Britain's Other Army: The Men and Women Who Defended the Home Front
When we think of Britain during the Second World War, we tend to picture soldiers fighting overseas, sailors crossing the Atlantic or Spitfires and Hurricanes battling German aircraft above southern England.
But Britain was fighting a war at home too.
Some wore uniforms.
Others simply put on an armband and went to work.
Many had ordinary jobs during the day and reported for wartime duties in the evening or at night.
They were not all soldiers. They were not all volunteers. They were farmers, teachers, shopkeepers, factory workers, housewives, office workers, students and pensioners.
Together, they formed Britain's other army.
They were the men and women who stayed behind, keeping Britain's towns, villages, farms and factories running while the nation's armed forces fought overseas and in the skies above them.
Many had sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers, fathers or friends serving on the front lines, knowing that every letter home might bring good news - or terrible news.
Yet those who remained in Britain were not simply waiting for the war to end. They too were playing their part in keeping the country alive and ready to fight.
They guarded bridges and railway lines, watched the skies, fought fires, rescued people from bombed buildings, grew food, collected salvage and cared for those whose homes had been destroyed.
Some worked through the day and took up their wartime duties at night. Others faced danger directly when bombs fell, fires spread or invasion seemed a real possibility.
Their weapons were not always rifles. Sometimes they were buckets, shovels, first-aid kits, telephones, tractors or simply the determination to keep going.
Below, we look at the men and women who helped keep Britain running through some of its darkest days - and who, despite not being on the front line, could find themselves putting their own lives on the line.
The Home Guard: Britain's Part-Time Army
In May 1940, Britain was facing one of the most dangerous moments in its history. German forces had swept through the Netherlands, Belgium and France with astonishing speed, and the British Expeditionary Force was being evacuated from Dunkirk.
Across Europe, the German war machine appeared almost unstoppable. Country after country had fallen, and there was no certainty that Britain would be able to stop the advance.
For ordinary people in Britain, the possibility of German occupation was no longer unthinkable. If Fighter Command could be defeated and the Royal Navy unable to prevent a landing, German troops could conceivably arrive on British soil.
The fear was real. Britain was preparing to fight not simply to defend its skies, but to defend its own towns, villages, roads and homes.
The Luftwaffe was preparing for the air campaign that would become the Battle of Britain, while German planners were considering an invasion of Britain if British air defences could first be overcome.
It was against this frightening background that the British Government called for volunteers on 14 May 1940 to join what was initially known as the Local Defence Volunteers.
The possibility that Germany might soon turn its attention towards Britain was no longer something that belonged to military planning rooms. It was becoming a terrifying possibility for ordinary people.
Imagine You Are There...
Imagine looking down your village street and wondering what it would look like if German soldiers came marching along it.
What if the fighting reached your home? What if the army that had conquered so much of Europe reached Britain too?
For people living through those dark months of 1940, this was not a distant story from history. The possibility of invasion was real, and the fear could be carried with them every day.
They did not know whether the next morning would still belong to them.
Britain needed men who could help defend the country if German troops actually came ashore.
The response was extraordinary. Hundreds of thousands of men came forward within days, many of them too old for regular military service or working in occupations considered too important to the war effort to leave.
The force would later become known as the Home Guard.
At the time, however, nobody knew whether these volunteers would eventually have to do more than train and patrol. If the Luftwaffe could defeat Fighter Command and Germany attempted an invasion, these part-time soldiers could find themselves facing German troops on British soil.
Within just 24 hours, around 250,000 men had registered.
The force was later renamed the Home Guard.
They were not intended to replace the regular British Army. Their purpose was to help defend Britain against invasion while the regular forces were heavily committed elsewhere.
At its peak, the Home Guard numbered around 1.8 million men.
They came from all walks of life.
Some were too old for regular military service. Others were young men waiting to be called up. Many worked in reserved occupations such as railways, teaching, banking or industry, jobs considered too important to the war effort for the men to leave.
