Got a nice group photo this week, which looks to be taken in Brighton or Hove, and may well show a Sussex Home Guard unit. I'm not too up on their insignia; any thoughts?
Cant quite make out both letter, looks like first one is a S and not sure on second but Sussex Home Guard Flash was SX.
SX is indeed the code for Sussex but haven't got a clue what the other insignia is. Structure of the Home Guard
The wolf's head is the patch for Sussex and Surrey Command which Cole says "was formed to administer the area of South Eastern Command vacated by Canadian Corps District on its assumption of a field force role"
This may be of some interest to you BBC - WW2 People's War - Sussex Home Guard "In our back garden we had a 9.2 Howitzer gun"
Shoulder designation for Sussex / 13 [Haywards Heath] Battn. Geoff Newman Militaria 44 (0)1993 773036
This may be of some interest to you BBC - WW2 People's War - Sussex Home Guard "In our back garden we had a 9.2 Howitzer gun" Thanks for that, Peter.
Got a nice group photo this week, which looks to be taken in Brighton or Hove, and may well show a Sussex Home Guard unit. I'm not too up on their insignia; any thoughts? Hi Paul, You've probably sussed it all by now, but it looks as though the Bn no. below the 'SX' flash is 10, making it a Brighton HG unit, confirming your location. The Wolf's head insignia is interesting; from what Cole says (already quoted above) I believe that the Sussex District was formed in May 1943 to provide a static and consistent command and admin structure to the area, rather than the various divisions that sat in the area having to do it all and then passing on a mass of paperwork and chaos to the next Div upon relief. The wolf connection may come from the Canadian 'Wolf' Battalions that were reinforcement units thrown into Sussex in May-June 1942 to hold the coast for the main Cdn formations that were either off to train for the Dieppe raid or else about to participate in Exercise 'Tiger' which was the largest manouevre thus far in South Eastern Command - Cdn Sussex vs British Kent. I assume that the exercise was so-called because the SECO insignia was a tiger's head. Cole says the tiger was symbolicly roaring defiance at the German-held French coast, so I assume the Canadian 'wolves' were of similar wild ferocity and a suitable metaphor for the relieving units. I don't know if this theory holds, but if anyone can shed light on any of this, I'd be interested to know, but the wolf insignia would date the photo from 1943. Pete
Paul I also have read this post with interest and was wondering would a list exsist of members who served in the home guard, its just that I have that collection I told you about a while back relating to the Royal Sussex Regt, the guy it belonged to was in the Home Guard and I was wondering if he would served in the Sussex Home Guard, clutching at straws I know.
Kieron, This was an attempt to summarise the possibilities open to someone trying to trace an individual HG member: staffshomeguardJ9(SearchingforMembers) Chris
