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PROGRAMME INFO |
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From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
Email: open.country@bbc.co.uk
Postal address: Open Country,
大象传媒 Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.
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Secret Army of Rural Britain
The were forged out of Britains darkest hour.After the fall of France and with the invasion of Britain seen as inevitable Winston Churchill created a force of civilian volunteers , recruited mainly from the Home Guard who were to operate from secret underground bases and sabotage the supply lines of the invading German army.
At the first warning of an invasion the volunteers were to go to ground, literally as they had built hidden underground bunkers in the woods and fields surrounding their towns and villages.With enough food for fourteen days and an ample supply of plastic explosive they were to emerge at night and reek havoc on the enemy lines before disappearing back underground.The fighting units were made up of six or seven men ,usually friends or relatives who knew the local countryside intimately ,were young and fit and whose roles were to remain secret even to their closest family. The less people knew the better,the patrols did not know of the location or personnel of other patrols even though they may be operating a few miles apart. Secrecy was all because in the event of capture it was necessary for volunteers to know as little as possible ,the less they knew the less they could give away. They did not expect a long life,the chances of them surviving a few days or weeks were remote and as the Nazi treatment of the French resistance revealed the occupying forces would have been ruthless in rooting them out.
Geoff Bradford and Roy Budden were recruited as seventeen year olds.Geoff was a student and Roy was an apprentice engineer. They were trained in sabotage techniques and Roy especially became quite adept in the use of explosives ,they tell Richard Uridge of life in the Auxilliary,in fact we begin the programme inside an underground base in Hampshire where Geoff shows Richard how the base was constructed and points out it finer detail including the escape tunnel.
Major Peter Forbes was given the task of setting up the Auxilliary Units in the Scottish borders .He had to start from scratch and tells Richard how he recruited and trained his men.
He was ingenious in choosing sites for the bases and even had one behind a waterfall. He recently went back to Scotland on a journey of re-discovery ,searching out all his old bases and although some were filled in he did manage to find a remarkable number still intact.
Barbara Culleton was recruited because of her clear and precise speaking voice in fact in her suitability test she had to recite tongue twisters and nusery rhymes.She was trained in Radio operations and was second in command of the women who worked for the Auxilliary units and it is perhaps an indication of how dangerous the job was and how vital it was that the bases remained secret that Barbara was issued with a cyanide tablet in case of capture.
Email Open Country: open.country@bbc.co.uk
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Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
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