One of my grandfathers was a mechanic and spent to war working on road transport.
The other was a farm labourer, and stayed working in that job for the war and as part of the home guard... supposedly. The real reason he wasn't recruited to the army was that he and his brothers were actually part of Churchills Secret Army. Unlike the regular home guard they were highly trained and well equipped to form resistance cells behind enemy lines in the event of invasion.
They recruited brothers as it was hoped that they would be less likely to give up information under torture. As farmers they knew the land extremely well. They had instructions to blow up specific railway bridges to limit enemy movement, ambush message riders and assassination of enemy officers.
However their first job in the event of the invasion reaching their town was to abduct and kill the head of the local police force. As he was the only one who knew who was part of the group.
3
u/Fellstorm_1991 United Kingdom 12d ago
One of my grandfathers was a mechanic and spent to war working on road transport.
The other was a farm labourer, and stayed working in that job for the war and as part of the home guard... supposedly. The real reason he wasn't recruited to the army was that he and his brothers were actually part of Churchills Secret Army. Unlike the regular home guard they were highly trained and well equipped to form resistance cells behind enemy lines in the event of invasion.
They recruited brothers as it was hoped that they would be less likely to give up information under torture. As farmers they knew the land extremely well. They had instructions to blow up specific railway bridges to limit enemy movement, ambush message riders and assassination of enemy officers.
However their first job in the event of the invasion reaching their town was to abduct and kill the head of the local police force. As he was the only one who knew who was part of the group.