Reserved Occupations: Fighting the War Without a Uniform
Not every man of military age was allowed to leave his civilian job and join the armed forces. Britain needed millions of workers to keep its factories, farms, mines, transport networks and essential services operating.
The list of reserved occupations covered a huge range of essential work and was continually changed as the demands of the war changed. Among the occupations included were:
- Coal miners producing the fuel needed to power industry and transport.
- Railway workers keeping Britain's rail network moving troops, food, coal and military equipment.
- Farm workers producing food at a time when Britain was increasingly dependent on domestic agriculture.
- Engineers and skilled industrial workers producing weapons, aircraft, vehicles and other essential equipment.
- Shipbuilders and dock workers helping build, repair and supply the ships Britain depended upon.
- Teachers continuing to educate Britain's children while millions of adults were involved in the war effort.
- Doctors and medical workers caring for civilians and service personnel.
- Bank and financial workers helping keep the country's financial system operating.
- Other skilled trades and essential services whose workers could not simply be removed without damaging the wider war effort.
The scale was enormous. At the height of mobilisation in 1944, around five million men of fighting age were working in reserved occupations rather than serving in the armed forces.
For many, however, being reserved did not necessarily feel like an honour.
A young man could watch his friends put on military uniforms and leave for training while he was ordered to remain at the factory, the railway, the mine or the farm. Some desperately wanted to serve overseas and could feel frustrated, embarrassed or even guilty about remaining at home.
There was also a social stigma attached to being a man without a uniform. Some reserved workers were accused of avoiding military service or being "shirkers", despite the fact that the Government itself considered their work essential to winning the war.
The reality was rather different. Britain needed men to fight, but it also needed men to produce the weapons, grow the food, move the supplies and keep the country functioning.
They were not being told that they were unimportant. They were being told that their particular skills were too important to lose.
The popular image of the Home Guard has been shaped by Dad's Army, but the real organisation was far more serious.
These men were preparing for the possibility that German troops might actually land on British soil.
What Did the Home Guard Actually Do?
A Home Guardsman's job depended on where he lived and what his local unit was responsible for.
They patrolled roads and countryside, guarded important locations and watched for signs of enemy activity.
Bridges, railway lines, crossroads, factories, power stations, telephone exchanges and other important installations could all require protection.
Some units established roadblocks and checkpoints.
Others practised ambushes, reconnaissance and delaying tactics in case German troops broke through the regular defences.
They were expected to know their local area intimately.
Where was the nearest telephone?
Where was the nearest doctor?
Where could a road be blocked?
Which bridges were important?
Where were the local police and regular Army units?
If invasion came, local knowledge could become extremely valuable.
The Home Guard also took part in exercises with other organisations. They trained alongside the police and Air Raid Precautions personnel and practised what they might do if Britain actually came under invasion or attack.
And they did not simply train during the daytime.
Evening training, night patrols, guard duties and exercises were fitted around their normal employment. A man might spend the day working in a factory, office, railway yard or shop before putting on his Home Guard uniform and reporting for duty after dark.
The hours varied enormously according to the local unit and the circumstances. During periods of heightened invasion alert, however, the demands on the men could become intense.
The question was always there:
What if the Germans really come?
They Were Preparing for an Invasion
The Home Guard was not merely there to look reassuring in uniform.
Britain genuinely feared invasion in 1940.
Road signs were removed or altered to make navigation more difficult for an invading army. Defences were constructed across the country. Anti-tank obstacles appeared along roads and beaches, and defensive positions were established around important locations.
Home Guardsmen were trained to delay an enemy advance and report suspicious activity.
They were told to be alert for parachutists and enemy agents.
They might be guarding a bridge one night and patrolling a country lane the next.
They were civilians who had been given a military responsibility.
And for a time, there was a very real possibility that they might have to use it.
When the Enemy Came Down
For many members of the Home Guard, the German invasion they had spent months preparing for never came. But there were occasions when the enemy really did come down in their local area.
German aircraft were regularly shot down over Britain during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. When pilots and aircrew escaped by parachute, they could suddenly find themselves landing in fields, gardens, woods or even among houses - surrounded by people who had spent months preparing for exactly this possibility.
