We left the Scout hut shortly after dark,
to ambush regulars acting as invaders.
Later, there was to be a demonstration
of the use of a primitive stun grenade,
designed dramatically to improve morale
in the under-gunned Home Guard.
A Dunkirk veteran CSM from Caterham
had been driven down in a staff car to show us
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This poem, written many years ago, records a tragic incident of 1942 or 1943 (when I was just old enough to be a uniformed private in the Home Guard). The tragedy was understandably not given publicity. In recent enquiries I have been unable to establish the name, rank, regiment or corps of the victim, or the army base from which he came (maybe not ‘CSM from Caterham’). I should be glad if he were identified, and I could take his family to the exact spot where he died. (The stun grenade was redesigned). S.G.
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