Malcolm Atkin Military Research
GHQ Auxiliary Units
MYTH AND REALITY
Since the publication of David Lampe's The Last Ditch in 1968, a huge mythology has built up around the Auxiliary Units that has remained largely unquestioned. This has been fuelled by a desire of veterans to distance themselves from the comic impression of the Home Guard as portrayed in the TV series Dad's Army, the temptation of researchers to accept oral evidence without corroboration and the romantic attraction of 'secret armies'. Publishers have particularly latched on to the misplaced idea of a direct link to Winston Churchill as a marketing opportunity. This is discussed in detail in Britain's Guerrilla Army and To the Last Man but the present website contains a number of essay on the subject.
A pioneering on-line article explaining the development of the mythology, whose marketing still persists in identifying the Auxiliary Units as Britain's 'last ditch' line of defence and as a 'Resistance' organisation. The terminology has acquired an emotional, even nationalistic, attachment that is difficult to shift.This is not to detract from the bravery of those that took part but highlights the difficulties of reliance on a 'ground-up' interpretation of history. The study also demonstrates how history can be distorted to meet cultural imperatives.
This article was originally published in 2016 on Academia.Edu and can now also be accessed as a PDF
HERE.
