Kendal Home Guard

Archive: Northern Region Film and Television Archive
ID No.: n/a
Title: Kendal Home Guard
Date: ca. 1943
Film-maker: Unknown
Colour: Black & White and Colour
Sound: Silent
Themes: Civil Defence: Home Guard & ATS

Summary:

A film illustrating the work of the Home Guard in Kendal, in Cumbria.

Description:

This film shows, in quite some detail, the techniques and methods which would have been used by units of the Home Guard to defend against a German invasion. Training activities include bayonet practice, night patrols and urban fighting.

This clip shows the use of motorised transport to enable rapid deployment in rural areas, including cross-country motorcycling and the process of camouflaging a car.

Context:

This training film was produced by the Kendal Home Guard for their 'Third Anniversary' and it provides rare colour footage at a time when colour film was greatly restricted.

Though this film appears to have been made for training purposes (hence the detailed shots, for example, showing the technique for crossing a ditch on a motorcycle), any member of the public seeing it would have gained a positive impression of the Home Guard's preparedness for a possible Nazi invasion.