How Secret Were the Auxiliary Units?

 

 

The Operational Branch of the Auxiliary Units is often claimed to be both totally secret and 'civilian', with their Home Guard uniforms being merely their 'cover', as part of the romantic mythology that accrued around their history after the war. Such assumptions are largely based on post war oral history, collected decades after the event, and are contrary to the documentary evidence of the time.  

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The men of the Operational Branch were enrolled from the Home Guard in order to give it a legal status as a uniformed part of the 'Armed Forces of the Crown' and subject to military discipline - explicitly so that the volunteers could not be accused of being civilian. Modern confusion has arisen because they would only fully achieve this status upon being mobilied at the time of invasion. As this never happened, the modern impression of the Auxiliary Units has been significantly distorted. Formed in expectation of a quick invasion in 1940, the long term secrecy of a body that wore uniform and worked from within the local community, but did not share regular Home Guard duties, was not properly considered. This meant their secrecy was compromised from the start, but the volunteers were not always aware of how far their secret had been shared.

 

The intelligence-gathering branch of the Auxiliary Units - the Special Duties Branch - was formed on a different basis. Most  significantly, they were created under the influence of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and, in contrast to the Operation branch, the local operatives  were clearly civilian (albeit facilitated by Royal Signals and ATS), and their secrecy was more carefully protected.

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