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There has been previous mention in the main Home Guard thread of the commemorative booklet covering the 29th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion issued in 1946 by the City Council. This Battalion was manned entirely by members of the Gas, Water, Electricity, Salvage and administrative...

So very sorry.....A dreadful loss to us all. Chris

Like any tool in human hands, this system - and the increased efficiency and effectiveness it provided - could be put to good or evil use. I’m sure I remember reading somewhere that this (American) technology made the Holocaust possible and enabled the Nazis to organise the mass deportations of...

Wonderful information of interest and value to members and thanks very much for posting it. Chris

My very best wishes to you, Maurice, just as soon as you are able to see this thread which we all hope will be soon. Chris

Eric, on my system, sometimes they do (which includes my own HG website), sometimes they don't . This one doesn't and it looks fine to me. Chris

Yes, real fear indeed, I believe. It never happened, of course, and some say that the reason for this is that there was a mutual deterrent - if one side used it, the other was bound to retaliate. But with madmen running Germany, who could ever have been sure about the possibilty, especially in...

Thanks for that, Pedrocut. At that time these batteries would be manned entirely by Regular Army blokes - Royal Artillery, I think. As the prospect of the invasion of France started to emerge, there was obviously a need to release regular troops for eventual service overseas and it was for this...

No, Colin, no central registry or anything like that. It's a real problem identifying individual Home Guards. I once wrote up a few guidelines as to how to go about it, to improve chances of finding something out. They are here...

Throughout the war, on the grass verge opposite our house, there was a lowish post set into the ground and on the top of it a flat piece of board or metal. This was about a foot or 18" square, was angled sufficiently to let the rain run off it and was a strange, greeny-grey colour. When I was...

Thanks, Viv. I re-told the story of this gentleman's incredible bravery online some time ago. The incident was in Bishop Street and involved heavy loss of life. I managed to tie it in with the recollection, which surfaced 65 years later, of a sailor named Ernie Humphreys of Barford Street who...

Congrats, Viv. Chris

Welcome to the Forum, Pipjar. I hope someone can help you. Thought I might have been able to myself as "Ellerslie" rang a bell, but images I have are of Ellerslie in Penn, near Wolverhampton and not Ellerslie, Edgbaston. It appears that an early (19th c. - and perhaps the original) occupant...

Still putting my money on the Women's Timber Corps - Snowdonia perhaps? The official badge (or one of them - could there have been versions with minor variations as well?) We are looking at the badge at quite an acute angle. A bit like this: In both, the original worn by Sue's auntie and...

Welcome to the Forum, LaurentLenclud. We have threads on this Forum about Newey Brothers and Newey Goodman - both of them active in Birmingham in the manufacture of pins, hatpins and other fasteners. Neither thread makes any mention of electrical equipment of this type. There is an electrical...

With the example still fairly fresh in the mind of the Spanish towns devastated by bombing in the Civil War, the expectation here was for an immediate, overwhelming attack from the air the moment that war broke out. (As we now know, that didn't happen and serious attacks were many months away)...

Fairey Battles, Viv. A 1930s three-man light bomber, manufactured for the first year of the war and quickly superseded by more effective types. Just over 1000 were built at Cofton Hackett, a late-1930s shadow factory adjacent to the main Longbridge site. Chris (Image source: IWM)

The building of really significant and expensive structures like this in late 1938 and early 1939 reminds us of just how inevitable the imminent conflict was regarded. I think that our own, Dad-built structure in the garden at home was probably completed - or very nearly so - by this point. I...

This is a useful thread containing helpful contributions and adding to our knowledge of Birmingham history. There is however a bit of concern amongst Mods that it will develop into nothing more than a Facebook-type "chat". We would like to get something solid, valuable and, most important of...

Has to be Women's Timber Corps, as first suggested by jukebox, doesn't it! What a nice image. Is there any background information about this lady, Sue? I imagine that these women could have served in any forested area of the U.K., wherever they were sent. And especially in the huge forests of...