I have a number of images of the Royal Family starting from prior to, and through WW2 with a small amout of text relating to the time, but I do not know whether or not to post them.
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

As Aidan says there's still probably quite a lot more to come out about the underground movement. But it will have to come from official sources if and when they are released rather than from old members who are now in their late eighties at least. For years the secrecy undertakings given by members were observed but more recently a lot more has become public - like, I imagine, the Mercury article and details of their surviving hideaways.

These groups were established all over the country often under the guise of Home Guard membership but operating entirely separately from it. They are usually known as "Auxiliary Units". Survival time was predicted to be 7-14 days maximum. Google searches will reveal quite a bit of information about them.

I have in my possession the transcript of an interview with one such member, in a Devonshire unit, who served in the countryside he knew like the back of his hand - an essential requrement for recruits - and was there all the way through, from 1940 onwards. Shall probably put it into my website if I can get the family's approval. Of more relevance to Midlands interests at least one book has been published on this subject, as follows:
The Mercian Maquis
By Bernard Lowry and Mick Wilks
Logaston Press, ISBN: 1873827970
(Describes the secret Auxiliary Units set up in Herefordshire and Worcestershire to act as an underground resistance movement after invasion)​

I wonder what the arrangements were within the Birmingham boundary and whether any information about them will ever surface.

Chris
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

The Nazis set up an organisation known as The Werewolves to operate clandestinely in the event of an Allied invasion of Germany. Members came from the SS, Hitler Youth, and some from the general public. Unfortunately, once it was realised that Germany would lose the war, the Werewolves embarked upon a scorched-earth policy, trying to destroy anything of value to the invading armies, rather than try to resist the Allied advance. Some bands were still operating after Germany surrendered, mostly in Russian-occupied zones. Their influence has been exaggerated since the war - their activities never really had any effect at all on the Allied advance or post-war policy towards Germany.

I wonder what our Auxiliary Units would have acheived, had the Germans invaded us?

Big Gee
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Like anything else which you read in the newspaper and know something about, Oisin, it will be littered with mistakes. And I expect that to the journalist who wrote it, those events are about as remote as Agincourt. (But then, again, to be fair, it was probably just a slip of the keyboard).

I have to say, the first lines of the Mercury article take a bit of swallowing. I could just about understand a young fellow being asked to become involved if he had useful local or specialised knowledge or was in some other way a rather special young man; but in charge at THAT age??!! Perhaps the rest of the article clarifies all that.

Whatever the position of someone within a unit of this type, one has to feel the greatest admiration for their courage. How brave would any of us have been in similar circumstances? Thanks goodness few of us were ever put to such a test.

Chris
 
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Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Hello Oisin and ChrisM, I was intrigued by the story and missed the Princess Anne error and I believe there was only a Princess Mary (1897-1965) and a Princess Alexandra born in 1936. My bit of information does not list a death date so she may still be alive.
If you have not read the article it went to say these young men were stationed in buildings where royalty were present, and they were under orders to shoot to kil if a stranger came towards them.
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Stitcher, surely the King, the Queen and the two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose.

Princess Mary was the Princess Royal and the King's sister; and Alexandra the daughter of the Duke (brother to the King) and Duchess of Kent and thus the King's niece.

Chris
 
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Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

I can't help Chris, the mistake is down to the newspaper and when I checked a bit of information it stated that those were the only two princesses at that time.
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

It would be most interesting to find the stories of the Birmingham Resistance (Auxiliary Units) - You never know maybe some are on this Forum or relatives of members.

In terms of official records, I imagine they are still under the 100 year rule?

I remember there was one Time Team episode on Shooters Hill London where, if memory serves, they uncovered a comms room and preparations for a massive petrol bomb in someone's garden to have been exploded should a Panther tank try to make it's way into London - You can watch it here https://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/episode-guide/series-15/episode-8 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZBtth6x7G4 which I may do over tea that I can thankfully have peacefully...
 
