The British Resistance Movement, 1940 - 44
Geoffrey Bradford
RECRUITED SECRETLY and not even enrolled as soldiers to further protect their anonymity in case of German invasion, the Auxiliary Units formed by Colin Gubbins were to have been Britain's last ditch line of defence, operating in a network of cells from hidden underground bases.
'Should you ask me whence these stories,
Whence these Legends and Traditions,
With their nasty sounds of banging,
and their smells of smoke and almonds,
I should answer, I should tell you,
Tales they are of Home Defences,
Of a Very Secret Movement…’
These words, a parody on Longfellow's epic poem Hiawatha, were written in 1944, by a retired bank manager, an active member of 203 Devon Regiment (Auxiliary Unit). His verses described the formation and development of the 'Auxunits' which, it has been said, were Europe's first and best trained Resistance movement.
Explosives, Booby Traps, Incendiaries
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