Stanley Herbert Williams

In a memoir “The Summer of 1940” he recorded how he had been recruited from the regular East Cowes Home Guard. He was part of X Company, on guard at night from the old stable block at Osborne House. Along with fellow Home Guard Eric Morey, he was interviewed by Captain Blishen and the Intelligence Officer, Captain Clive, in the Norwich Union Offices in Quay Street, Newport. They would only tell them that it was secret and had nothing else to say about their possible role. Once accepted he was told that their purpose would be to harry a German invader in every possible way.

He wrote, "Why one volunteered for this sort of unknown thing is difficult to say, but we were young men, about 24 years of age, and I suppose with a sense of adventure, this and the possible scent of danger one subdues one's natural fears."

He was given the Patrol's Thompson sub-machine gun. He had to be able to take it apart and reassemble it again, not just in a room, but in the field as well.

Williams attended a course at Coleshill, recalled as lasting a couple of weeks, where he was taught how to knock out AFVs and use various booby traps, weapons and explosives. The men were taught how to move at night. The trainers were regular Army Officers some of whom had apparently had experience in fighting with the Partisans in Yugoslavia.