Churchill’s Secret Army

Churchill’s Secret Army in N.E.Essex with Hugh Frostick

From frostick.co.uk:

Hugh gives an overview of how the GHQ Auxiliary Units – a deliberately unexciting name –  came into being in 1940 with the threat of invasion. Churchill supported the idea and entrusted the set up to some very able men who were interested in “irregular warfare”. The Auxiliers were trained in weapons and explosives, sabotage and unarmed combat at Coleshill House in Oxfordshire, and hence the main organisation researching their activities is called CART, the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team. (See www.coleshillhouse.com)

The secret patrols were set up all round the coast from Scotland to the Irish sea. They tended to consist of 6 men who knew the land, which meant many of them were landowners and farm workers. They had an underground hideout, known as an Operational Base, in which to lay low in the event of invasion. They were then to pop up behind the enemy lines and cause mayhem to hinder the invasion. Life expectancy was estimated to be 12 days at best, and they had orders to kill themselves if capture seemed likely.