Charles Walter Dibbens

He was interviewed for a childrens book "My War: Home Guard" by Philip Steele published by Wayland Press 2003

"I was a keen Sea Scout as a boy. My friend ‘Rap’ was a Rover Scout leader and he sounded me out. The next thing I knew, an army officer dressed in ‘civies’ came knocking at my door. Would I be interested in helping my country? Could I keep a secret?

We were given training lectures at Wotton Town Hall and the we had to go out and put into practice what we has learned. We were taught to use weapons and explosives and to survive off the land. I couldn’t even tell my mother what I was getting up to. Some of my friends in the unit would never tell a soul about their wartime activities, even when the war had been over for years.

It was different in the auxiliaries. We were only seven to a unit, each led by a sergeant. We did meet up with other units, but none of us was allowed an overall view of the organisation. That way, we couldn't pass on information if we were captured. We wore uniforms – we had to if we were to be treated as proper soldiers under the Geneva Convention – but we we didn’t have parades.

As auxiliaries we had to learn how to survive off the land. We were shown how to catch rabbits for food and told to steal crops growing in the fields. One evening I was walking along the road with a sack of illegal vegetables when the local policemen stopped for a chat. There was I trying to hide the sack behind my back and talk innocently. It seemed to take an age until he carried on walking his beat.

I worked in a shipyard by day and what with night exercises and weekends, I didn’t have much time left for enjoying myself!

I was called up near the end of the war. I was based in Gibraltar, providing water transport for Combined Operations in the North Africa campaign.

I came back to the Isle of Wight after the war and took up my old job of shipwright. I got married in 1950."