Home Guard Auxiliary Units Roll WWII

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These records are of individuals serving in the Top Secret ‘Home Guard Auxiliary Units’ in the Second World War. In reality the ‘Home Guard’ was used as a cover story for the formation of these secret units, often called ‘Churchills secret weapon’. The Auxiliary Units or GHQ Auxiliary Units were specially trained, highly secret units created by the United Kingdom government during the Second World War, with the aim of resisting any eventual occupation of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany, after a planned invasion which the Germans codenamed 'Operation Sea Lion'. The United Kingdom was the only country during the war that was able to create such a resistance movement in advance of an invasion. In addition, a signals structure would attempt to link the isolated bands into a national network that could act in concert, on behalf of a British government-in-exile and its representatives still in the United Kingdom. The Auxiliary Units were kept in being long after any immediate Nazi threat had passed and were stood down only late into 1944. Several Auxiliary Unit members later joined the Special Air Service. Many men saw action in the campaign in France in late 1944, notably in Operations ‘Houndsworth’ and ‘Bulbasket’ (the coordinated French resistance delaying and harrying tactics to prevent German units reaching the Normandy area after D day).

Records in this collection are likely to include the following:

• Surname
• First Name/Initials
• Rank
• Home town/address
• area
• group number and commander
• patrol number and leader and national identity card number
• however because we have compiled the record from multiple pages within the TNA source these can also include further information such as: Next of kin
• date of birth & date of promotion.

Please be aware that due to the way we collate, and cross reference our databases, some records will contain more information than that listed above.

Original Source: National Archives reference WO199/3388-3391.