大象传媒

Twice a Citizen.
This year is the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war which was a People's War. But what about the people who gave their time voluntary prior to the war in the various voluntary services.
In order of precedence.

The Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

The Territorial Army.

The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

And the other more civilian type organisations like the Observer Corps etc.

We will start with the most famous The Battle of Britain not only were many of the pilots Volunteer Reserve but to keep an aircraft in the air you need a ground crew. A large number of ground crew were pre-war part-time volunteers and they kept the aircraft in the air and all the other duties on airfields under fire.

The Royal Navy apart from all the volunteers that served on the larger ships it was the reserve that manned the small ships at Dunkirk. Where would the army been without them?.

The Territorials many thousands of men joined their local units prior to the outbreak of war in all branches. How many were in the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940? There were several Territorial Divisions with the BEF 50th (Northumbrian) Division who carried out the successful attack at Arras. The 51st (Highland) Division which was forced to surrender that St Valrey to name just two.
I had men in my troop that had fought in France in 1940 Syria, The Desert, Sicily and then brought back to take part in the assault in Normandy. Territorials some unfortunately to die in France Germany. Some to go on to the Burma campaign.
I doubt if many are alive today. They will all be over 80 years old. I know that there are a handful that contribute to this programme but the vast majority have gone.
If any of this special "Band of Brothers" or "Saturday Night Soldiers" or even a "Handsome Territorial" would like to join me in asking for a little something on the People's War programme to remember these people who were prepared to give up their time prior to 1939 that we might survive. I feel that it is up to the lucky few who are left to do something about our thousands of comrades whose graves lie on every World War II battlefield.
John Absolon

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