I'm from North Yorkshire, before the expected invasion Churchill had ordered arms dumps to be buried all over the place so that what was left after the initial fighting would have arms to fight back later on. My friends father remembered that as a boy the army had buried something down in his fathers bottom field, anyway in the eighties he thought he'd go and see what they buried back in 1940.... What a surprise ! 303's, Vickers, brens, the whole nine yards, all wrapped up and boxed, and all in working order, the ammo and grenades might have been a bit iffy, but the the arms were brand new ..... Sadly he turned it all over to the Army that grabbed the lot and disappeared back to Catterick..... What a shame..... I just wonder how many arms dumps have been forgotten, just like this one....
Nice to hear something for the first time of something I’ve thought about. I’m an Aussie viewer, and in WW2 we had the “Brisbane” line. Right across Australia, from east to west coasts caches were planted. I know of people not hand their finds over and having machine gun shoots with brand new 80 year old .303 Vickers guns Ms and 80 yr old ammo. It all works as it should, still this day.
Morning Boss, just a quick message from my hospital bed (prostate surgery). It's 08:24hrs & nice to watch a new vid from you, helps keep me squared away in the head.. so thanks for that.
Wish you a speedy recovery & all the very best going forward on the survival course no one ever wishes to be enrolled on. (Had breast cancer myself, traumatic, in remission, but it is the forever survival course & regieme). Check out Prof Thomas Seyfried ;) & Dr william Li ;) Yes this sort of thing, does help keep the head level, and in the frame to be a winner.
I knew about Auxiliary Units around 1970, ========================================= as we had the blown-up remains of one in a wood on our estate in South Devon. My grandfather was a retired Royal Navy Captain, a Devon County Councillor, and I believe he was something in the Home Guard - so presumably considered trustworthy - essential for an Auxilliary base. It is only 420 yards from Cleeve, which does seem a little strange. I knew one of two of the men there, and more from other bases, of which there were several in SW Devon, near Plymouth. / My late Mother must have been trusted too, as she was "something" in French Section SOE, but never said one word of it to an army-mad son. All I knew was she served in FANY 1938 to 1945. After her death, I knew something was missing, and obtained her brief records from First Aid Nursing Yeomanry HQ. I found that she was chosen to go to Europe in late summer of 1944 by Major Lewis Gielgud, the former 2iC of French Section, who Wikipedia says was sick. My mother was promoted to Ensign, so one has to ask why a supposedly sick officer needs an assistant, who needs officer rank for the task, and what was that task, and why the secrecy? / Rooting through her efects,. my sister found a silk escape map. As my mother knew I collected militaria, and she had given me her badges, and my grandfather's medals, it strongly suggests that the map held too deep a meaning to her to give to her son / While she had an intimate knowledge of Beaulieu, a major SOE training ground, I am not suggesting she was an agent, but it is perfectly possible that Gielgud and herself went to France sometime after D-Day, looking for information on lost agents. Perhaps something that needed to be hidden, hence the secrecy. Maybe one day I will find out what she was up to! /
Very good, really enjoyable talk I have an interesting book, The Secret Sussex Resistance by Stuart Angell I don't know whether it's still available. It is about the Sussex Home Guard Auxiliary units. A map of all the bunkers, lots of pictures, and interviews with some of the old patrol members.
Thanks for the recommendation- have just bought said book. I had an uncle by marriage, a WWI veteran from the Royal Sussex Regiment who was in one of these units- a Sussex farmer like many of them, they also counted game keepers, foresters etc amongst their number. I believe my grandfather was one, another Sussex farmer, though sadly he died before I could ask him about it.
Fantastic as always Keith. There is one of those bunkers on a nearby farm in Kent, the farmer's dad was an auxiliary and admitted the fact on his deathbed but did not disclose the location. The son and current farmer has never found the hide.
Brilliant video on this subject, thank you. I have been interested in the SOE for some time, but only fairly recently been aware of the auxiliaries. And Collin Gubbins seems to crop up quite a lot, with SOE, the auxilliuaries and also the commandos.
Another great subject and nice tribute to brave men. These units had the very latest weapons before most regular troops. One story I heard years ago, a poacher was recruited into an auxiliary unit, one day the local gamekeeper said to him ' I know what you lot are up to ,I've watched your den being built, ". The poacher discussed this with his team and they agreed that if the invasion happened he would be slotted ! Cheers Keith, tab on 👍
I had the pleasure of meeting sir Tommy McPherson MC x 2. Shared a few drams with him whilst looking after a principle. Great stories he had and a true Gent he was former SEO pre SAS.
