Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

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Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Dick Kirrin »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyTKhRT_JWA

Just found this on youtube. A report about wartime 'underground Britain', which shows that EB was not too far off the mark if you pardon the pun.
Such structures did indeed exist and many people may have known about them and probably could have made use of their knowledge. Black marketeering at that time was not too uncommon, too. So maybe an ex-member of the LDV (my interest in the LDV actually got me to find it - and I am interested in the LDV because I own a P14 rifle) would have talked to the wrong people...?

PS: Hands up - who does not know what the LDV were?
Right, let old Dick enlighten you. They were also known as the Home Guard, meaning people too young or too old to serve in the regular Army, but still able bodied and able to hold a rifle. Many were ex-WW I soldiers and of course there were teenage boys in it as well. Ju and Dick were too young to join, though.
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Moonraker »

All fans of Dad's Army will know about the Home Guard! Land Defence Volunteers was the official name, but the term Home Guard was a friendlier name for them.

Here is a classic clip from the BBC programme.
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by number 6 »

I'm not certain, but did they sometimes call them Local Defence Volunteers as well? I'm sure I've heard this term mentioned before on the Yesterday History channel. :D
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Moonraker »

I almost wrote that! You are correct. Churchill officially changed the name to Home Guard in 1940.
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by number 6 »

Oh, I thought you were correct, Moonraker! I've learned something new! Love the classic Dad's Army clip. Watched a very old Black & White episode yesterday evening. Great fun. They don't make em like that anymore! :D
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Moonraker »

Hmm.
Originally called the Land Defence Volunteers (LDV), the Home Secretary at the time, Anthony Eden, broadcast nationally on 14th May 1940 calling for volunteers for the new organisation to give their names in at their local police station. Within seven days, over 250,000 Volunteers had stepped forward.
http://www.steppingforwardlondon.org/th ... guard.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Home Guard was originally known as the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV). This was considered too much of a title and it became the Home Guard
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/wo ... ome-guard/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Looks like we're not the only confused ones!
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Daisy »

The YouTube link is very interesting. It has occurred to me to wish Enid told us a bit more of "What happened afterwards" in some of her adventures. I suppose for the age she was writing, she felt it was enough, but some more explanations at times would have been nice! I'm thinking in particular of Rat -a -Tat, where the men are still at large when the book ends.
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Dick Kirrin »

Trust you to be a fan of Dad's Army, Nigel. And I must say, it was a great series, really. Not so sure about the realism in it, though, but that is a different story :D

Well, I guess the idea to hide yourself in caves or underground bunkers was real to many of EB's original readers.
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

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Dick Kirrin wrote:Trust you to be a fan of Dad's Army, Nigel. And I must say, it was a great series, really. Not so sure about the realism in it, though, but that is a different story :D
One of our greatest tv series, Dick. Mind you, it had as much authenticity to the real Home Guard as 'Allo 'Allo had to the resistance movement.
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Courtenay »

How dare you suggest Dad's Army is not authentic?? Your name vill go on ze list. :wink:
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

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Courtenay wrote:How dare you suggest Dad's Army is not authentic?? Your name vill go on ze list. :wink:
Oh yes!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by number 6 »

Moonraker wrote:Hmm.
Originally called the Land Defence Volunteers (LDV), the Home Secretary at the time, Anthony Eden, broadcast nationally on 14th May 1940 calling for volunteers for the new organisation to give their names in at their local police station. Within seven days, over 250,000 Volunteers had stepped forward.
http://www.steppingforwardlondon.org/th ... guard.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Home Guard was originally known as the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV). This was considered too much of a title and it became the Home Guard
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/wo ... ome-guard/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Looks like we're not the only confused ones!
Haha!! Think we'll call it a draw! I know that some local Londoners did consider themselves the "London Volunteer Defence", so I think some folk might have made up their own the meaning for LDV! :D
Last edited by number 6 on 30 Jan 2017, 00:06, edited 1 time in total.
Dick Kirrin
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Dick Kirrin »

Mind you, it had as much authenticity to the real Home Guard as 'Allo 'Allo had to the resistance movement.
Well, at least the guns were authentic... the rifles that is. No idea about the heavier stuff...

Anyway, EB kept direct war involvement out of her books most of the time, and even the hints to structures used during the war are ever so slight. Five go off to camp and the Mystery of Rockingdon House would be the only ones I can remember that were set in the UK - and Valley of Adventure is set in the Alps.
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by Jack400 »

Courtenay wrote:How dare you suggest Dad's Army is not authentic?? Your name vill go on ze list. :wink:
Well, yes as either Jimmy Perry or David Croft (I forget which) based the series on his experiences in the Home Guard! :lol:
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Re: Five Go Off to Camp - location between the tunnels

Post by John Pickup »

When I was at primary school we lived next door to a man who had been in the Home Guard during the war. He told me that whilst on patrol at night, he could see the orange glow in the sky to the west which was the fires from the bombing of Sheffield, forty miles away. There was a great deal of importance attached to the Home Guard here in Lincolnshire as there were many airfields used for bombing raids on Germany and they were instructed to watch out for likely saboteurs.
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