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Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Having just watched the episode again, I noted the following:

  • They give the impression that it was the Homeguard that was expected to defend against the initial onslaught, with the British Maquis (Resistance Fighters) reserved for disruptive and subversive activities once we were overrun
  • They mention that the Home Guard Manual states that they were supposed to defend "to the last man and the last bullet" - can we verify this please?
  • Phil gets to dress up and re-enact the Homeguard attacking a Panzer with anti-tank guns and mortars (all sadly ineffective in their day)
  • The British Maquis code was to shoot their bosses when the time came so that they didn't reveal names under torture - hmmm
  • The Maquis comms centre uncovered in the programme must have been replicated around the country - can we find them in Birmingham?
  • The effective-looking Fougasse weapon (IED) location point they discover must also have been replicated in Birmingham for the Home Guard to use as the following short video of it suggest that there were 50,000 of them around the country! https://www.yourdiscovery.com/video/wartime-secrets-flame-fougasse - Again can we find likely locations around Birmingham for them?
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

On your third point, Aidan, the late Mr. Reg Neville of Pelsall wrote a wonderful memoir for me about his service with the local Home Guard. In one bit of it he describes weapons training and in particular the way to attack a tank:

We were trained in priming and throwing the 36 Mills bomb which had as primer a fuze filled we were told with fulminate of mercury, a name frightening enough, only to be told that it was likely to explode if inserted into the grenade carelessly.......and how to throw these from the relative safety of a sandbagged trench....... how to use the Sticky bomb, a weapon like a 5" glass bulb covered with a sticky net which adhered to a tank or other target. It could be likened to a squat oversized toffee apple and when loosed from the hand the safety clip fell off and the user had about ten seconds to retire from the scene. It seems the regular army was reluctant to use this bomb, but it remained with the Home Guard. The instruction was to walk up to the target and plant the bomb firmly so that it adhered to the metal of the target. We were assured that it was so designed that the full force of the explosion went through the fractured part of the bulb and blew a hole in the metal. Which it did! As we found out in practice. We were told that on no account were we to turn and run after release of the handle, we had ample time to walk to a safe distance...... which contrary to instruction, we reached in times which would have done justice to Seb. Coe, this to the accompaniment of the discarded handle whistling past our necks.​

(I remember the sticky bomb well - we had one in our hall as a decoration for many years after the war. My father had a great love for such devices. I THINK it was a dummy.)

Reg's complete memoir, which makes good, amusing and sometimes moving reading, is here.

On the second point, ("to the last man"), this would certainly have been the order in periods when they were defending fixed positions, as would have been the case in 1940. That thought has always caused me to view the capers of Capt. Mainwaring & Co in a slightly more respectful light.

It would be good if this thread unearthed new, previously undiscovered information about the HG - and of course the Auxiliary Units - in Birmingham to add to that already generously provided by several BHF members.

Chris
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

My wife has now destoyed the Sunday Mercury so if anyone still has it from yesterday perhaps you could post a little more of the article. I never imagined it would generate such interest otherwise I would have posted more details of what this group of young men were ordered to do if action were ever needed.
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Chapter 11 of Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative (London: Tauris, 1997 and 2002) by Sir Peter Allix Wilkinson (1914-2000) is about the Auxiliary Units. Sadly no mention of Birmingham though.
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Thylacine said:
Chapter 11 of Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative (London: Tauris, 1997 and 2002) by Sir Peter Allix Wilkinson (1914-2000) is about the Auxiliary Units. Sadly no mention of Birmingham though.
Click to expand...

An excellent account none-the-less, thanks for finding it.

I just hope we can find some evidence of where the Home Guard would have fought on the roads into Birmingham - perhaps a mortar spigot (last pic), a Fougasse embankment or a larger-than-usual air-raid shelter for example. I attach some examples of the disguised pill box. I have a funny feeling I have seen such things in gardens or empty plots of land - just can't think where....
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Found this excellent site https://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/sitemappage.htm containing lots of detail about Auxiliary Units, their comms control bunkers, HG Pillboxes (disguised and otherwise), Flame Fougasse sites and other things of this nature. Sadly nothing listed in Birmingham yet (we can make a start!) but other Warwickshire places are shown such as Kennilworth.
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

I suppose everything on this thread begs the question: would a German invasion of England have been feasible, from a military viewpoint, in 1940?
I've read that the German preparations for invasion were totally inadequte in terms of getting sufficient manpower and equipment across the Channel in the kind of timescale necessary to overwhelm British defences, including the Royal Navy. As I understand it (and I'm no military historian) D-Day was successful largely because the Allies had the capability to land vast numbers of men and equipment in a very short time across a wide front.