Don't forget the part the 51st Highland Division played during the evacuation. Their sacrifice tied Rommels tanks and troops down, allowing many to escape home. Unfortunately, the bulk of the Division wasn't able to be evacuated due to the weather, and the Germans had placed artillery on the high ground overlooking the port of St Valery
Really interesting video Keith, as you say a little known secret from WWII. What might surprise you is all the unit had instructions to shoot the Chiel constanble, as he was the only person that knew who all the aux were in his area, so it was OpSec. Hope you and Tracer round are both doing well. Keep tabbing mate. Baz
Another great history lesson Keith. Love listening to your educational stories. Brings back many memories of listening to my grandfather's escapades about his time in bomb disposal he was a miner but didn't hesitate in joining the engineers. He only would mention the better times though. Keep tabing keep passing on the memories
There‘as an old bunker, big enough for a CP with some nutz. Not sure the era, looked tidy and the lid was a couple of meters of concrete. Of all places it was concealed in a back garden around Shooters Hill. It was empty when I saw it, but the multi-rooms, I thought instantly of a decent little covert FOB (I’m the generation after you). Anyway, brilliant as always, keep yomping brother.
My final military experience was with 23,and I can concur we did have three objective,the third one was interesting and I always thought would I be able to fulfill it,one point though,we were told our life expectancy would be only be three days or less.
Great points manythanks for the talk. Just as a heads up Peter Fleming ( Ian Fleming's brother, James Bonds creator) was responsible for the set up. Well worth a read.
I was an Engineer in 1 (BR) Corps BAOR, the bridges, canals and rail depots were all prepared or constructed for explosive looked like rounds of cheese. The cuts in the foundations fitted the cheese perfectly! Our area is full of bunkers because it was a big place for the Navy
Keith , many years ago when I was out walking an old railway line off to the edge there was at the edge of a field amongst a pile of field gathered stones there was varies bits of what looked like farm yard rubbish there was the top assembly of a Thompson sub machine gun the ribbed barrel with the compensator all quite rusted , I have often wondered if this was a disposed of relic from a Auxiliary units equipment .
Hi! Just a little note on Operation Dynamo. France didn’t fall immediately after Dunkirk and in fact quite a lot of the French were landed back in France, as were several British units. The idea was to hold a piece of France - at one point the Brittany peninsula was discussed. General Alan Brooke was in charge of the British contingent. It didn’t work out of course, and the British were evacuated (again), this time from Atlantic ports such as St Nazaire. One such evacuation was via the SS Lancastria. Unfortunately she was sunk after being bombed. I think at one point her sinking was the greatest British maritime loss of life.
Thanks for that. It jogged my memory of my 2 boys and there half brother who come across one of these bunkers on a railway embankment. Unfortunately I was working away so didn't see it. Must have been around 99 but they hired a pump to pump it out as a bit of 😊 water in there went down and they said there was a morse code tapper thing by the way they described it on a work top and a map or appeared to be which they took out which none of us adults could work out the markings on. I only saw it briefly and didn't have chance to investigate further but strange thing was map was like some old type version of modern laminated paper. I will ask my friend when see him as he spent time from my old memory checking it out with them and get an idea where it is from one of the boys and take a walk see if I can find it and report anything news back.
Excellent company and talk sir. When you get time take a look into. Forward Observation Battery Royal Marines. Never really talked about unit within the SF . Thank you
This inspired me to look online, and, I discovered the local auxiliary patrol in Havant. Two names immediately stood out to me. One was a scrap metal merchant whose daughter was a lifelong friend of my mother. They attended school together and socialized with their husbands throughout their lives. The other name belonged to a well-known engineer in the town who had worked with the Royal Armaments on the reverse engineering of the V2 rocket, among other projects. I never imagined that someone like him would be involved with the auxiliary. and to my surprise
I had a friend now passed that was a Dorset stay behind, very well organised with caches buried in several places and some intricate hides you could be stood on top of and still be unseen, he said similar to the entrances the VC were to use during Vietnam. These were people with expert local knowledge trained in a lot of dark arts. Lest we forget 🕊
I read that top of the assassination list were the landowners on whose land the bases had been constructed. Even though they were sworn to secrecy, it was considered to be too much of a risk to have them in circulation and potentially forced into revealing information to the invaders.
Yep we did, I was an instructor at the lrrp school wiengarden. Our system was good, now the unit is operating differently, but in the day, ......gibbo 32 op troop then 4/73.
New to the channel... great video, very interesting.. I have long had a big interest in SOE activities during WW2... Have to ask... is that a Denison smock you are wearing... ? Keep the vids coming.. love the military banter and expletives.
Very interesting, thank you. Cold War NATO versions were called Gladio (after the sword) with each country having there own name for their post-invasion resistance force.
You should read “The Jungle is Neutral” a true story about Colonel Spencer Chapman, staying behind in the Jungle of Malaysia to disrupt the Japanese operations
in the 80s it was the Patrols course or LRRP training at weingarten to earn your snooker badge before we decided to do our own thing. we were trained to find the targets then call them in. I got to know a couple of crazy old characters growing up who were auxillaries then commandos.