Home Guard members helped search for escaped airmen, guarded crash sites and assisted police and military authorities in taking prisoners into custody.
For a Home Guard volunteer, this was the moment the war suddenly became very real.
For months they had practised what they would do if German troops landed. They had guarded roads, watched the skies and trained with whatever weapons were available. Now, suddenly, a German airman could be standing in a field a few hundred yards from their homes.
Imagine You Are There...
Imagine standing in a field beside a railway line in the darkness.
There are no street lights. No traffic. No glow from nearby buildings. Only the cold wind, the distant sound of the railway and the darkness stretching across the countryside.
You have spent the day at the factory. A few hours ago you were at work thinking about supper and home. Now you are standing here with a rifle, watching the darkness.
You do not know if tonight will be the night.
But if the invasion comes, you are there to meet it.
Tomorrow, all being well, you will be up early and back at the factory.
The ARP Wardens: The Men Who Stayed Behind When the Bombs Fell
If the Home Guard prepared for invasion, Air Raid Precautions personnel prepared for something Britain was already experiencing: bombing.
The ARP organisation had been created before the war because the government expected civilians to become targets in a future conflict.
Around 200,000 volunteer wardens were recruited at the beginning of the war.
Their responsibilities were remarkably wide-ranging.
They helped enforce the blackout.
They advised people about air-raid precautions.
They helped direct people towards shelters.
They reported bomb damage.
They helped coordinate emergency services.
And when bombs actually fell, their work could become extremely dangerous.
An ARP warden might find himself walking towards a damaged building while everyone else was trying to get away from it.
He might be searching for survivors, warning people away from unstable buildings, helping the injured or passing information to rescue teams.
During the Blitz, ARP wardens were among the people who remained on the streets while German aircraft were still overhead.
The Blackout
One of the ARP's most visible responsibilities was the blackout.
At night, Britain was supposed to become as dark as possible.
Curtains had to be closed.
Windows had to be covered.
Street lighting was reduced or extinguished.
Even a small amount of light escaping from a window could potentially help enemy bombers identify a town or industrial area below.
ARP wardens therefore spent countless hours checking buildings and reminding people to cover lights.
It could be frustrating work.
Someone would forget to close a curtain.
A shop might leave a door open.
A light would suddenly appear in an upstairs window.
The warden would have to knock on the door and insist that it was extinguished or covered.
It was another example of how the war had changed even the most ordinary parts of everyday life.
Imagine You Are There...
Imagine it is the middle of an air raid and you are running towards a burning building.
The ground shakes beneath your feet. There is smoke everywhere. You can hear explosions, shouting and people crying for help. The heat from the flames reaches you before you reach the building.
You do not know whether another bomb is about to fall.
But people are looking towards you.
You are the one who must remain calm. The one who tells people where to go. The one who runs towards the danger while everything inside you is telling you to run away.
You have already worked all day in the shop. Tomorrow, hopefully, you will do the same.
The Auxiliary Fire Service
Bombing created another enormous problem.
Fires.
High-explosive bombs could destroy buildings, but incendiary bombs were designed to start them burning.
Britain therefore needed far more firefighters than its normal peacetime fire brigades could provide.
The answer was the Auxiliary Fire Service, or AFS.
Volunteers trained to fight fires were organised alongside the regular fire brigades.
When raids came, they could be called into action to deal with the fires created by bombing.
Their work was extremely dangerous.
Buildings could collapse without warning.
Water supplies could be damaged.
Bombs could continue falling while firefighters were already dealing with fires.
The AFS became particularly important during the Blitz.
In 1941, the AFS and local authority fire brigades were brought together into the National Fire Service, creating a single national organisation.
The men and women fighting fires on Britain's streets were therefore another essential part of the country's wartime defence.
The Women's Voluntary Service
One of the most remarkable organisations on the Home Front was the Women's Voluntary Service, usually known simply as the WVS.
Founded in 1938, it mobilised women across Britain for an extraordinary range of voluntary work.
