Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

As we all know, during World War II, many countries established underground resistance organizations to fight the invaders. Even Britain, which had never fallen, had a local guerrilla force, and it was the only underground resistance organization at that time that was well prepared before the enemy invaded.

The German team was sweeping across Europe. The British Empire across the Taiwan Strait was watching with eager eyes and was about to launch a landing war. The British high-level officials once considered that the British government would go into exile overseas to continue the resistance, while Churchill began to organize a secret underground resistance organization to prepare for the attack. The Germans are invading.

Churchill personally selected the commander for this secret operation, Colonel Colin Gibbons, a well-known special operations expert in the British army. Another backup candidate was Peter Fleming, the prototype of the later 007 Bond.

Gibbons is a veteran of the battlefield who has seen the world and experienced hundreds of battles. He is good at special guerrilla warfare. At the beginning of World War II, he organized and personally participated in many raids on the German-occupied areas in Northern Europe. He is recognized in the circle as a master of special operations.

In the summer of 1940, Gibbons raised a team of 5,000 people in a short period of time. In order to avoid being noticed, this force was called the "auxiliary force" and nominally belonged to the British Home Guard. Most of the unit's personnel initially thought they were members of the National Guard, but in fact the Home Guard headquarters had no record of them. This was also Gibbons' idea: even if the British Isles fell into German hands, they would have no way of finding traces of this "shadow force."

Gibbons' painstaking effort goes beyond that. Each member of the "auxiliary force" is a specially selected person. The police chief in his or her location will be personally responsible for conducting the most thorough background investigation in advance, and the selected personnel must sign an "official confidentiality agreement" and promise to strictly keep secrets.

After the war, people also discovered that in the secret order bag distributed to the members of the action team of the auxiliary forces (which could only be opened when the German troops landed), the first instruction was to assassinate the local police leader who knew about it, and the reason was also kept secret.

Not all members of the "auxiliary force" were strong young men, and Gibbons believed that this naive approach would be self-defeating. What he needs is an ordinary person who is inconspicuous in the community and countryside, but he must be fearless and have a certain skill. According to the memory of Jack Atzen, a British captain who followed Gibbons at that time, two of the detachments he was in charge of were prisoners dug out by Gibbons from prison. These two criminals claimed that they had the means to blow up any target they wanted!

The vast majority of "auxiliary force" members (about 3,500 people) mainly perform combat patrol tasks. These people are dispersed into many small teams, each team consists of 4 to 8 people, has an independent secret operation base, and is each responsible for activities within a 15-mile range. Their mission is to use their natural cover and familiarity with the local environment to survive behind enemy lines and wait for opportunities to destroy German rear supply bases, airports and arms facilities.

Although the "auxiliaries" were scattered across Britain, Gibbons managed to arrange a special rotational training system. By the end of 1941, each British county had an intelligence officer and several staff officers responsible for training local "auxiliary forces" and supplying equipment. In addition, a guerrilla training center was opened at a local country house in Coleshill, Wiltshire. But at that time, apart from Gibbons and other instructors, only one local woman, Ms. Starks, knew the secrets of the villa. All trainees must first report to the post office where she works. After some confirmation, she made a phone call, and then a car appeared to take the mysterious visitor away.

In training camps, resistance members learn to use various firearms and explosive destructive devices. Gibbons arranged for them the most experienced special warfare instructors. Bill Pilkington, who later served as an officer in the 8th British Army, was one of the instructors at that time. According to his recollections, all the people studied very seriously because they understood that this was no child's play and they would fight to the death to defend Britain. There are even women among these trainees. "Although some people think that women are less interested in killing than men, this is not the case. There was a female team member who worked as a secretary. I remember she once said, 'I have two children. To protect, I am eager to learn every killing trick'!"

The resistance tactics used by Gibbons and others to train this unit can be described as diverse. To cite just one example, a "killer spatula" was seriously considered. This weapon looks like a fish frying spatula commonly used at home, but the specially made top is extremely sharp. According to Gibbons's imagination, if the German army started to invade, these spatulas would be distributed in large numbers to British households. Once a German officer is staying in a civilian house, the brave housewives can use this shovel to wipe the German's neck unexpectedly. At that time, the instructors even thought about the housewives' farewell words to the German firing squad afterwards, "This is us British." Fortunately, no one had the chance to use this bloody method of resistance.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the resistance organization's activities are not so unstrategic and reckless. Clydwin Hughes joined the local auxiliary force when he was a farmer in Wales. According to his recollection, the worst-case scenario at that time was that the German invasion was successful, the British government and royal family would withdraw to Canada, and his resistance organization would "sneak into the mountains" to fight guerrillas. In the Snowdonia area where he is located, the British Royal Engineers have already dug well-equipped secret caves. This "operational base" stores ammunition, food and medicine for the guerrillas to operate for six weeks. The tasks assigned to Hughes and others were: remain ordinary citizens during the day and pay attention to local German movements; sneak into German defense areas at night, destroy important bridges, railways and roads, lay mines, harass German logistics convoys, snipe and kill small groups of German troops, etc. . At the end of 1941, when the situation was most tense, the "auxiliary forces" deployed a total of 600 teams similar to Hughes's in the direction where the German troops might land. They were all closely watching the movements of the coastline.

Fortunately, the situation of the war has changed since then. When Hughes heard that the German army's spearhead suddenly turned to the Soviet Union, "We were really relieved." But the "auxiliary forces" did not relax their alert after that. Until late 1944, members of the "Auxiliary Force" scattered across the UK continued to train. During a training exercise, the "Auxiliary Forces" action group in the Rivotau area "simulated" an attack on a local Royal Air Force air station. At the end of the operation, he was discovered by the air station sentry. The guerrillas were immediately detained in the officers' mess for "trial". When everyone tried to explain their identities and exercises, the regular army officers who had never heard of this unit simply dismissed it. However, they did not expect that the "explosive device" planted by the guerrillas exploded not far away. …

In mid-1944, the Allies were nervously preparing for the Normandy landings. Churchill was worried that the Germans would make a desperate counterattack in southern England. The "auxiliary troops" received orders again and entered the highest combat readiness. Fortunately, there was no trace of German troops on the beach this time.

By the end of the same year, with the dramatic changes in the war situation in Europe, the special mission of the "auxiliary forces" was no longer needed. Churchill ordered the resistance force to be disbanded secretly. But the core personnel and equipment were sent to the European battlefield to follow the British army's famous SAS commando team and Special Operations (SOE) to fight on various secret fronts behind enemy lines.

Gibbons had been promoted to head of SOE by this time, and the resistance tactics he conceived were playing a major role across Europe. On May 31, 1945, General Eisenhower, commander of the Supreme Allied Forces Command, wrote in a personal letter to Gibbons, "...as far as I know, there has never been a war or a battlefield that has ever been fought. There are resistance forces so closely tied to major military operations. … I would like to personally express my sincere gratitude to these brave and courageous special operators."

Clement Attlee planned to secretly disband this "auxiliary force".

The Minister of War shook his head upon hearing this. "Perhaps the Germans already have information about this. If we say it was secretly disbanded, can the Germans believe it?"

Thinking of the Germans' all-pervasive spies, Clement Attlee couldn't help but look a little ugly. "What should we do?"

The Minister of War said simply. "Arrest the person in charge, hand over the rest of the list to the Germans, and let them handle it themselves."