British Home Guard (1940–1944): Dad's Army and Home Defence

The British Home Guard was a part-time volunteer force raised in May 1940 to help defend the United Kingdom against a German invasion during the Second World War. First called the Local Defence Volunteers, it grew to well over a million men who trained in the evenings and at weekends while doing their normal jobs. It was stood down in December 1944 and is now remembered above all through the comedy series Dad’s Army.

Origins: a call on the radio

German forces invaded the Netherlands and Belgium on 10 May 1940, using paratroops to seize key points. In Britain, fears grew that German airborne troops might land without warning. On the evening of 14 May the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, broadcast an appeal for men aged 17 to 65 who were not in military service to join a new force, the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV).

The response overwhelmed the authorities. Around a quarter of a million men are said to have given their names at police stations within 24 hours, and more than a million had joined by the summer. On Churchill’s suggestion the force was renamed the Home Guard in July 1940; the old initials had been mocked as “Look, Duck and Vanish”.

Weapons and training

In the summer of 1940 the volunteers had little equipment. Many drilled with shotguns, sporting rifles or improvised weapons, and wore only an armband marked “LDV”. Rifles bought from the United States, including the P17, began to arrive from the summer of 1940.

Cheap weapons were developed for the force, such as the Northover Projector, the Blacker Bombard and the “sticky bomb” anti-tank grenade. A batch of pikes issued in 1941 became a notorious example of shortages. Training improved steadily, helped by unofficial schools such as the one at Osterley Park set up by the Spanish Civil War veteran Tom Wintringham.

Duties

The Home Guard’s first task was to watch for parachutists and report them. Units guarded road blocks, bridges, railways, factories and stretches of coast, and were expected to delay any invasion force while regular troops counterattacked. Its role was linked to the plans drawn up against Operation Sea Lion in 1940.

As the invasion threat faded, duties widened. Home Guard members crewed anti-aircraft rocket batteries and coastal guns, and helped civil defence during air raids such as those of the Blitz. From 1942 men could be directed into the force under national service rules, and in 1943 women were allowed to join as auxiliaries in support roles.

Who served

The image of the Home Guard as a force of old men is only partly accurate. Many members were veterans of the First World War, some of them in their sixties, and they brought valuable experience. But the force also included teenagers waiting to be called up, and many men of military age in “reserved occupations” such as mining, farming, engineering and the railways, who were needed in their jobs and could not join the regular forces.

Units were organised locally, often around a village, a town district, a factory or a public utility. Railway companies, the Post Office and large firms formed their own battalions to protect their premises. In Northern Ireland, the force was organised separately through the police. Officers at first held no formal commissions, and military ranks were only introduced in 1941.

Losses and recognition

The Home Guard never fought a German invasion, but its members were not free from danger. Over a thousand were killed on duty during the war, mainly in air raids and accidents. Several received the George Cross or George Medal for bravery.

Alongside it, a separate secret organisation, the Auxiliary Units, trained small groups to act as resistance fighters behind German lines in the event of invasion. Many of its members were recruited through the Home Guard.

Stand-down and memory

With the Allies advancing in Europe, the Home Guard was stood down on 3 December 1944. King George VI took the salute at a parade in Hyde Park. The force was formally disbanded on 31 December 1945, briefly revived in 1952 during the Cold War, and finally ended in 1957.

The BBC sitcom Dad’s Army, written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast from 1968 to 1977, made the Home Guard part of British popular culture. Its affectionate portrait of an elderly, chaotic platoon in a fictional seaside town shaped the public image of the force, sometimes at the expense of its real achievements.

Timeline

• 1940, 14 May: Anthony Eden broadcasts the appeal for Local Defence Volunteers.
• 1940, July: The force is renamed the Home Guard.
• 1940, summer: Membership passes one million.
• 1942: Compulsory enrolment of men under national service rules begins.
• 1943: The Home Guard reaches its peak strength of about 1.7–1.8 million.
• 1944, 3 December: The Home Guard is stood down with parades across Britain.
• 1945, 31 December: The force is formally disbanded.

Why it matters

The Home Guard turned the fear of invasion in 1940 into practical action and freed regular soldiers for service abroad. It became a symbol of civilian determination on the home front, and its comic image in Dad’s Army remains one of the most familiar portraits of wartime Britain.