The Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard Training Manual

The Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard Training Manual PDF Author: George Mainwaring
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 9781409128212
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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The Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard Training Manual

The Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard Training Manual PDF Author: George Mainwaring
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 9781409128212
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description


The Home Guard Training Pocket Manual

The Home Guard Training Pocket Manual PDF Author: Lee Johnson
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1612007686
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Excerpts from the many unofficial “manuals” avidly bought by members of the British Home Guard desperate to prepare for invasion during World War II. How would you clear a stoppage on a Bren Gun while in action? What is the most effective way to clear a wood of enemy forces? How best could you counter a landing by enemy airborne forces in your area? What measure can you take to help ensure accurate rifle fire at night? What qualities should you look for when selecting a patrol commander? Just a few of the practical questions posed—and answered—in the selection of publications included in The Home Guard Training Pocket Manual. Numerous manuals and training pamphlets were privately published during World War II to supplement the slim official Home Guard manual produced by the War Office. Covering everything from patrolling, night fighting, drill and small arms proficiency to the legal powers of the Home Guard, these manuals were welcomed by the men of local Home Guard units keen to do everything possible to prepare for possible invasion—when they would be the first line of defense. This pocket manual collates a selection of material from these fascinating publications, often written by serving soldiers and reprinted multiple times due to demand.

To the Last Man

To the Last Man PDF Author: Malcolm Atkin
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1526745941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
This historical study of the UK’s WWII homeland defense service dispels the propaganda and pop culture myths to reveal its true wartime role. In 1940, Britain formed an armed citizen militia to act as the first line of defense in case of Nazi invasion—an essential, if suicidal, mission intended to buy time for the organization of regular forces. Officially, they were the Home Guard. Later, a British sitcom that ran for nearly a decade in the 60s and 70s dubbed them Dad’s Army. That show contributed to a distorted perception of the Home Guard that persists today. But as Malcolm Atkin reveals in this thought-provoking book, the Home Guard’s image was manipulated from its earliest days. Sifting through official documents and contemporary histories, as well as stories, artwork and poetry of the era, and comparing these with postwar films and histories, Atkin explores how the myths of the Home Guard arose and were exploited. He also shows how the strong sense of gallows-humor amongst its volunteers—which fits in with a long tradition of self-deprecating humor in the British army—was taken out of context and became the basis of the TV series. To the Last Man strips back the myths, analyzing how the modern perception has evolved. The result is a new, gritty, and sometimes shocking appreciation of the role that the Home Guard was expected to play in the Second World War.

The Home Guard Training Manual

The Home Guard Training Manual PDF Author: John Langdon-Davies
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Men at War

Men at War PDF Author: Luke Turner
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 147461888X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
As a child, Luke Turner was obsessed with the Second World War. He spent hours watching Sunday war films, poring over stories of derring-do and relishing in birthday trips to air museums. Lying in bed beneath Airfix fighter planes suspended from his ceiling, he would think about the men that might sit in their cockpits, and whether he could ever be one of them. Now, as an adult who has come to terms with a masculine identity and sexuality that is often erased from dominant military narratives, he undertakes a refreshingly honest analysis of his fascination with the war. In Men at War, Turner looks beyond the increasingly retrogressive and jingoistic ideal of a Britain that never was to recognise men of war as creatures of love, fear, hope and desire. From writers, filmmakers, artists and ordinary men - including those in his own family - Turner assembles a broad cast of characters to bring the war to life. There are conscientious objectors, a bisexual Commando, a pacifist poet who flew for Bomber Command, a transgender RAF pilot, a soldier who suffered in Japanese POW camps and later in life became an LGBT+ activist, and those who simply did what they could just to survive and return home to a complicated peace. As the conflict moves beyond living memory and the last veterans leave us, we are in danger of missing the opportunity to gain a true understanding of this rich history. By exploring a wartime experience that embraces sex, lust and the body as much as tactics and weaponry, Turner argues that the only way we can really understand the Second World War is to get to grips with the complexity of the lives and identities of those who fought and endured it.

