The Spanish Civil War Living History Group
«
Home
 «
Links
 «
Future Events
 «
Gallery
 «
Contact La Columna
 «
Group Research
«

Osterley through the ages:

Home Guard training school, 1940

Multi Period Event

Osterley Park, West London

Saturday 19th to Sunday 20th July 2008
Digger sets up some explosives

La Columna teamed up with our friends in The Civil Defenders and Discover History to set up the Osterley Home Guard training school 1940

Quick link: The Home Guard, 1940-1944; A People's Militia?

We took on the roles of ex-International Brigade veteran instructors passing on our knowledge to the Home Guard.

It is always a great honour to partake in a re-enactment on the actual ground an event took place so to be at Osterley was, as always, fantastic.

Quick link: Tom Wintringham (ex IB) who helped set up Osterley

Digger was as creative as always in his lectures, which included how to stop a German tank using booby traps and how to set charges. The Home guard really enjoyed the hands on practical lessons:

Digger explains how to set a charge
First you set the charge....
Spooling the wire
...secondly you withdraw spooling the wire...
Wiring up
...then you wire up to the blasting box...
Wiring up
...carefully...
BOOM
...finally sink the plunger and BOOM!

Also The family Thorpe jumped on the Tube Saturday to go and represent La Columna at the annual International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) commemorations in Jubilee Gardens, London.

Richard and Martin on their way to the IBMT commemoration

A fair crowd at the IBMT commemorations

Thank you to Eventplan and the National Trust for the invitation to this event, we sincerely hope to come back again next year!

Quick Link Eventplan's Homepage

Back to top