Sunday 29 November 2009

The Commando Raid

Following on from my post about dad, this is another one about The Home Guard.

The unit throughout the war was controlled by the regular army, who looked upon them as a bunch of old idiots.

Nevertheless orders would be issued from High Command to effect certain actions!

On one occasion Dad's unit was told to lay a communications line from Hitchin to Stevenage, a distance of about six miles.

Dad's commanding officer, who was very similar to Captain Mainwaring, said to the High Command, 'No problem, when are you sending the cable to do the job?'

'Don't be stupid Captain, use your imagination!'.

So, Corporal John Holmes,( My Dad ) and a squad of aged commandos raided the local post office depot in the middle of the night and stole six miles of cable.

Before the event Dad blacked up with boot polish in his mum's kitchen and she said,'what are you doing son?'.' Can't tell you mum, it's a matter of national security!'.

So the upshot was that the military got six miles of communication cable laid and the post office had a problem with their inventory.

The local police were called in to investigate, but since most of them were in the Home Guard, they were stumped as to who might have perpetrated the crime!

A little bit of this kind of behaviour today might help our World.

2 comments:

  1. You are right, the Home Guard played a very important part in winning the war.

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  2. Very interesting post, a reminder! Thank you

    ReplyDelete