plaque matravers unit, octobe r - coleshillhouse.com magazine november 2012.pdf · .:a:at!&d;,...

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Commemorative Plaque to theLangton Matravers Auxiliary Unit,27th Octobe r 2012

With its patriarchal overtones and colloquial reference, itta motto that doesn't sit altogether comfortably in today,svernacular; yet for brevity and wit, and for pure aptness, it,shard to beat. These were the watchwords of the seven-manAuxiliary Units'that were liberally peppered throughoutsouthwest England during the Second World War.

The banal descriptor'auxiliary' gives a deceptively inverseindication of how important these units actually were topost-invasion plans: not a soul outside the operation wasto know of their existence.'The Auxillersi as they becameknown, were established by direction of the wartime pM,

Wi nston Ch u rch i I l, for post-i nvasion, cou nter-insu rgencyactivities. Their mission? To cause maximum disruption byblowing-up aerodromes, rail-lines and bridges -even tocarry out assassinations (some knew too muchl); to hobblethe enemy and stifle access to intelligence as the alliedforces re-grouped just south of London. lncredibly, none ofthe sevens knew ofthe others'whereabouts or personnel.

It's still a joke among small communities today that evenminor flatulence does not go unreported; that the Langtonseven were able to establish a subterranean Operational

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Base at Harman's Cross without detection and,keep Mum,isa credit to their skills in subterfuge. Tellingly, all of the unitswere only ever supplied with a fortnight,s worth of rations;they were simply not expected to survive the inevitableFeuersbrunst following their attacks. And if that wasn,tenough to keep them awake, the Official Secrets Act meantthat, until recently, they lived with the constant threat ofdire recriminations in the event of indiscretion.

Secrecy's shroud is a black hole: we can,t see it, we can,t putour finger on it, but we know something,s there by virtueof it somehow being missing. lnevitably, speculation isfollowed by suspicion and so it often proved between thefamilies and communities of which these brave men were apart. Spouses did not take kindly to unexplained absences;many were branded cowards, shirkers and worse. Theirfamilies suffered in ignorance for decades. Most Auxilierstook the secret to their graves; some recorded an accountmuch later, but it is due to the recent declassification of filesdocumenting the formation of the SAS that this enormousand hidden sacrifice has become public (,4 purbeckSecret,

edition two).

This is not only a memorial to the heroic obduracy ofThe Langton Seven but also a tribute to the families whoendured the heart-breaking inequities that secrecy broughtalong with its unjust stigmatisation; to all those who wereprepared, not just to lay down their lives but to live them aswell in utter anonymity.

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PURBECK! 111