Bourne invasion plans

AN INVASION of England is unthinkable today but seventy years ago it was a grim possibility and small towns such as Bourne which were within easy reach of the east coast took what action they could to provide a defence system that could withstand such an assault and protect the civilian population.

This part of Lincolnshire was dotted with airfields used as bases for both fighter and bomber planes and therefore an obvious target for enemy action and although Bourne had little military significance it was directly in the firing line.

The government issued instructions to local authorities to take appropriate action to protect their communities and on 18th March 1941, the Bourne Invasion Committee was formed during a meeting at Wake House but their deliberations were always kept secret. It consisted of ten members representing the Home Guard, medical and fire services, the WVS, ARP, police and the county food executive who drew up contingency plans for the parish of Bourne including the marshalling of resources, medical aid, communications, the distribution of food, the welfare of the civilian population and liaison with the military authorities. A government sponsored stage play dealing with their role in times of such an emergency was shown to members in a private session at the Corn Exchange on Tuesday 5th May 1942.

The committee's deliberations were wide ranging, studying every aspect of their actions if they were invaded and often their imagination exceeded the practicality of the situation. At one meeting, the committee decided that in the event of an invasion, women and children would be evacuated to Bourne Wood but a memorandum from the Kesteven Sector headquarters on 5th April 1942 instructed them to shelve the idea. It said: "The enemy may make use of the fact that women and children are sheltering in the wood by going there himself to avoid our fire. He may also drive them before him in an attack on Bourne in order that our troops dare not open fire. Since the wood is outside the perimeter defence of Bourne, administrative difficulties such as feeding etc are bound to arise. Please endeavour to have this policy changed."

A new strategy was needed and this was provided by Horace Stanton, a local solicitor who had seen action during the Great War of 1914-18 as an officer with the Royal Artillery and was now a lieutenant-colonel commanding the 4th Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, Home Guard, which covered Bourne. By May 1942, he had written his first invasion report, a secret but impressive document detailing the location and vulnerability of the town in the event of an enemy offensive and the contingency plans that had been drawn up for the protection of its 5,300 citizens which was then the official population figure.

He said that if the enemy invaded Britain, then a landing in Lincolnshire was very likely and in such circumstances, the area would be subjected to intense and highly accurate bombing with the intention of blocking roads with refugees. Such air attacks therefore would be supplemented by Fifth Column activities designed to unsettle the population.

Our own plan, he said, was to drive the enemy into the sea within seven to ten days but this success depended on the rapid movement of large forces making use of roads and railways. The aims of the Home Guard in such an eventuality were therefore: (1) To deny to the enemy the use of roads, railways, utility undertakings, and to keep open for our own purposes, the main routes leading into the area. (2) To maintain and protect military and civil services from disruption in the event of heavy bombing or invasion. It had been laid down as government policy that after invasion, the civil authorities must place these tasks first even at the expense of duties which at other times would be paramount, e g the saving of life in bombed buildings.

This document makes grim reading today and the merriment of Dad's Army soon fades away because it talks of war at the front line in the peaceful English countryside. Everything is taken into consideration, arms, accommodation, feeding and emergency rations, the fortification of dwellings, medical services to deal with casualties, the demobilisation of vehicles to prevent them from being used by the enemy, fire and rescue, the maintenance of water, gas and electricity supplies, communications, the care of refugees, rest centres, billeting and communal feeding. The sombre tone of the entire document is summed up in the final paragraph that reflects the seriousness of the situation and an indication that war might eventually be brought to our own doorstep:

“BURIALS: Circumstances permitting, all burials to take place in the cemetery but in the event of urgent necessity, it was decided that the west end of the Abbey Lawn adjacent to the vicarage garden should be used as an emergency burial ground.”

By June 1942, the Home Guard was informing the invasion committee about the siting of roadblocks around Bourne to stop the movement of enemy troops. Specific points were identified on all of the main roads where barriers built of rails and oil drums would be erected and manned by their troops and Civil Defence personnel. In the ensuing months, the Home Guard sent representatives to outlying villages to advise on the setting up of similar invasion committees that were subsequently formed at Baston, Corby Glen, Kirkby Underwood, Langtoft, Rippingale, Morton and Haconby, Billingborough, Pointon and Folkingham, each with its own chairman, convenor and military representative from the Home Guard.

In the event, these precautions were not needed. By 1944, the tide of war had turned in our favour and in May 1945, it was all over and the invasion committee was disbanded. A total of 1,600 men from the town and district had passed through the ranks of the Home Guard’s Bourne battalion and Colonel Stanton’s final task was to hand back the formidable armoury that had been amassed since 1940 consisting of 878 rifles, 400 Sten guns, 56 Bren guns and 54 Lewis machine guns, eight anti-tank rifles, 700,000 rounds of small arms ammunition and 100 hand grenades. Not one of them had been fired in combat.