The British Home Guard Pocketbook

The British Home Guard Pocketbook PDF Author: A.F.U. Green
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472835573
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
'The Home Guards are an attacking force lying in wait for, and ready to destroy, any enemy who dares to set foot on out shores.' The Home Guard has been immortalised in British culture in the TV series Dad's Army. Formed by men not eligible for active service – too old, too young, in reserved occupations vital to the war effort – who were expected to resist a German invasion with any resources they had to hand, the Home Guard is the embodiment of plucky British resolve against the odds. The British Home Guard Pocket-Book evokes this spirit. Written by Brig-Gen Green, commanding 4th battalion, Sussex Home Guard and Training Adviser for the Sussex Zone, this book is based on his experience and, in his own words, 'is the result of my ransacking the dusty pigeon-holes of memory and the condensation of many books, official instructions and writings'. Its tone is informal and colloquial: 'March discipline. Troops will always march off the parade ground at the Slope. As soon as this has been done the order "March at Ease" should be given. When marching at ease the rifle may be carried in any way a soldier fancies.' Nevertheless, the book is full of sound advice on training, organisation and discipline, fire arms, reconnaissance and field engineering, the responsibilities of the Group Pigeon Officer, the proper position to adopt for surviving a dive bomb attack, and how to set a trap for an unwary advancing German cyclist!

Home Guard Manual 1941

Home Guard Manual 1941 PDF Author: Campbell McCutcheon
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445611031
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Find out about the real Dad's Army, from the manual used to train them.

We Remember the Home Guard

We Remember the Home Guard PDF Author: Frank Shaw
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448147565
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
'I remember standing on top of our local glen with a block of wood, expecting thousands of Germans coming down from the sky. What was I going to do with the block of wood? I never knew.' Leonard Jackson On 22 June 1940 France surrendered to Germany and the invasion of Britain seemed a very real possibility. The Home Guard was formed to defend our villages and towns. Members came from reserved occupations, those who had failed their medicals, the elderly and the young, with miners and farmers training alongside former majors. Their weapons and ammunition were negligible at first, but slowly these amateur soldiers began to produce professional results. In this unique book of reminiscenses about life on the home front, we see these men as they practise with pitchforks and fall into ditches after a pint or two of ale on the job. But we also see them learning how to fire grenades after a day studying engineering and undertaking night watches after exhausting factory shifts - knowing they could be the last stop between the enemy and their families and homes.

Do You Think That's Wise?

Do You Think That's Wise? PDF Author: Graham McCann
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1845136527
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Best known for Dad’s Army, in which his Sergeant Wilson played the languid, rakish foil to Arthur Lowe’s pompous, chippy Captain Mainwaring, John Le Mesurier was one of Britain’s favourite and most recognisable character actors. The epitome of insouciance and languor on screen, in real life this charming, quietly-spoken bon viveur was plagued by private turmoil and heartbreak. Married three times, he saw his first wife succumb to alcoholism, his second – the comedy diva Hattie Jacques – move her lover into the family home, and his third enjoy a passionate dalliance with troubled comic Tony Hancock. As Graham McCann reveals in this fully authorised and moving biography, as an actor John Le Mesurier was a key ingredient in the success of Britain’s greatest sitcom, but as a man he was far more courageous than Sergeant Wilson was ever meant to be.

The Lewis Gun

The Lewis Gun PDF Author: Neil Grant
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 178200792X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description
During World War I, the British adopted the US-designed Lewis gun as an infantry weapon, realizing that its light weight and the fact that it could be fired both prone and on the move made it ideal for supporting advances and defending captured trenches. Later adopted by an array of countries from the Netherlands to Japan, the Lewis successfully served as the primary or secondary armament in armoured fighting vehicles and in both ground-based anti-aircraft and aircraft-mounted roles. Although it was superseded by the Bren in British service in 1937, the outbreak of World War II meant that thousands returned to active service, and it played a key role as far afield as Libya, with the Long-Range Desert Group, and the Philippines, with the US Marine Corps. Written by an authority on this iconic light machine gun, this is the fascinating story of the innovative and influential Lewis gun, from the trenches of World War I to the Libyan desert and Pacific islands of World War II and beyond.