Probus at War

Back in 2014, I came across a book by David???? called 'The Last Ditch.' It's about the auxiliary units that were formed to provide a last desperate line of defence against German invaders. It was a fascinating read and knowing they were located primarily around the coastal areas of Britain, I decided to investigate where the nearest units were to Probus. I came across the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team (CART) online and discovered that not only did our village have its own auxiliary unit but Grampound too. 

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After speaking with the CART team, and having gained permission from the landowner, I was able to visit the site of the Grampound Auxiliary Unit. I've since been back a few times over the years. It's a place that really captures your imagination when you're there. I've written a blog post on it which you can read here. I started looking further into the Probus Auxiliary Unit, which you can find more on here. The Stay Behinds site is fantastic and holds a wealth of information and photographs, not just about the Probus Auxiliary Unit but the other units that were located across Britain. With permission of the landowner, I visited the site of the Probus patrol. It no longer exists but I was able to uncover some remnants, which the CART team believed could have come from the underground operational base they built and used. You can see photographs on the CART website. 

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All of this got me thinking about the importance of our village and the local area in the case of an invasion and how the enemy might be repelled with the aid of local defences and volunteer forces. As I continued my research, I became aware of a day which must have sent shockwaves through the Home Guard here in Probus and across the whole of Britain - Black Saturday. You can read in depth about it on this website here. It gave me a clearer understanding of how real the invasion threat was - this was not an episode of Dad's Army. As much as I love to see Mainwearing and his men