We Remember the Home Guard

'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.

Frank and Joan Shaw were both born in Deal in Kent, grew up there during the whole of the war years and later married there. Despite the regular wartime bombings and the permanent shortages of food, fuel and clothing, they each remember their childhood as being "totally happy and secure". They believe that such memories are only possible because of the courage of those that stayed "at home" and who disguised their fears so that life should appear normal to children everywhere. Frank and Joan have never forgotten those years and are determined that the sacrifices of those who fought, in whatever way, should not be forgotten. The result is a collection of accounts from men and women from many parts of the United Kingdom who either served in the Home Guard themselves, or can remember those who did.