Very interesting. I knew about the WW2 guys but not the Cold War ones. During WW2 there was a plan to seal a team in a cave in Gibraltar, so thst if the Germans took Gibraltar these guys could still radio information about shipping movements through the Straits. They were meant to be sealed up with seven years of food, but were expected to last a year. (How they hid the HF wireless aerials I do not know)
after setting up these posts, many operators were of course moved to europe at the end of the war, to make sure that was safe during the cold war . . .
As you say many Home Guard Auxiliaries were gamekeepers, hunt servants and farmers. The main training base was at a country house near Coleshill in the West Midlands. Many on the ‘list’ to be eliminated were local the people in authority we=ho might be pressured into assisting the Nazis. One of their weapons were silenced .22 rifles using hole point ammunition. Although only accurate to 70 odd yards, a shot in the neck was fatal. I knew several Auxiliaries in East Sussex and one in Worcestershire. Also an early constructed OB in Sussex, just a hole in the ground lined with corrugated tin and a timber frame. Naturally this has rotted and collapsed. There’s also a later solidly built one near Worcester, it had a secondary OB linked by a buried phone cable back to the main OB. A great explanation of an organisation that would have done our country proud.
The German Officer assassinated by the Czech was Reinhard Heydrich, AKA the Blond Beast, Head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, basically Heinrich Himmler's right hand man. Thoroughly nasty piece of work. If you heard of the Wannsee Conference, he was presiding that one. An emissary from the overlings to get the middlings on board for the Final Solution. The movie "Die Wannseekonferenz" from 1984 is a nearly verbatim reenactment. Absolutely chilling.
I wonder how they'd do it in the modern times, would be very difficult with today's technology and such but some of the old methods with still be on such as disruption, sabotage and espionage. Great video thank you 👌👌👌.
they where centrally trained on the south coast with a mock up at fort monkton but the hides are not known until they are sent in under a local handler. that way the hides remain secure . more in the cities now rather than the countryside. built along with the cold war bunkers
Thanks I knew a bit, and you filled in a good deal more. I thought they were loners, chosen for pathological traits and heard. that teachers. mayors, and vicars were to be taken out as having too much knowledge on citizens the Germans would like to have. My dad was in the expeditionary force and on retreat a French gardner marked a lawn with his lawn mower to mark the HQ, as a pencil bomber flew in to straff the chateau he shot it down with his field gun. this was confirmed as it crashed in a nearby village the only German plane to do so in WW2. This was close to Wattinese near Lille.
When I was a school boy in the 1970s i met an old soilder who taked about this his father was a WW1 Officer and he and his son with local men were Stay Behiders in WW2 he told me the locations were still there I thought it was total rubbish But now I think what he said was true
The HAC, as you may know, are an Army Reserve Unit. They have many roles today and their roles over the years have changed. They are a Surveillance and Target Acquisition Unit. No 1 Squadron provides Long Range Surveillance and Recce.
I would think some of those lists of assassination targets would have been fairly inflammatory if they got out. Better to keep the lid on them, would have been the way of looking at it, post war.
Mate .. they weren’t instructed to take out only collaborators, it was innocents that had access to sensitive material . Hence the police chiefs . We intended to clean up giving the enemy nothing . As it was an existential fight . Totally understandable .
I guess I may have some circumstantial evidence as to why these units remained secret . Because some of them had been upgraded and were still in operation. Reading University has a large campus of parkland. While I was a student our physics lab was getting some rather strange electronic interference. (circa 1972) So being naturally inquisitive students ,the source was tracked down ,...To a secluded wood... and ultimately a bunker .What followed ,apparently was a lot of mutual "what the fu.k are you doing here " Go away ,No you go away ,etc.
I was a range warden at Lulworth Ranges and used to hear stories about the Auxiliaries and thier hidden bunker. Fascinating part of local wartime history.
It is interesting listening to this, as the timeline seems to be a little out of kilter. If the Germans had invaded in 1940, there is a serious question whether Operation Anthropoid - the assassination of Heydrich - would have taken place. Would the stay behind troops been aware of what we are aware of now, all with the benefit of hindsight? Not a criticism, just an observation. BTW the fuel line was called PLUTO - pipeline under the ocean. You can still see part of the original on the IoW.
why didn't we know - people back then took the official secrets act seriously and a lot was declassified in the 90s, not sure who opened the floodgates but it was around 1984 when it was coming out and members started talking about it. there's a few collapsed bases out there, one near where I lived at westow to blow the scarborough railway has the brick walls and half the wriggly tin roof survives. its just off a public path. But we know more about the roman occupation than we do about what they did to the UK in ww2 - like the stop lines, Auxillaries and communication dead drops, we ran a whole resistance network and practiced it with the whole country looking for german spies which made for ideal training. Which is why we were so good at setting up foreign networks and then the post war Gladio networks which being far right in nature went on to poison the european states, sweden, finland and Ukraine with toxic ideology and biker gangs because neo nazis were the least likely to accept pro communist governments. the only state not to have a gladio was the UK where it stayed as part of the state military/intelligence apparatus.
