'Exercise Roseland' Replayed to Mark 80th Anniversary of V.E. Day in Probus

As part of the commemorations in Probus to mark eighty years since the end of the Second World War in Europe, a special event was held in Probus village hall. On the 19th February 1943, the Probus Invasion Committee met at The Sanctuary (now Glebe House) to complete an anti-invasion exercise that all invasion committees across the Roseland were required to complete.

At 6:05pm, Probus Invasion Committee opened the first of 19 small brown envelopes, the remainder of which had to be opened at specifically timed intervals (predetermined by the County Invasion Committee in Truro) with the final envelope being opened at 9:25pm. Across that three hours and twenty minutes, the committee were presented with 19 invasion scenarios that would impact the village. Their job was to discuss how they would respond to each scenario and provide a written answer. At the conclusion of the exercise, they submitted their responses to the County Invasion Committee at County Hall in Truro for assessment. The county committee produced a report that was sent out to the parish Invasion Committees a little over four weeks later which provided feedback on the answers they had submitted along with a model answer for each scenario.

The Probus Invasion Committee's copy of the scenarios and report for 'Exercise Roseland' from 1943 (Source: Kresen Kernow PCPRO/4/5)

At the end of February 2025, a small working group was formed to plan the recreation of 'Exercise Roseland' eighty-two years later. The purpose of the event was to highlight the important and overlooked role local volunteers played in the war effort. It was decided that the exercise would be restaged in the purist form possible. The wording of the scenarios was kept exactly as it was presented in 1943, the scenarios were given in brown envelopes at specifically timed intervals to teams of participants who made up individual Probus Invasion Committees. Given that we were, thankfully, not at war in May 2025, it was decided that the three hours and twenty-five minutes was too long to expect people to remain engaged, so some of the scenarios were grouped together to provide two hours of work for the committees to contemplate.

Although the scenarios had already been created, there was still a lot of work to be done to ensure the participants in 2025 had the information and context they needed to approach the task successfully. The wartime Invasion Committee knew the wartime village, the shops, and key people which would have enabled them to answer questions about the village very quickly. That would not be the case for people looking back at wartime Probus in 2025. Probus is obviously a very different village today than it was in February 1943. The working group were aware of this and had to ensure the context of Probus in wartime, as well as the actual exercise information, was provided to participants. The group had a turnaround time of six weeks from their start point and in that time, they held two run through exercises.

Kaye and Richard Ludlow, Tim Joyce and Susie Calvert take on the role of the Probus Invasion Committee in an early run through of 'Operation Roseland' in March 2025.

The first run through achieved its overall aim of proving that the event would work but there was still much to do to ensure the participants had all of the information they needed but were not overloaded. There was a fine line between too little and too much. Back in wartime Probus, the Invasion Committee had been provided with a small booklet of 'Consolidated Instructions.' This was replicated by the working group in 2025 to provide the necessary additional information required whilst also providing a little commemorative memento of the V.E. Day event for participants to take away with them on the night.

Once the second and final run-through was complete, the other event considerations took focus. Graham Bishop at the Hawkin's Arms was very generous in running a bar, selling half pints of beer at 80p and pints for £1.80 to get as close as he could to wartime prices. A wartime artefact display was produced, the village hall walls were decorated with wartime posters and the windows were crossed in masking tape. To add a final poignant visual to the evening, a table was laid out in the committee room with 10 chairs around it with silhouettes occupying their seats. The table, laid in a white cloth, had place names laid out with all the names of the wartime Probus Invasion Committee upon them. Wartime leaflets in front of each of the silhouettes added to the visual along with an old map of Probus stretched out in front of the Chairman's seat.

This meeting room also hosted the wartime artefacts, with a 1940s radio playing out wartime music, and a mannequin dressed in a British soldier's uniform and kit stood on show. The room was opened up during the interval halfway through the evening for people to peruse. It was here that a special moment was captured. Andrew Kennedy was one of the participants at the event. Whilst reading through the Handbook which had been given to each team before the event started, Andrew came across his grandfather's name. Mr Mennear had been the Probus Invasion Committee's First Aid Officer, something that Andrew had never known. It was a lovely moment to witness a family connection being made at the event and clearly demonstrated the importance of commemorating V.E. Day and remembering those who not only served in the Armed Forces but all those who played their part on the Home Front

Andrew Kennedy stands behind his grandfather's silhouette at the recreated wartime Probus Invasion Committee's table

Twelve teams took part in the event and submitted their answers to the organising group for assessment just as the real Probus Invasion Committee had done in 1943. A final report will be published on this blog after the group has met to discuss the answers given by the committees. Watch this space.

In the meantime, if you haven't already done so, you can find out about the real Probus Defence and Invasion Committees here

The organisers wish to thank everyone who took part on the night for their enthusiasm and very useful feedback. They would also like to thank those who attended for their generous donations which amounted to £130. This has been passed on to the Royal British Legion. Thank you also to Graham and the Hawkin's Arms for providing the bar all night and selling the beer at as close to wartime prices as possible. Thank you also to Neil Glasson and the village hall committee for their help and support. You can see a gallery of photos from the event here.

The team behind Operation Roseland. From Left to right: Susie Calvert, Jon Athur, John Denyer, Ryan Davies, Cadan Davies, Kaye Ludlow, Paul Edwards. Missing from photo: Richard Ludlow. Photo: Jon Hibberd