During air raids, WVS volunteers could run rest centres and emergency canteens, provide food and drink, help people made homeless by bombing and assist with evacuation and other civil-defence work.
Their mobile canteens became a familiar sight during the Blitz.
A cup of tea might sound insignificant beside bombs and burning buildings.
It was not.
After a night spent sheltering underground, after losing a home or watching a street burn, a hot drink and something to eat could provide a small piece of normality.
The WVS also became involved in collecting clothing, helping with salvage, supporting evacuation and numerous other aspects of wartime life.
Their work demonstrated something important about the Home Front.
Defence was not always about weapons.
Sometimes it was about keeping people alive, fed, warm and organised when everything around them had been disrupted.
The Women's Land Army: Feeding Britain
While bombs were falling on Britain's towns and cities, another battle was being fought in the countryside.
Britain needed food.
German U-boats were attacking merchant shipping, and Britain could not assume that food from overseas would always reach its ports.
The Women's Land Army helped keep British agriculture working.
The women who joined became known as Land Girls.
Their work was far removed from the romantic image sometimes associated with wartime countryside.
They milked cows.
Ploughed fields.
Drove tractors.
Harvested crops.
Picked fruit.
Grew vegetables.
Looked after livestock.
Dug drainage ditches.
Cleared land.
They worked long hours in all kinds of weather.
Some had never worked on a farm before.
They were sent where they were needed and learned agricultural work as they went.
The Women's Land Army was not fighting an enemy that could be seen from the end of a rifle.
Its enemy was hunger.
Every acre brought back into production and every crop successfully harvested helped Britain survive the war.
The Lumber Jills
There was another branch of this effort that is often forgotten.
The Women's Timber Corps became known as the Lumber Jills.
They worked in Britain's forests, helping produce the timber needed for the war effort.
Trees had to be felled, measured, transported and processed.
Timber was needed for buildings, railway sleepers, pit props, telegraph poles and countless other purposes.
The work could involve heavy machinery, horses, saws and physically demanding labour.
Like the Land Girls, the Lumber Jills demonstrated that the Home Front depended upon people doing jobs that had previously been seen as the preserve of men.
Digging for Victory
Food production was not limited to farms.
The government encouraged people across Britain to Dig for Victory.
Gardens, allotments, school grounds and other pieces of land were turned over to food production.
People grew potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbages and other vegetables.
Children were encouraged to take part.
Schools grew vegetables.
Allotments became increasingly important.
The message was simple:
Grow your own food and reduce the pressure on Britain's food supplies.
It was another way ordinary people could contribute to the war without ever leaving Britain.
Salvage: Nothing Was to Be Wasted
Britain also needed raw materials.
The answer was partly found in the things people threw away.
Salvage campaigns encouraged households to collect materials that could be reused or processed for the war effort.
Metal, paper, bones, rags and other materials could all have value.
People were encouraged to think differently about waste.
An old saucepan was not simply rubbish.
Scrap metal could potentially become part of something else.
Kitchen waste could be collected for animal feed.
Paper could be recovered and reused.
The campaigns were about more than recycling in the modern sense.
They were about convincing millions of people that the small things they did mattered to the wider war effort.
Fire Watching
There was another job that often involved ordinary civilians spending long hours awake while everyone else slept.
Fire watching.
Factories, shops, offices and other important buildings needed people who could watch for incendiary bombs and fires during air raids.
A fire watcher might spend hours on a rooftop or in another exposed position, watching the darkness for the glow of a fire or the flash of falling incendiaries.
If an incendiary landed, the response had to be quick.
A small fire might be extinguished before it became a major one.
A delay could allow flames to spread through a building.
Fire watching therefore became another routine part of wartime life for many civilians.
For some, it meant spending the night looking out across a darkened town while German aircraft passed overhead.
Imagine standing on the roof of a building in London during the Blitz.
Below you, streets are darkened by the blackout. Around you, the city is waiting.
Then the sound begins.
Aircraft overhead. Anti-aircraft guns in the distance. The dull thud of explosions getting closer.