Not jyst 21 and 23, but allso nato lrrp's, of which i was one. Long range recon patrols would work upto 150kms behind enemy lines gathering intel and causing general mayhem
So we went to war because Germany and Russia invaded Poland. Then we declared war only on Germany . And when Germany betrayed Russia we fought Germany to give ALL of Poland to the USSR. Did I get that right?
Great programme. Now I can't quote figures but I am led to believe the vast majority of French troops saved at Dunkirk elected to go home... hence the term cheese eating surrender Monkeys- if that's true?
Dont foeger the rn, they did a lot to evacuate thoes at dunkirk. Hitrs kriegs marine would have to defeat rn af sea to cross rhe channel, the rn then was the worlds largest navy worlx wide about 1000 shilps. My gradfather were in home guard in ww2 one was also in the arp wardens in norfolk. Started off ta norfolks then transfered to re regt in norfokk, there was a laege army camp in thetford in ww2.
21st SAS is the oldest of SAS,, 23rd SAS was created by Airy Neave when he was later a Tory MP and murdered by PIRA in Westminster Palace underground car park
He was murdered by. INLA . INLA a very few members of the original IRA , who did not accept OIRA decision to give the armed struggle with bombs, and weapons in 1972. OIRA put all there efforts using the ballot box. It took Provisional IRA over thirty years to come to the same conclusions.
Visit Parham, in Suffolk which has a great museum on British Resistance in WW2. They even have a mock up of an Auxiliary’s underground bunker. Museum ran by enthusiasts who do a great job. Check out their website.
I'm from North Yorkshire, before the expected invasion Churchill had ordered arms dumps to be buried all over the place so that what was left after the initial fighting would have arms to fight back later on. My friends father remembered that as a boy the army had buried something down in his fathers bottom field, anyway in the eighties he thought he'd go and see what they buried back in 1940.... What a surprise ! 303's, Vickers, brens, the whole nine yards, all wrapped up and boxed, and all in working order, the ammo and grenades might have been a bit iffy, but the the arms were brand new ..... Sadly he turned it all over to the Army that grabbed the lot and disappeared back to Catterick..... What a shame..... I just wonder how many arms dumps have been forgotten, just like this one....
What a shame 😢
Ww2 ammo is still ok 👌 I’ve only ever one misfire on me
Around 1500 bunkers were built around the east and south coast by Churchils secret army.
To date I think only 300 have been found.
Nice to hear something for the first time of something I’ve thought about. I’m an Aussie viewer, and in WW2 we had the “Brisbane” line. Right across Australia, from east to west coasts caches were planted. I know of people not hand their finds over and having machine gun shoots with brand new 80 year old .303 Vickers guns Ms and 80 yr old ammo. It all works as it should, still this day.
I’m in WA nice to see another Auzzie 🔥
"Sir, we are supposed to fight with the French!"
"That's what I'm doing!"
"No, Sir, "with them" as in Allies."
"Ah...sorry. Force of habit."
And thank you for your service 🙏 ❤️
Morning Boss, just a quick message from my hospital bed (prostate surgery). It's 08:24hrs & nice to watch a new vid from you, helps keep me squared away in the head.. so thanks for that.
Best of British, mate.
Quick recovery cobber 🔥
I hope all goes well and a speedy recovery, buddy.
Wish you a speedy recovery & all the very best going forward on the survival course no one ever wishes to be enrolled on. (Had breast cancer myself, traumatic, in remission, but it is the forever survival course & regieme).
Check out Prof Thomas Seyfried ;) & Dr william Li ;)
Yes this sort of thing, does help keep the head level, and in the frame to be a winner.
Thank you. Hope all is going as well as can be expected mate. Keep your chin up and thank you for your support.
I knew about Auxiliary Units around 1970,
=========================================
as we had the blown-up remains of one
in a wood on our estate in South Devon.
My grandfather was a retired Royal Navy Captain,
a Devon County Councillor,
and I believe he was something in the Home Guard -
so presumably considered trustworthy -
essential for an Auxilliary base.
It is only 420 yards from Cleeve,
which does seem a little strange.
I knew one of two of the men there,
and more from other bases,
of which there were several in SW Devon,
near Plymouth.
/
My late Mother must have been trusted too,
as she was "something" in French Section SOE,
but never said one word of it to an army-mad son.
All I knew was she served in FANY 1938 to 1945.
