Churchill’s secret army granted parade with Cenotaph march past

Royal British Legion grants permission for Auxiliary Units and Special Duties Branch veterans to march past in November after British Resistance Archive campaign.
By: British Resistance Archive
 
SWINDON, U.K. - March 27, 2013 - PRLog -- Members of one of the most secret organisations of the Second World War has today been granted permission to take part in the annual Remembrance Day Cenotaph march past by the Royal British Legion. This follows a campaign undertaken by the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team (CART), the researchers behind the British Resistance Archive.

The Auxiliary Units were groups of civilian volunteers, who during this country’s darkest days in World War Two answered Churchill’s call and volunteered to ‘stay behind’ in the event of a German invasion. They were to disrupt and where possible destroy the enemy’s supply chain and reserve troops, ‘deal’ with collaborators and take out strategic targets within their local areas. Every member from both groups signed the Officials Secrets Act and never told families and friends about what they were up to – many taking their secret to the grave.

Auxiliary Units were highly trained and well equipped and would literally go underground in the event of an invasion and strike at targets from their operational bases, buried beneath the British countryside. The Special Duties Branch would also go underground to pass on messages about enemy movements and the types of units in the area. Such was the danger of their mission these volunteers had a life expectancy of just two weeks after the invasion.

Due to the secrecy of their mission neither the Auxiliary Units of the Special Duties Branch members have ever, before today, been granted any official recognition. With so few veterans remaining, this year’s march is the last chance the country will have to thank these brave men and women for the sacrifice they were prepared to make for us. CART has been uncovering information about the Aux Units and Special Duties Branch since 2009 and founder Tom Sykes is understandably delighted with this outcome: “After over 70 years of silence November sees the chance for all of us to thank an up until recently forgotten group of civilian volunteers who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for us, during this country’s darkest hour. I am so grateful to the Royal British Legion for granting us permission to march and it will be a proud day when we see those remaining veterans that are able to take part march past to the cheers of the British public.

“Many of these veterans were in reserved occupations during the war and they could not join the regular forces to do their bit – however when the call came they did not hesitate to join what essentially would have been a suicide mission to confront the enemy invader. Thankfully the invasion never came which means those that did join up often feel that they did not contribute, nothing could be further from the truth in our mind and I’m sure a majority of the country would agree,” Sykes concluded.

Swindon North MP Justin Tomlinson, who has been a long-time supporter of CART and it’s work said: ”I have followed with interest the work that Tom and his team of researchers at CART have been doing over the past few years. As more information has come out about these brave men and women the clearer it has become that some form of official recognition was needed. I welcome the decision of the RBL and look forward to seeing the remaining members of the British Resistance march past the Cenotaph in November.”

*** ENDS ***

About CART & The British Resistance Archive.


The Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team (CART) publishes its findings on the British Resistance Archive (BRA) website.

CART also provides an internal network for serious and dedicated researchers who focus on the British Resistance and agree with CART's core value of making the research public.

·         CART is made up of select volunteer historians and published writers known as County Information Officers (CIOS) and also public members.

·         CART is not a business or an academic body of professional researchers.

·         CART is non-profit making and has no financial support from any company or organisation. It is funded solely by donations and the revenue it makes from the sale of various items sold in the shop.

·         Since CART's birth in June 2009 the website has seen over 110,000 unique visitors and has attracted TV, Radio and national press attention.

For further information about CART please go to this page http://www.coleshillhouse.com/about-us.php or call 0872 045 9940 or email hq@coleshillhouse.com
End
Source:British Resistance Archive
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Tags:World War Two, Cenotaph, Churchill, Resistance, Auxiliary Units
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Location:swindon - Wiltshire - England
Subject:Events
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