Your job is not to run for shelter.
Your job is to watch.
You are looking for the sudden orange glow that tells you a building has been hit. For smoke rising between the rooftops. For incendiary bombs falling onto houses, factories, shops and warehouses.
You may be carrying a telephone, a bucket of sand, a stirrup pump or other basic equipment. But your most important responsibility is to spot a fire before it can spread.
Another explosion shakes the building.
For a moment, you wonder whether the next bomb will land on you.
Then you see it.
A glow several streets away.
You pick up the telephone and report it.
Somewhere below, firefighters will begin moving towards the flames.
And you remain on the roof.
Because there may be another fire.
Another bomb.
Another building that needs to be reported.
This was the reality faced by Britain's fire watchers and ARP personnel during the Blitz. They were not flying aircraft or carrying rifles, but they were deliberately remaining in exposed positions while the enemy was attacking the city around them.
Their job was to look towards the danger while almost everyone else was being told to take cover.
And There Were Many More
The organisations above were only part of the Home Front.
There were ambulance workers and rescue parties.
First-aid volunteers.
Civil defence messengers.
Police officers.
Nurses.
Railway workers.
Factory workers.
Utility workers repairing gas, electricity and water supplies.
Transport workers moving people and supplies.
Teachers caring for children.
Shopkeepers keeping essential goods moving.
And millions of households simply trying to keep going despite rationing, shortages, blackouts and the constant possibility of an air raid.
Britain's "Other Army" was therefore much larger than its armed forces.
It was a society mobilised.
They Still Had to Go to Work
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the Home Front was that most people did not stop living their ordinary lives.
A factory worker still had to report for work.
A shopkeeper still opened the shop.
A farmer still had to milk the cows.
A teacher still had children to look after.
And after the day's work was finished, many people had another responsibility waiting.
A Home Guardsman might report for patrol.
An ARP warden might take his place on the street.
A fire watcher might climb onto a roof.
A WVS volunteer might report to a canteen.
A volunteer firefighter might wait for the call.
Then they would do it again the following day.
The war did not always arrive as a dramatic moment.
Sometimes it arrived as a telephone call at midnight after a full day's work.
Through Sebastian's Eyes: A Night on the Home Front
Disclaimer: The following diary entry is entirely fictional and written to help readers imagine what a night on Britain's Home Front may have felt like during the Second World War. Sebastian is a fictional time-travelling narrator, but the duties, conditions and experiences described are based on the real wartime responsibilities of the Home Guard, ARP wardens, fire watchers, firefighters and civilian volunteers.
Who is Sebastian? Sebastian is our fictional time-travelling narrator who witnesses major historical events. In this story, he is serving as a part-time member of the Home Guard during the Blitz, while friends and acquaintances are carrying out other duties on the Home Front.
Diary of Sebastian - Home Guard, Southern England
Autumn, 1940
I finished work shortly after six this evening.
Normally I would have gone home, eaten supper and perhaps sat with the family for an hour.
Instead, I changed clothes, collected my Home Guard uniform and reported for duty.
I had already worked a full day.
So had most of the men with me.
One had been in the railway yards since before dawn. Another worked in a factory. Another was a shopkeeper.
None of us were full-time soldiers.
Tonight, however, we were soldiers.
Our orders were simple.
Guard the bridge.
Watch the road.
Report anything suspicious.
If the Germans came, we were to delay them for as long as we could.
It is a strange thing to stand beside an ordinary English bridge at night and wonder whether German soldiers might one day be crossing it.
For now, there was nothing.
The countryside was almost completely dark.
The blackout had transformed everything.
No street lights.
No illuminated shop windows.
No headlights shining along the road.
Only darkness.
Someone lit a cigarette and immediately shielded it with his hands.
We joked about the cold.
Nobody joked about the possibility of invasion.
We all knew why we were here.
Then the telephone rang.
An aircraft raid was developing.
We looked towards the sky.
At first there was nothing to see.
Then came the distant sound of engines.