After her death,
I knew something was missing,
and obtained her brief records
from First Aid Nursing Yeomanry HQ.
I found that she was chosen
to go to Europe in late summer of 1944
by Major Lewis Gielgud,
the former 2iC of French Section,
who Wikipedia says was sick.
My mother was promoted to Ensign,
so one has to ask
why a supposedly sick officer
needs an assistant,
who needs officer rank for the task,
and what was that task,
and why the secrecy?
/
Rooting through her efects,.
my sister found a silk escape map.
As my mother knew I collected militaria,
and she had given me her badges,
and my grandfather's medals,
it strongly suggests
that the map held too deep a meaning to her
to give to her son
/
While she had an intimate knowledge of Beaulieu,
a major SOE training ground,
I am not suggesting she was an agent,
but it is perfectly possible
that Gielgud and herself went to France
sometime after D-Day,
looking for information on lost agents.
Perhaps something that needed to be hidden,
hence the secrecy.
Maybe one day I will find out
what she was up to!
/
Very good, really enjoyable talk I have an interesting book, The Secret Sussex Resistance by Stuart Angell I don't know whether it's still available. It is about the Sussex Home Guard Auxiliary units. A map of all the bunkers, lots of pictures, and interviews with some of the old patrol members.
That's my good friend. He might have copies as it has been repressed around 7 times I think.
Thanks for the recommendation- have just bought said book. I had an uncle by marriage, a WWI veteran from the Royal Sussex Regiment who was in one of these units- a Sussex farmer like many of them, they also counted game keepers, foresters etc amongst their number. I believe my grandfather was one, another Sussex farmer, though sadly he died before I could ask him about it.
Great history Keith.
Fantastic as always Keith. There is one of those bunkers on a nearby farm in Kent, the farmer's dad was an auxiliary and admitted the fact on his deathbed but did not disclose the location. The son and current farmer has never found the hide.
Really enjoyed that one mate, very interesting 👍
Brilliant video on this subject, thank you. I have been interested in the SOE for some time, but only fairly recently been aware of the auxiliaries. And Collin Gubbins seems to crop up quite a lot, with SOE, the auxilliuaries and also the commandos.
Another great subject and nice tribute to brave men. These units had the very latest weapons before most regular troops.
One story I heard years ago, a poacher was recruited into an auxiliary unit, one day the local gamekeeper said to him ' I know what you lot are up to ,I've watched your den being built, ". The poacher discussed this with his team and they agreed that if the invasion happened he would be slotted ! Cheers Keith, tab on 👍
Great story Mike, thanks for sharing 👍 all the best mate
Brilliantly told piece of history, cheers!
Sounds like one for a certain Dr. Felton. 😁 Thought provoking, thank you ♥️🇬🇧🌹
I had the pleasure of meeting sir Tommy McPherson MC x 2. Shared a few drams with him whilst looking after a principle. Great stories he had and a true Gent he was former SEO pre SAS.
Don't forget the part the 51st Highland Division played during the evacuation. Their sacrifice tied Rommels tanks and troops down, allowing many to escape home. Unfortunately, the bulk of the Division wasn't able to be evacuated due to the weather, and the Germans had placed artillery on the high ground overlooking the port of St Valery
Really interesting video Keith, as you say a little known secret from WWII. What might surprise you is all the unit had instructions to shoot the Chiel constanble, as he was the only person that knew who all the aux were in his area, so it was OpSec. Hope you and Tracer round are both doing well. Keep tabbing mate. Baz
Cheers Baz all the best mate 👍
Another great history lesson Keith.
Love listening to your educational stories. Brings back many memories of listening to my grandfather's escapades about his time in bomb disposal he was a miner but didn't hesitate in joining the engineers. He only would mention the better times though.
Keep tabing keep passing on the memories
Cheers John for your support mate.
Another very informative video Keith.
Fantastic talk. Thank you.
Cheers Andy
Great..Keith very interesting...
Great tab talk Keith, very interesting.
There‘as an old bunker, big enough for a CP with some nutz. Not sure the era, looked tidy and the lid was a couple of meters of concrete. Of all places it was concealed in a back garden around Shooters Hill. It was empty when I saw it, but the multi-rooms, I thought instantly of a decent little covert FOB (I’m the generation after you).
Anyway, brilliant as always, keep yomping brother.
Fascinating talk,thank you.
Every day a school day. I had never heard of these units until this video. Very interesting and thanks for this.
Cheers Peter
Another fine 'tab'n'tell' Keith. Always interesting to hear about historical parts of conflicts rarely mentioned or spoken about.
My final military experience was with 23,and I can concur we did have three objective,the third one was interesting and I always thought would I be able to fulfill it,one point though,we were told our life expectancy would be only be three days or less.
