WW11 Listening Post - Half Moon Wood

Some years ago whilst walking in Stanmer I was asked if I knew the whereabouts of “The Listening Post” used in WW11 by The Secret Saboteurs, sometimes known as Churchill’s Secret Army.

What/Who were Secret Saboteurs ?

Secret saboteurs – official name Home Guard Auxiliary Units were specially-trained, highly secret units created by the English Government in 1940 during World War 11 (The term ‘Home Guard’ was used purely for status to cover their real activities. They were an offshoot of Section D founded in 1938 as part of the Secret Intelligence Service).
Their prime role was the combat of any invasion of Great Britain by Hitler’s forces through the use of irregular or ungentlemanly warfare.

Hitler’s plan – codenamed ‘Operation Sea Lion’ (OSL) – was planned to take place between 19th and 26th September 1940, by four army divisions along the South Coast between Camber Sands and Rottingdean. In 1941 Hitler revised the plan, renaming it Operation Shark.

Hitler’s aim was:-
 To capture Southern England within 10 days.
 London shortly afterwards.
 The whole of Britain within one month.

Following his rousing speech  in the House of Commons on 4th June 1940, and urged on by the War Office, Winston Churchill, the then Prime Minister, set up Auxiliary Units in towns, villages and hamlets along the South Coast of England in July 1940, promising that Britons would fight on the beaches, in the fields and in the streets. Eventually all of Great Britain was covered.
Churchill is reputed to have said to a colleague afterwards “and we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that’s bloody well all we’ve got”
The SX 203 covered the County of Sussex that formed the AUs, but had no official recognition, which meant the Geneva Convention did not cover them. If captured they would be shot.
The recruits came from a cross-section of the public life that would never willingly submit to being ruled by an invader. They were people who knew the area of land around where they lived well. By day they were Earls, Vicars, Doctors, School Teachers, Engineers, Mechanics, Gamekeepers, Agricultural workers, even poachers. All were governed by the Official Secrets Act, hence today their descendants may not know of their bravery.
In the event of invasion all Auxiliary Units would disappear into their operational bases and would have no contact with the local Home Guard, but fight as non-uniformed guerillas; to inflict maximum mayhem and disruption over a brief but violent period. Service in the Auxiliary Units was highly dangerous, with a projected life expectancy of just fifteen days for a stay–behind saboteur, with orders to either shoot one another or use explosives to kill themselves if capture by an enemy force seemed likely.
Effectively these brave people were signing up to a suicide mission.
When the recruits were stood down 1944, they went back to everyday life, their work still covered by the Official Secrets Act. They did not talk about their activities for many years, and some never did, so seriously did they take the matter of secrecy.

With no official records kept it is difficult to say how many people became involved but it is believed that around 3,500 men received training at the Headquarters – Coleshill House, Nr Swindon, Wiltshire.
Eventually over 600 top-secret operational bases were set up in England and Scotland for the ad hoc stay behind-behind-the-lines fighting force who would launch sabotage attacks.
One of them being in Half Moon Wood Stanmer Per records at The Keep ref No MES 24604 the grid ref is 533699 111143. Today walkers pass by the site without giving it a second glance.

10th November 2013 Remembrance Sunday – a poignant day for the “secret army”, whose few remaining members were finally recognised and allowed to parade at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday for the first time.

Further information about Auxiliary Units and Special Services:-

The Internet.

The Secret Sussex Resistance
By Stewart Angell
ISBN 1 873793 82 0

Our Uninvited Guests
By Julie Summers

The Last Ditch
by David Lampe
S.B.N. 304 92519 5
This book is more about the intentions of both sides.
Published in 1968 by Cassell & Company Ltd. London
Printed by The Camelot Press Ltd.