YOUR article called Look, Dive and Vanish caused me some amusement, but the apparent mix-up of the Home Guard and the ARP services was a bit out of line.

ARP (Air Raid Precautions) was born before the war had commenced.

There was the fear of raid damage by enemy planes dropping incendiary bombs and even gas attacks.

An air raid warden's job was to give warning of such attacks and to deal with small fires with a stirrup pump or sand.

They were also responsible for checking on people's black-out curtains.

Thankfully, the gas attacks never materialised.

The LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) was born after the evacuation of France.

Volunteers were asked to stand watch on the roads, bridges, etc, and check travellers' identity cards for possible parachutists, spies, or saboteurs.

They were issued with armbands and armed with whatever came to hand.

They were the beginning of the Home Guard. Gradually they were issued with khaki dress and armed with rifles.

These guns were old stored stock, I think from Canada, and took a slightly different gauge bullet to the usual army weapon.

Later on in the war, service in these auxiliary services became compulsory for those exempt from the regular forces.

Some went into civil defence, others to the NFS (National Fire Service), the St John Ambulance and the Home Guard.

G Foxham, Clovelly Drive

Penwortham

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.