Bunker that was used for Churhill’s secret army.
Coldstream Patrol
- Group Commander Lt Balfour-Kinnear (The Laws Duns)
- Patrol Leader Sgt A. J. Heslop (Orchard Place Coldstream)
- Sgt J Hope (Possibly the first Patrol Leader)
- Pte J Guthrie.
- Pte J Paterson
- Pte J Jeffrey.
The summer of 1940 marked some of the darkest days in British history. The British army had been successfully evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk, but arrived back on the shores of Britain without a majority of its equipment and weapons. The victorious and all conquering German army stood just across the Channel, waiting, it seemed, for the right time to invade. It was in these desperate days Churchill instigated a highly secret organisation, the Auxiliary Units, that in the event of a successful German invasion, would have made up the British resistance. This force was formed of civilian volunteers who were outside the ages for call up to the regular forces or were in reserved occupations. They were recruited the length of the country in coastal counties, with around 3,500 joining. Such was the secrecy associated with the force that all of them signed the Official Secrets Act, not telling their closest families and friends what they were up to. Their role, once the invading forces had reached their part of the country, was to literally disappear to their operational bases (OBs) that were dug underground across the British countryside. Each unit (made up of 5-6 men) would wait for the German army to pass over them and come out, mainly at night, to take out strategically important targets, ammunition and fuel dumps, transport links, assassinate high ranking German officers and even British collaborators.