Dad's Army - There Was A 'MUMS ARMY" Too:

WORLD WAR II
We are generally told that women who joined the Armed Forces in WWII served in "Supporting Rolls" - but there must have been many exceptions.

On the evening of 14 May 1940 the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, gave a radio broadcast announcing the formation of the Local Defence Volunteers and called for volunteers to join the force by enrolling at the nearest Police Station. - There was quiet a rush of volunteers - including many women - who in some instances were promptly set to work behind desks enrolling the male volunteers.

Winston Churchill, who had assumed the position of prime minister in that May, became involved in the matter after being alerted to a problem of the Local Defence Volunteers being disappointed & unpurposed - with little official function or duty, - obtaining a summary of the current LDV position from the War Office on 22 June.

 - Churchill wrote to Eden stating that, in his opinion, one of the main causes of disciplinary and morale problems stemmed from the uninspiring title of the LDV and suggesting that it be renamed as the 'Home Guard' - And despite opposition - on 22 July 1940 the LDV was officially renamed the Home Guard.

Churchill's Home Guard - "Dad's Army" was a real force with a number of secret roles. This included sabotage units who would disable factories and petrol storage following invasion.

 Members were also recruited into the commando teams of the Auxiliary Units, an extremely secretive force of more highly trained guerrilla units who would act in support of the regular army during any military campaign to resist invasion, operating from secret underground bases dug in woods, in caves, and concealed in all sorts of interesting ways. More than 600 of these secret bases were hidden to support units ranging in size from squads to companies. - This was to be the core of THE RESISTANCE if invaded by Hitler's Forces:

LINK to excellent Daily Mail history of these RESISTANCE hideouts:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066415/The-British-Resistance-The-true-story-secret-guerilla-army-shopkeepers-farmworkers-trained-defy-Nazis-suicidal-stand.html

- Back in the previous war - The Women's Defence Relief Corps was founded by Mrs Dawson Scott in September 1914 to induce women to undertake any work which would free men for the fighting line. In the Spring of 1915 the members started working on the land, and in 1916, 465 women were organised in squads for land work.

The WWII Home Guard would not officially admit women to its ranks. Some women formed their own groups like the Amazon Defence Corps. But in December 1941, a more organised but still unofficial Women's Home Defence (WHD) was formed by Dr Edith Summerskill, a Labour MP.

 WHD members were taught weapons training and basic military training. Limited female involvement was officially permitted in the Home Guard on the understanding that these would be in traditional female support roles and not in any way seen as combatants.

Many fought against this unofficial arrangement. - Chief among them was Edith Summerskill who sought a combatant role for women in the force. But she was only partially successful.

 In April 1943 it was formally announced that women could be officially enrolled in the Home Guard. But they would be issued only with a small, plastic brooch badge, and would not be permitted to carry weapons, let alone train with them, despite the fact that from the start of the war women had trained with weapons.

 The largest organisation was the privately organised Women’s Home Defence Corps. The women of the WHD, which claimed 30,000 members in April 1943, undertook rifle training, and often practiced on shooting ranges with local Home Guard units.

Women in the Home Guard were, at first, given the rather unflattering title of “nominated women”, but this was later changed to Women’s Home Guard Auxiliaries along with a better badge. The government set a ceiling of 80,000 women in the Home Guard in early 1943. But a year later only 30,000 women had enrolled - many of whom had already been unofficial members.

Home Guard Badge.

Another small Local Defence Unit which formally recruited women from the outset was the Upper Thames Patrol. Established in June 1940, they provided waterborne and shore patrols along the River Thames up to Oxford. Unable to recruit enough male drivers, the commanding officer recruited women instead. This photograph shows a woman piloting a motor boat on the Thames.

Of the 1.5 Million members of The HOME GUARD - a small but very significant number were women.

Marty K.

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