Another man arrived with a message.
The sirens had sounded in the town.
I thought about my friend Thomas.
He was an ARP warden.
While we stood here guarding the bridge, he would be walking through the blackout, checking that people were taking shelter and looking for signs of damage.
I wondered which of us had the more dangerous job.
Then the first bomb fell.
We heard the explosion several miles away.
A dull, heavy sound.
Then another.
Then several together.
The sky began to glow faintly on the horizon.
Somewhere, buildings were burning.
We stayed at our post.
That was our job.
A little later, the telephone rang again.
The message was passed down the line.
A fire had started near the railway.
Another had been reported in the town.
Fire watchers were being sent to the rooftops.
Thomas later told me what it was like.
He had been walking towards a burning building when another explosion shook the street.
People were running in the opposite direction.
He was walking towards the flames.
That is something I keep thinking about.
We often talk about courage as though it belongs only to men carrying rifles.
But Thomas carried a helmet and a torch.
His weapon was a telephone.
His job was to find the damage and report it.
Another friend, Edward, was a fire watcher.
He spent part of the night on the roof of a building.
Imagine that.
Standing above a city while bombs are falling around you.
Your job is to look for fires.
Not to hide from them.
To look for them.
He told me that the worst part was the waiting.
Listening to aircraft approaching.
Hearing explosions getting closer.
Wondering whether the next bomb would fall on your own building.
Then seeing a sudden orange glow somewhere among the rooftops.
He would report it.
And keep watching.
Meanwhile, the firefighters were working below.
Engines moved through streets filled with smoke.
Water was being pumped onto burning buildings.
Rescue workers searched damaged houses.
WVS volunteers prepared food and hot drinks for people who had lost their homes.
Nobody seemed to have time to stop.
The bombs kept falling.
The work continued.
And we remained beside our bridge.
At some point during the night, the aircraft became fewer.
The explosions grew more distant.
Eventually, there was silence.
Not complete silence.
There were still engines.
Still voices.
Still the occasional distant sound of another building collapsing.
But the worst seemed to have passed.
We were still at the bridge.
None of us had fired a shot.
None of us had seen a German soldier.
Yet I did not feel that we had done nothing.
Thomas had spent the night walking towards bomb damage.
Edward had stood on a roof watching for fires.
Firefighters had climbed into burning buildings.
WVS volunteers had fed people who had lost everything.
And we had stood beside the bridge, ready for an enemy who never came.
Perhaps that is what the Home Front was.
Not one great battle.
But thousands of people doing their small part, night after night, because nobody knew what the next night would bring.
Tomorrow morning, most of us will go back to our ordinary jobs.
The railwayman will return to the railway.
The factory worker will return to his machines.
Thomas will put on his ARP uniform.
Edward will climb another roof.
And when darkness falls again, we will probably do it all over again.
I wonder how long people can continue like this.
Then I realise that perhaps that is exactly how Britain intends to survive.
Not because everyone is fearless.
But because they are frightened and keep going anyway.
They did not win a great battle tonight.
But our collective courage kept Britain going until morning.
Help Us Preserve Britain's Home Front Memories
The Second World War was lived by millions of people on Britain's Home Front, but many of their stories are now being lost with each passing generation.
Did you or a relative serve in the Home Guard, work as an ARP warden, fire watcher, firefighter or rescue worker? Perhaps someone in your family served with the Women's Voluntary Services, Women's Land Army or another wartime organisation.
Maybe you have memories of blackouts, air raids, rationing, growing food, salvage drives, fire watching or nights spent in an air-raid shelter. You might have an old photograph, diary, letter, newspaper cutting or simply a family story that has been passed down through the generations.
Even the smallest memory can help us understand what life was really like for the people who stayed behind while others went away to fight.
Email: [email protected]
With your permission, we may feature your memories, photographs or family stories in this article as part of our Helping to Preserve Britain's Memories project. Whether you remember the Home Front yourself or are sharing the story of a parent, grandparent or other relative, we'd love to hear from you and help ensure these personal stories are not forgotten.
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