Ron Levett's memories, from the early 1930's, when he lived in the small village of Alfriston in Sussex

When I left school I could no longer attend Air Training Corps parades in Lewes so I had to leave. I found, however, that in Brighton there was a Company of the Army Cadet Force (ACF). When I joined I was issued with a uniform, but for some reason, we had to buy our own boots.

We had a drum and bugle band and we thought we were very smart marching through Brighton. Later on, when I was a little older, and since I was going home every weekend, I left the ACF and joined the Alfriston platoon of the Home Guard. I suppose that if the enemy had invaded during the week, the platoon would have had to manage without me.

Dancing was a very popular pastime during the war and there were dances held every week at The Dome in the Steine Gardens in Brighton. There were free dancing lessons for members of HM forces in uniform, so I used to go along in my Home Guard kit. I managed to learn the Waltz and the Quickstep but unfortunately, was called up before I could learn the Fox trot.

The Home Guard paraded on Sunday morning at platoon headquarters in what is now The Tudor Tea Rooms. The platoon commander was Tommy Perkins who, I believe, worked for an oil company. My father was the platoon sergeant.

We used to go on route marches but we had one member, Mr Lidbetter, who could never keep in step. Every quarter mile we heard the command. 'Mr. Lidbetter, carry on marching. Remainder of the platoon, change step!'

There was a rifle range in Dogs Head Pit at Alciston, used after the war by Hailsham Rifle Club. We found that we had some very good shots in the platoon. We were issued with a Thompson sub-machine gun. When Tommy Perkins tried it, he didn't release the trigger quickly enough. The gun has a very fast rate of fire and by the time the magazine was empty, the muzzle was pointing sky-wards.

We learned to camouflage our helmets and crawl through the undergrowth. We looked and felt very war-like, but I shudder to think how long we would have lasted if the invasion had happened. My cousin Stanley was still with us so we had three Home Guard members in the house.

In 1942 the Dieppe raid took place. All we saw at home was the intense air activity that took place. Medium bombers and fighters were flying around all day. Two days later, my mother was asked if she could billet Commando troops in the house. She took in six of them, and they made themselves comfortable in the large dining room.

By this time the house looked like an arsenal. There were two Home Guard rifles, my father's Thompson, a water-cooled American .30 machine gun, the commando's rifles and pistols plus a Bren Gun. There was not one firearm's certificate in the whole village!

There was a searchlight battery in the field in which Celia Norman's house now stands. On nights when the enemy bombers were on their way to London, the beam from the searchlight lights up the whole of the sky above the village. We used to go up to Winton Street, which is about 100 ft above sea level, with a good view towards London. When the Blitz was on we could see the lights over the city, with an orange glow from the fires filling the sky.

One weekend a number of the local Home Guard platoons were invited to a demonstration of German battle drill. We were taken by army lorry to a valley in the Downs above Jevington. We found positions on the hill overlooking the valley.

Canadian troops were dressed in Wehrmacht uniforms and were equipped with German weapons. We were shown the classic 'Fire and Movement' action. The machine gun (MG) section, using the MG34 or 'Spandau', with its characteristic ripping noise would lay a barrage on the objective, while the rifle section would move. When the rifle section was in a position to give covering fire, the MG section would move.

They were also using mortars firing smoke rounds. It was surprising to see how high the trajectory was, with the bombs dropping almost vertically. Later I was to find that the British army used the same 'Fire and Movement' system for both infantry and tank tactics.

After the demonstration the 'German' troops took part in foot and arms drill, Wehrmacht style, with all the commands given in German. The idea was that when the Home Guard had prisoners, they could march them into captivity using the correct orders. Some hopes!

Ron Levett, 2001