Every time I watch one of your vids Keith, I learn something one way or the other !! 👍
Thank you Martin 👍
Great points manythanks for the talk. Just as a heads up Peter Fleming ( Ian Fleming's brother, James Bonds creator) was responsible for the set up. Well worth a read.
Very enjoyable 👍🇬🇧
Thank you Keith another great upload as always😊regards and good health to you and Tracer😊 God bless to you both.❤😊❤😊
Thank you, all good here, Tracer Round back on the decorating..she's wood staining the stairs now...crazy girl, can't sit still for 5 mins.
I was an Engineer in 1 (BR) Corps BAOR, the bridges, canals and rail depots were all prepared or constructed for explosive looked like rounds of cheese. The cuts in the foundations fitted the cheese perfectly! Our area is full of bunkers because it was a big place for the Navy
Do you have an associate web site I can upload some pictures of some interesting sites! Don’t blame me if they upset 😂😂
Living history thanks mate for the vid, they were dark days indeed.
Keith , many years ago when I was out walking an old railway line off to the edge there was at the edge of a field amongst a pile of field gathered stones there was varies bits of what looked like farm yard rubbish there was the top assembly of a Thompson sub machine gun the ribbed barrel with the compensator all quite rusted , I have often wondered if this was a disposed of relic from a Auxiliary units equipment .
Hi! Just a little note on Operation Dynamo. France didn’t fall immediately after Dunkirk and in fact quite a lot of the French were landed back in France, as were several British units.
The idea was to hold a piece of France - at one point the Brittany peninsula was discussed. General Alan Brooke was in charge of the British contingent.
It didn’t work out of course, and the British were evacuated (again), this time from Atlantic ports such as St Nazaire.
One such evacuation was via the SS Lancastria. Unfortunately she was sunk after being bombed. I think at one point her sinking was the greatest British maritime loss of life.
Fascinating history - well explained 👍🏻
Brilliantly told.You are a natural.
Thank you
Very intresting! Thank you very much for sharing, I appreciate it a lot.
Greetings from the Netherlands, TW.
🇳🇱 🫡🪖🇬🇧
Great story telling 👌
🫡 thank you
Thanks for that. It jogged my memory of my 2 boys and there half brother who come across one of these bunkers on a railway embankment. Unfortunately I was working away so didn't see it. Must have been around 99 but they hired a pump to pump it out as a bit of 😊 water in there went down and they said there was a morse code tapper thing by the way they described it on a work top and a map or appeared to be which they took out which none of us adults could work out the markings on. I only saw it briefly and didn't have chance to investigate further but strange thing was map was like some old type version of modern laminated paper.
I will ask my friend when see him as he spent time from my old memory checking it out with them and get an idea where it is from one of the boys and take a walk see if I can find it and report anything news back.
Excellent company and talk sir. When you get time take a look into. Forward Observation Battery Royal Marines. Never really talked about unit within the SF . Thank you
Ive heard of 148 CDO Bty RA I think. I know they are a very skilful and useful asset.
Brilliant 👏
Thank you 👍
Stay behind duties. I think that's what used to be described as "a short but interesting life".
This inspired me to look online, and, I discovered the local auxiliary patrol in Havant. Two names immediately stood out to me. One was a scrap metal merchant whose daughter was a lifelong friend of my mother. They attended school together and socialized with their husbands throughout their lives. The other name belonged to a well-known engineer in the town who had worked with the Royal Armaments on the reverse engineering of the V2 rocket, among other projects. I never imagined that someone like him would be involved with the auxiliary. and to my surprise
Glad it was of some use and that you discovered something local. Nice one, thank you for your support.
I had a friend now passed that was a Dorset stay behind, very well organised with caches buried in several places and some intricate hides you could be stood on top of and still be unseen, he said similar to the entrances the VC were to use during Vietnam.
These were people with expert local knowledge trained in a lot of dark arts.
Lest we forget 🕊
Excellent “Waffle” Thank You 👍
👍
I read that top of the assassination list were the landowners on whose land the bases had been constructed. Even though they were sworn to secrecy, it was considered to be too much of a risk to have them in circulation and potentially forced into revealing information to the invaders.
Dig deep to survive.
Yep we did, I was an instructor at the lrrp school wiengarden. Our system was good, now the unit is operating differently, but in the day, ......gibbo 32 op troop then 4/73.
Very interesting Keith
Thank you Kev 👍
Fantastic Vid as usual. thank you
Cheers Nick
New to the channel... great video, very interesting.. I have long had a big interest in SOE activities during WW2... Have to ask... is that a Denison smock you are wearing... ? Keep the vids coming.. love the military banter and expletives.
Hi Ian, thank you for your support. Not a Denison Smock, it's a shooting coat made by Browning.
Very interesting, thank you. Cold War NATO versions were called Gladio (after the sword) with each country having there own name for their post-invasion resistance force.