Big Gee
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

I thought a couple of years ago that I saw a book in the bookshops about Defences of (Southern?) Birmingham. Can't remember any details though
mike
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

Big Gee said:
I suppose everything on this thread begs the question: would a German invasion of England have been feasible, from a military viewpoint, in 1940?...
Click to expand...

History bears you out of course Big Gee, however for a time in 1940 the threat was very real and expected as the eBook Thylacine found and the letter on the site I gave above shows. I find it amazing and quite frightening to imagine our fathers/grandfathers preparing to fight in their home streets to the last man (Home Guard) or to engage in Resistance activities (Auxiliaries)
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

ChrisM said:
I could just about understand a young fellow being asked to become involved if he had useful local or specialised knowledge or was in some other way a rather special young man; but in charge at THAT age??!! Perhaps the rest of the article clarifies all that....
Click to expand...

Having now read it all - thanks for the link, Aidan - I think it does. An incredible story but as much of it is in the gentleman's own words, one has to believe it wholly. I suppose you can see a bit of the logic in the appoinrtment - a young man with some really useful skills, already a leader of a group of active young lads and so in a position to gather a bunch of like-minded youngsters around him. But what desperate times they were when a group of teenagers could have been given such responsibility and power.

Chris
 
Thank you all for the very interesting posts and extra information about this subject. I started the thread purely because the man at the centre was from and still is close to Birmingham.
 
Back to the regular Home Guard for a moment. My father wrote an extensive memoir about his own platoon. This is part of what he said about the first few desperate weeks of the Home Guard's life in Streetly and Little Aston:


We issue a training programme, on 14th June, 1940. Musketry covering all essentials, rudiments of squad drill, knowledge of the country including contact with military authority, telephones, etc., patrols and their duties, scouting and the use of cover. The programme ends :
"On completion of this course the volunteer will be regarded as competent to carry out full duties."
Such is the urgency of the time as illustrated by...(issued from Battalion HQ at Aldridge to each platoon in the area including that defending Streetly and Little Aston)...
....Operational Orders No. 1 received by telephone from Battalion H.Q. at 23.15 hours on 5th July, 1940, reading as follows :

"Information.Reliable reports state that attack on this country is imminent. Attack may take the form of intensive aerial bombardment, landing by paratroops or landings from troop-carrying planes, and attack by sea.
"Intention.(a) Companies will obtain and report definite information of any such attempt.
(b) Companies will pin down, defeat and destroy any enemy who may land, by active attack with every weapon available, whether lethal or improvised. Defence will always be active.
"Method. 2(b) does not mean attacks by small patrols and/or posts on large posts of enemy, but by surprise effect of controlled fire from carefully pre-selected positions. The observation posts, patrol posts and barriers, will be defended with vigour and determination. There must not be and will not be any question of retirement.
"Inter-communication Arrangements are detailed.
"Administration ditto
"Medical ditto"​

The rifles have arrived, one per man plus bayonets and 60 rounds per rifle. (God bless America!) The rifles are in cases thick with grease after twenty-odd years' storage in an arsenal. Our Company Commander, always to the fore when help is wanted, has them degreased at his works, saving hours of training time. A member provides slings, another paints the 2in. red band during his free time on guard duty..........

All I can remember of that time is a hastily prepared road block, consisting of a pile of old cars on the grass verge ready for use, on the Chester Road (A452) in Streetly, to the west just beyond Queslett Road; and a line of newly prepared Molotov cocktails in our back garden. Didn't seem at all unusual to me.

Chris
 
Most interesting Chris, thank you for sharing it. I reckon Streetly would have been safe anyway! Although the motto "Forward" must have been quite chilling for our forebears.

I wonder is there any evidence around there or in Sutton Park?
 
Re: Boy Scout Suicide Sqad.

mikejee said:
I thought a couple of years ago that I saw a book in the bookshops about Defences of (Southern?) Birmingham. Can't remember any details though
mike
Click to expand...

There are a number of books suggested by a search that I shall need to look out for https://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/william+foot/defended+england+1940/6283929/ :

  • The Defence of Worcestershire and the Southern Approaches to Birmingham in World War II by Mick Wilks
  • 20th Century Defences in Britain, the West Midlands Area by Colin Jones, Bernard Lowry, Mick Wilks
  • The Mercian Maquis by Mick Wilks, Bernard Lowry
  • Defended England 1940: The South-West, Midlands and North by William Foot
 
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