Home > Sites > Auxiliary Units

 

The Auxiliary Unit

Following the fall of France in May 1940, Winston Churchill ordered Colonel Colin Gubbins (later to "set Europe ablaze" in SOE) to create a force of civilian volunteers, recruited primarily from the most competent Home Guard personnel, to operate from secret underground bases located behind the enemy lines of occupation.  Initially, Gubbins was aided in this by a few "Intelligence Officers" responsible for setting up fighting patrols of six to eight men, led by a Sergeant and co-ordinated by a local commander, usually a Lieutenant or Captain, in their designated regions.  Ideal recruits were countrymen, farmers, foresters and gamekeepers although eventually all occupations, factory and office workers and students were represented. The main requirements were fitness, knowledge of their own areas and an ability to be trained in the necessary skills for guerrilla warfare.    They were tasked with emerging at night from their camouflaged underground bunkers (little more than buried Nissan Huts) to carry out sabotage attacks against enemy targets, such as supply & fuel dumps, railways, convoys and airfields.  They were issued with an array of high explosive, seeing the first military issue of plastic explosives, timing devices and detonators.  They were not expected to attack enemy strongholds, the weapons there were provided with were for their defence only, their main aim was the disruption of any advancing force.  They were however, expected to attack sentries, killing them stealthily with a Fairbairn-Sykes knife. They were also issued with a silenced .22 rifle for the assassination of suitable targets.

Please visit this link for further information on AU Units We are attempting to trace and photograph all the Sussex Auxiliary Hideouts, however it is not as straight forward as it seems. you are often searching miles of forest with inaccurate grid references for a trapdoor at ground level, that is camouflaged, that has not been opened in sixty years on a structure that may not even exist anymore. Slightly challenging and a lot of walking. If you have any information please contact the website using our email on the Contact Page.

Information referenced from:
'The Secret Sussex Resistance' Stuart Angell, ISBN 1-87379-382-0 Published By Middleton Press
'The Last Ditch, Britain's Secret Resistance and the Nazi Invasion Plan, David Lampe, ISBN 978-1-85367-730-4 Published by Greenhill Books.