Stay behind bunker near to where I live in kenfig hill, still maintained by descendants of the original guys, looked for it but I'm flumuxed.
Very interesting video
The second biggest fear was Bob taking a Dump on the Thunder box after consuming baked bean Rations 😂😂😂 Gas Gas Gas 😂😂😂
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Top waffle. Very interesting 👌
You should read “The Jungle is Neutral” a true story about Colonel Spencer Chapman, staying behind in the Jungle of Malaysia to disrupt the Japanese operations
good to see you tab
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in the 80s it was the Patrols course or LRRP training at weingarten to earn your snooker badge before we decided to do our own thing. we were trained to find the targets then call them in.
I got to know a couple of crazy old characters growing up who were auxillaries then commandos.
Very interesting. I knew about the WW2 guys but not the Cold War ones. During WW2 there was a plan to seal a team in a cave in Gibraltar, so thst if the Germans took Gibraltar these guys could still radio information about shipping movements through the Straits. They were meant to be sealed up with seven years of food, but were expected to last a year. (How they hid the HF wireless aerials I do not know)
Apparently, Michael Foot was in this type of unit.
after setting up these posts, many operators were of course moved to europe at the end of the war, to make sure that was safe during the cold war . . .
As you say many Home Guard Auxiliaries were gamekeepers, hunt servants and farmers.
The main training base was at a country house near Coleshill in the West Midlands.
Many on the ‘list’ to be eliminated were local the people in authority we=ho might be pressured into assisting the Nazis.
One of their weapons were silenced .22 rifles using hole point ammunition. Although only accurate to 70 odd yards, a shot in the neck was fatal.
I knew several Auxiliaries in East Sussex and one in Worcestershire. Also an early constructed OB in Sussex, just a hole in the ground lined with
corrugated tin and a timber frame. Naturally this has rotted and collapsed. There’s also a later solidly built one near Worcester, it had a secondary
OB linked by a buried phone cable back to the main OB.
A great explanation of an organisation that would have done our country proud.
Hi Keith I've signed us both up as stay-behind OP's in the Donbass we have to refresh on our fire orders lol
Just packing now Allan...😂😂😂
The German Officer assassinated by the Czech was Reinhard Heydrich, AKA the Blond Beast, Head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, basically Heinrich Himmler's right hand man. Thoroughly nasty piece of work. If you heard of the Wannsee Conference, he was presiding that one. An emissary from the overlings to get the middlings on board for the Final Solution. The movie "Die Wannseekonferenz" from 1984 is a nearly verbatim reenactment. Absolutely chilling.
I wonder how they'd do it in the modern times, would be very difficult with today's technology and such but some of the old methods with still be on such as disruption, sabotage and espionage. Great video thank you 👌👌👌.
they where centrally trained on the south coast with a mock up at fort monkton but the hides are not known until they are sent in under a local handler. that way the hides remain secure . more in the cities now rather than the countryside. built along with the cold war bunkers
Thanks I knew a bit, and you filled in a good deal more. I thought they were loners, chosen for pathological traits and heard. that teachers. mayors, and vicars were to be taken out as having too much knowledge on citizens the Germans would like to have. My dad was in the expeditionary force and on retreat a French gardner marked a lawn with his lawn mower to mark the HQ, as a pencil bomber flew in to straff the chateau he shot it down with his field gun. this was confirmed as it crashed in a nearby village the only German plane to do so in WW2. This was close to Wattinese near Lille.
When I was a school boy in the 1970s i met an old soilder who taked about this his father was a WW1 Officer and he and his son with local men were Stay Behiders in WW2 he told me the locations were still there I thought it was total rubbish But now I think what he said was true
As usual, informative and interesting, thanks Keith " underwater knife fighters " 😂😂😂
Cheers Mike. Im sure that's where I first met you, The Underwater Knife Fighting Course UWK01034😂😂😂
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd 🤣🤣🤣🤣
HAC - were/are they also stay behind? HAC fascinates me.
The HAC, as you may know, are an Army Reserve Unit. They have many roles today and their roles over the years have changed. They are a Surveillance and Target Acquisition Unit. No 1 Squadron provides Long Range Surveillance and Recce.
I would think some of those lists of assassination targets would have been fairly inflammatory if they got out.
Better to keep the lid on them, would have been the way of looking at it, post war.
Mate .. they weren’t instructed to take out only collaborators, it was innocents that had access to sensitive material . Hence the police chiefs . We intended to clean up giving the enemy nothing . As it was an existential fight . Totally understandable .
sound... pocket full of marbles, lol !
