Conscription
and The
Home Guard
LO: to learn about the different
ways that Britain prepared to
fight World War 11, both at
home and abroad.
Conscription
What is conscription?
• Conscription, also called draft, is when a
government forces people to join the armed forces.
During the spring of 1939 ( before war had been declared) the
British government, under Neville Chamberlain, started
preparations for a possible war against Nazi Germany.
Plans for limited conscription, applying to single men aged
between 20 and 22, were given parliamentary approval in the
Military Training Act in May 1939. This required men to
undertake six months' military training, and some 240,000
registered for service.
• Before war was declared men
could volunteer to join the armed
forces ,but on the day Britain
declared war on Germany (3
September 1939) Parliament
immediately passed a more widereaching measure.
• The National Service (Armed
Forces) Act imposed conscription
on all males aged between 18 and
41 who had to register for service.
Those medically unfit were
exempted, as were others in key
industries and jobs such as
baking, farming, medicine, and
engineering.
• Conscription helped greatly to
increase the number of men in
active service during the first
year of the war.
Men were sent
‘call up’ papers
Instructing
them to present
for military
service and
training.
Men could
choose to join
the army, the
navy or the air
force.
What about those who
didn’t believe in fighting?
• Men who refused to join the armed forces
were called conscientious objectors. They had
to appear before a judge to argue their reasons
for refusing to join-up. If their cases were not
dismissed, they were given jobs which helped
the war effort, but which didn’t involve fighting.
In wartime Britain, some conscientious
objectors found themselves ostracised - even
within their own families
Why do you think some men refused to join the
armed forces?
• In December 1941 Parliament passed a second
National Service Act. It widened the scope of
conscription still further. Men were now
required to do some form of National Service up
to the age of 60, which included military service
for those under 51. The main reason was that
there were not enough men volunteering for
police and civilian defence work.
The Home Guard
What was the Home Guard?
In the evening of Tuesday 14 May 1940, the Government made
an urgent appeal on the radio to all men aged between 17 and
65. The wanted all men not already serving in the armed forces
to become part-time soldiers. Within 24 hours of the radio
broadcast a quarter of a million men had volunteered. By the
end of July this number had risen to over a million.
At its peak in 1943 the Home Guard had nearly 2 million
members.
• Many of the men who joined the Home Guard were
those who could not join the regular army because
their daytime jobs were necessary to keep the country
running. They included farm workers, bakers,
teachers, grocers, bank staff and railway workers.
• Other men who joined were either too young or too
old to join the regular army.
• The men were given military style training and, at first, they had
no uniforms and little equipment. The public were invited to give
their shotguns and pistols to the Home Guard and within a few
months over 20,000 weapons were handed in. Many of the men
made their own weapons too.
The expected invasion by Germany never came. Instead the
main role of the Home Guard was capturing German airmen
whose planes had been shot down over Britain. They also
guarded munitions factories and aerodromes and checked
people's identity cards.
Task 1.( Worksheet A)
Answer the questions on the worksheet ,or, if
you don’t have a printer, write your answers on a
piece of paper.
Think carefully about your answers, and don’t
forget to write in complete sentences using
capital letters and full stops!
Task 2.( Worksheet B)
Can you successfully complete the crossword?
All the answers are written somewhere on the
page!
If you haven’t got a printer, just write down the
answers to each clue .
Task 3.( Worksheet C)
Use the Power
Point instead.
Can you write down eight key facts that you have learnt
about the Home Guard? Remember to write neatly and in
complete sentences.
Extension ( this task is optional – only
complete it if you want to)
Can you design a poster encouraging men to
join the Home Guard? Look back at the
posters on the PowerPoint for some
inspiration.