Germans Expected Invasion to Find Chaos — 1.5M Home Guard Waited With Pitchforks and Shotguns

Discover the untold story of Britain's Home Guard in 1940—1.5 million volunteers who transformed from men with pitchforks into a formidable defensive force that helped prevent Hitler's Operation Sea Lion. This documentary reveals how German invasion plans completely underestimated the "Dad's Army," a citizen militia that included Great War veterans, armed with American rifles, sticky bombs, and Molotov cocktails. Learn about the critical "Cromwell" alert of September 7th, 1940, the shocking training casualties, and how local knowledge turned every British village into a potential battlefield. From pitchforks to pillboxes, see how ordinary civilians became the secret weapon that made Nazi invasion impossible. Featuring real historical dates, combat statistics, and the tactical innovations that changed Britain's defence strategy.

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Sources
The National Archives, Kew - Home Guard formation documents, War Office files (WO 166, WO 199 series), Operation Cromwell records
Imperial War Museum Archives - Personal testimonies from Home Guard members, training manuals, casualty records, photograph collections
S.P. MacKenzie, The Home Guard: A Military and Political History (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Norman Longmate, The Real Dad's Army: The Story of the Home Guard (Arrow Books, 1974)
RAF Museum Archives - Luftwaffe intelligence reports on British defences, aerial reconnaissance photographs
David Carroll, The Home Guard: A Military History (Pen & Sword Military, 2015)
Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge - Winston Churchill's correspondence regarding Home Guard and invasion preparations
Franz Halder, The Halder War Diary 1939-1942 (Presidio Press, 1988) - German planning documents for Operation Sea Lion
Basil Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom (Official History of the Second World War series, HMSO, 1957)
Juliet Gardiner, Wartime Britain 1939-1945 (Headline, 2004) - Civilian perspectives and Home Guard organization
British Newspaper Archives - Contemporary reports of Home Guard activities, training accidents, and mobilisations