I guess I may have some circumstantial evidence as to why these units remained secret . Because some of them had been upgraded and were still in operation. Reading University has a large campus of parkland. While I was a student our physics lab was getting some rather strange electronic interference. (circa 1972) So being naturally inquisitive students ,the source was tracked down ,...To a secluded wood... and ultimately a bunker .What followed ,apparently was a lot of mutual "what the fu.k are you doing here " Go away ,No you go away ,etc.
Heard a story on youtube of a special army unit named "one step beyond", not sure of the veracity of this, found it quite funny though!
John Urwin. I think it's BS.
Looks like there is sea behind you to?❤🇨🇦🇬🇧🇺🇸
Look up The Creech Barrow Seven, Isle of Purbeck, Dorset 🗡🏴☠️
I was a range warden at Lulworth Ranges and used to hear stories about the Auxiliaries and thier hidden bunker. Fascinating part of local wartime history.
It is interesting listening to this, as the timeline seems to be a little out of kilter.
If the Germans had invaded in 1940, there is a serious question whether Operation Anthropoid - the assassination of Heydrich - would have taken place.
Would the stay behind troops been aware of what we are aware of now, all with the benefit of hindsight? Not a criticism, just an observation.
BTW the fuel line was called PLUTO - pipeline under the ocean. You can still see part of the original on the IoW.
How many of the BEF was captured in 39 ? I’ve heard of a whole brigade at Arras ? 🔥
Some of the lads spent most of the war in the bag 😢
Not telling us! BS! We know the RSM's orders when we hear them! Great series though, keep them coming! Sah!
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why didn't we know - people back then took the official secrets act seriously and a lot was declassified in the 90s, not sure who opened the floodgates but it was around 1984 when it was coming out and members started talking about it.
there's a few collapsed bases out there, one near where I lived at westow to blow the scarborough railway has the brick walls and half the wriggly tin roof survives. its just off a public path.
But we know more about the roman occupation than we do about what they did to the UK in ww2 - like the stop lines, Auxillaries and communication dead drops, we ran a whole resistance network and practiced it with the whole country looking for german spies which made for ideal training. Which is why we were so good at setting up foreign networks and then the post war Gladio networks which being far right in nature went on to poison the european states, sweden, finland and Ukraine with toxic ideology and biker gangs because neo nazis were the least likely to accept pro communist governments. the only state not to have a gladio was the UK where it stayed as part of the state military/intelligence apparatus.
Good to be reminded of that. The effects, I'm sure some of them unexpected and overdone, go on today.
There's still around
Ten pints of lager and a large doner kebab in the 1980s on the Kilburn high road life expectancy 45 mins. 😂
Less if you went to Biddy Mulligans
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Territorial = Terries yes I’m that old 😂😂😂 I started off in the Terries 6 Hauraki, 1992, Kia Kaha. 🔥
Sorry master Sgt😮
🎉Lincolnshire.
It's fast.
Go to north Yorkshire
Is that where the term Gubbins comes from?
Not jyst 21 and 23, but allso nato lrrp's, of which i was one. Long range recon patrols would work upto 150kms behind enemy lines gathering intel and causing general mayhem
Some are still out there like Japanese in the jungle.
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Scallywags!
So we went to war because Germany and Russia invaded Poland. Then we declared war only on Germany . And when Germany betrayed Russia we fought Germany to give ALL of Poland to the USSR. Did I get that right?
Mix a few 🇨🇦sir
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Great programme. Now I can't quote figures but I am led to believe the vast majority of French troops saved at Dunkirk elected to go home... hence the term cheese eating surrender Monkeys- if that's true?
See 'british resistance archive'
I was a kid in the 70’s
Tnw was believable!
T-thermal
N-nuclear
W-war
Dont foeger the rn, they did a lot to evacuate thoes at dunkirk.
Hitrs kriegs marine would have to defeat rn af sea to cross rhe channel, the rn then was the worlds largest navy worlx wide about 1000 shilps.
My gradfather were in home guard in ww2 one was also in the arp wardens in norfolk. Started off ta norfolks then transfered to re regt in norfokk, there was a laege army camp in thetford in ww2.
SD
Police units
21st SAS is the oldest of SAS,, 23rd SAS was created by Airy Neave when he was later a Tory MP and murdered by PIRA in Westminster Palace underground car park
I understood the first were in the desert, Stirling, Blondie Hasler, and Jock McCloud. SAS was a name that came later I imagine as you sugested
He was murdered by. INLA .
INLA a very few members of the original IRA , who did not accept OIRA decision to give the armed struggle with bombs, and weapons in 1972.
OIRA put all there efforts using the ballot box.
It took Provisional IRA over thirty years to come to the same conclusions.
Visit Parham, in Suffolk which has a great museum on British Resistance in WW2.
They even have a mock up of an Auxiliary’s underground bunker.
Museum ran by enthusiasts who do a great job.
Check out their website.
The Artists Rifles I believe the original name was for 21 SAS?
Gross sir.