Ready for the Enemy

Watching over the skies, a volunteer force helps identify enemy aircraft for RAF fighters to intercept over Britain’s home front.

Banstead's civil defenders are out in force in this compilation of events from the town's calendar - featuring a Drum Service, a cricket match and Armistice day processions.

An account of the many ways people contributed to the war effort on the home front, focusing on the work that went on through the night.

Britain’s Czech allies; working, developing new skills and training for the frontline.

Conflict seems far away in this film featuring the Green family of Swanmore - but amid the jollity there's a sequence showing the Home Guard training with guns and incendiaries.

Peacetime frivolity contrasts sharply with a sense of the Gathering Storm in this film from Croydon made shortly before the outbreak of hostilities.

Soldiers amass on the outskirts of Basingstoke... we're doomed! But don't panic! It's just Dad's Army doing a bit of training.

After a visit from the Luftwaffe, Hythe's factories and houses inspect the terrible damage done to their town in a film, which also shows the local Home Guard in fighting form.

Cardiff City Hall’s Clock Tower offers the film-maker a bird’s eye view of the Home Guard/Royal Welch Fusiliers parade below. Home Guard manoeuvres are shot on the ground.

Wartime Winchester is the star of this film, which includes military marches, Home Guard exercises and an outdoor boxing match staged by the American Army.

Dastardly Nazi fifth-columnists get short shrift in this film showing the Home Guard defence tactics - which include pulling down a German paratrooper's trousers!

The Duke of Kent visits the Southern Railway's Eastleigh Works in this Home Front film which also shows the local Home Guard on the march and a tank that carries its own bridge.

Marching in typical determined fashion in the pouring rain, through the empty streets of Bradford, these men of the Home Guard exude steeliness, pride and, possibly, relief.

Woking's Home Guard strut their stuff in this sensational mix of training film and social record - with weapons, explosions, rope bridges and lots of climbing over barbed wire.

There's a wrong way and a right way to deal with Nazi spies and fifth-columnists - as you'll see in this this hilarious colour film starring the Home Guard and various Nazi rotters.

Doubtless civilians would have been re-assured in 1942 had they seen this training film for the Home Guard, learning fieldcraft, positioning and close quarters combat.

Four years into the war and by now marching in procession, as here, is second nature for the large numbers of civil defence personnel, and much more fascinating to watch as a result.

A fascinating glimpse into the training of the Home Guard –learning how to hide from enemy invaders – showing that they were far from being the farcical shambles of Dad’s Army.

A documentary about the benefits and influences of Chinese immigration on Britain’s home front.

The Home Guard 'Stand Down' on Plymouth Hoe

Men of the NFS demonstrate their fire fighting equipment skills before an audience in this splendid colour film from 1942. And the best crews get the best prizes.

Should you ever need to set up a roadblock then watch this film as the West Sussex Home Guard reveal the right and the wrong way to stop the Hun in his tracks.

From their sandbagged headquarters, the Sandiacre ARP and Red Cross await their call to action.

As the nation slides into conflict, Nottingham prepares for a new type of warfare: the horrors of aerial bombardment and mustard gas attacks.

A behind the scenes look at civil defence work during and after a Luftwaffe bombing raid on Bristol during the Second World War.

From GIs dancing in High Town in 1942 and on into the New Elizabethan era: this is a true celebration of the city of Hereford from the austere 1940s right into the 'swinging' sixties.

A recruitment film for the Suffolk Territorials, featuring scenes of a Drumhead military service on Empire Day and training exercises; narrated by Colonel Coburn O.B.E.

A war-time parade of servicemen at Babraham Hall Estate, and Girl Guides at "The Gogs", captured by amateur filmmaker and Cambridge don Trevor Spittle.

John' and 'Johnny', two American GIs billeted in with the Iles family in Heathwood Road, Cardiff, enjoy a bit of fun with their new friends and neighbours.

There's a huge turnout to see the victor of El Alamein in this short film which starts with, of all things, a funeral in Canterbury Cemetery!

Adorable amateur film showing the work of the Auxiliary Fire Service in Finchley with a mixture of pride and self-deprecation.

Canterbury goes wild when the hero of El Alamein's in town - watch Monty meet dignitaries, inspects soldiers and greets thousands of cheering well-wishers.

Canadian troops stationed in Yorkshire get a civic reception before a tour of the county, including a typical textile town and watching a typical wartime football match.

Short amateur film showing the men of the Auxiliary Fire Service in Ilford in training in Ilford during the Second World War.

Controlled explosions take place in a field, probably organised for civil defence training purposes, and are shot by Aberaeron pharmacist Evan John Thomas.

A wonderful, and often comic, peep into police training as the war gets underway; after having their chests measured, they learn how to control traffic and deal with dead bodies.

An intriguing look at the training of police dogs, climbing up ladders blindfolded and rescuing documents from wounded soldiers.

With war looming on the horizon, troops from the Duke still find time to relax and joke even when learning how to grapple with mortar launchers and lie flat firing anti-tank rifles.

Detailed and absorbing look at the training of a battalion of the Home Guard in Middlesex captured by a local amateur film-maker.

Amateur footage of the home guard on patrol and at ease in the fields outside London, where anti-tank weapons are tested in front of suburban houses.

Britain's war - from Dunkirk to D-Day in 20 minutes

Melingriffith Tinplate Works Home Guard is seen here parading on 23/2/1941, and training e.g. practising using grenades and bayonets, and standing down in December 1944.