The Position of Drivers in the Home Guard
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THE first and most important thing to be said about the service of transport drivers in the Home Guard is that it raises a special problem, just as does the service of agricultural workers, although, of course, in rather a different way. Farm employees are engaged in an essential industry in which the working hours are often long and, generally, erratic; accordingly, special arrangements have to be made for them; Also they have, or are likely to have, aptitudes that are of particular value for certain H.G. duties; that again calls for special consideration.
Road-vehicle crews are in a somewhat similar position. But whilst the problem of the agriculturist has been officially recognized—and to some degree solved—that of the transport worker has not, or so it would seem.
However, the subject is now being discussed, and doubtless that will, in time, produce results. So far, however, nobody has raised a point that is certainly one of the most important of the many practical questions that arise. It is that suppose a driver, who is a member of the H.G., is a long way from home (and his unit) when an invasion starts, and cannot get back. What does he do then?
When the Man Is Away from His Home Base That situation could, of course, easily happen. The man works, say, for an operator on the South Coast; he takes a load up North, and on the way back, somewhere in the Midlands, he learns that the Hun has arrived and that fighting is going on around his home town. Obviously, he can hardly go there; for one thing, he probably will not be allowed to move.
Or a London driver, proceeding on • his lawful business through the Eastern Counties, suddenly sees parachutists dropping out of the sky, and finds himself right in the middle of a miniature tattle before he knows what is happening.
In such a case, the obvious thing for the man to do is to make contact with the Home Guard organization on the spot, and to throw in his lot with it. That is, indeed, the only thing to do, unless he is to hang about as one of the more useless forms of civilian life.
But there a difficulty arises, and a grave one. Any Home Guard commander who knows his job (and any N.C.O. for that matter) would be extremely suspicious of any stranger who, arriving out of the blue, reported for duty alleging himself to be a member of the H.G. He would not be satisfied by the usual identity cards, nor would there be any means of checking-up on the man's statements. Ordinary telephone services cannot be expected to work in battle, even if there be time to use them for investigations of this sort,
It should not be beyond the wit of man, however, to devise an identification system, to meet the particulars case of transport crews, that would be more foolproof than anything that, at present, exists, although no system would be completely proof against Fifth Columnists. Naturally, I need not explain how that could be done, but I mention the point as a good illustration of the need for special arrangements for H.G. members who are also transport workers.
We can carry this thought a stage farther. It is not only a matter of making special arrangements for transport men. It is also one of treating them as specialists. To appreciate that point, and the importance of it, consider the nature of the Home Guard. It is a local defence force; each of its units has to defend a particular locality, in such ways and by such means as the situation demands.
H.G. Not Always an Infantry Formation Those ways, and means will, naturally, • vary with local circumstances (the nature of the terrain and its liability to attack; of the availability of men and equipment, and so on), and, in each case, the problem must be considered individually. That means, among other things, that the Home Guard may be employed otherwise than as infantry. Normally, it is an infantry formation, but not necessarily, or invariably.
It is as well to be clear about that principle. Furthermore., the modern infantry unit makes considerable use of specialists, among them being M.T. drivers. In that matter there is considerable variation in Home Guard practice in different districts, but it may be said broadly that the tendency is to increase the mobility of the H.G., which means that more drivers are wanted and, for that matter, more mechanics to look after vehicle maintenance. • The point of all this is that, when a driver joins the H.G., it does not mean that he automatically becomes a footsoldier. That seems to be the common idea, but it is not the right one. The aim of those responsible for his future should be to find out what the man can do best, and how he can be most usefully employed in the local defence scheme. •
Of course, the Regular Army already works on that principle, and has greatly increased its efficiency by cutting out s6 much of the round-holeand-square-peg business that was so common at one time. Unfortunately, there seems to be a considerable timelag between Regular and Home Guard thought, but the best type of H.G. commander has always gone to the trouble to find' the right job for each individual.
If a driver be employed as such in the H.G., then difficulties over training are likely, to be considerably eased. It will be unnecessary for the man to attend parades of the kind that he feels to be useless to him—and that removes a likely source of trouble.
One's experience is that men will always make time to turn out on occasions when they expect to learn something; for example, an exercise involving the handling of vehicles across country. It is usually when there has been a surfeit of drill that men start making excuses.
Special Category for Long-distance Men ?
The above seems to cover the subject as the position stands to-day. But I am wondering whether the real answer to it all may lie in the direc-tion of an entirely new departure on the part of the Home Guard. I am thinking of the men who are employed, more or leas regularly, on long-distance journeys. It seems to me that the proper thing to do would be to muster them in a special H.G. category. They would still be attached to their home-town unit for administrative purposes and for training, but would stand-to for action wherever they happened to be at the moment of emergency. Furthermore, when going up and down the road at other times, they would assist the Intelligence Section against Fifth Column activities. That idea seems worth developing. FRANCIS JONES.