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The Museum of the British Resistance Organisation The Museum of the British Resistance Organisation (BRO) is dedicated to the men and women of the innocently named Auxiliary Units of World War Two and was established in August 1997. For morale and propaganda reasons and their own security the 'stay behind' Auxiliaries were a closely guarded secret. It would not 'do' for the general population to know that an organised resistance movement was in training and in place ready for the unthinkable. |
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The museum faced immense difficulties in researching the background of the Auxiliaries and other aspects of the UK's resistance organisation. Some files do indeed exist and others have yet to be found. Former members of the Auxiliaries are very reluctant to talk about their wartime activities but are becoming more peopared to do so as the word goes around about the museum. A breakthrough came when a Ministry of Defence official deemed some material on the Auxiliaries to be of "limited residual sensitivity" and with the paperwork to hand to this effect, the job of tracing the structure and work of the BRO could gain some impetus. Around 5000 people were trained to work in groups of six and it is believed that some 400 0Bs were created. The Museum is now the focal point nationally for Aux.Unit information and has benefited from the most willing and helpful co-operation from supporters throughout the United Kingdom. They have also been able to supply advice and information to the media whenever they have enquired, in an effort designed to produce accurate programmes rather than the over-dramatised and speculative work which had so often previously misrepresented the true role of the GHQ Auxiliary Units of W.W.II. |
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Adjacent to the control tower of the 390th Bomb Group Memorial Air Museum is a reconstruction of an underground OB, based upon the example known to have been at Stratford St Andrew, Suffolk. The museum secured grants from Awards For All and Suffolk County Council to aid with this project. Everyone connected with the museum would like to express their thanks for the support given for this project |
 The
construction of the under ground replica Operational Base. |
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Research
has continued into this comparatively unknown aspect of the British war
effort, and the museum has become the undoubted focal point for the collection
of exhibits, memoirs and archives. The Museum of the British Resistance
Organisation has published the authoritative book ‘With Britain
in Mortal Danger’ – now in its second hardback edition and
is the only point of reference for television and press enquiries. A newsletter
is published twice yearly for five hundred veterans and readers; and –
most importantly perhaps – has developed as a point of reunion for
survivors. |
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"WITH BRITAIN IN MORTAL DANGER" Edited by John
Warwicker, MBE published by Cerberus Books Read the in-depth story from the Museum of the British Resistance Organisation. The Most Secret GHQ Auxiliary Units of WWII. Consisting of 320 pages and about 100 photographs. "I
am trying to piece together an Army in the most terrible crisis that has
ever faced the British Empire" On sale at all good bookshops and the museum shop. All net proceeds go to the Museum, a registered charity. |
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| Resistance hideout to open it's trap door | ||||||||||||||||
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Photo Owen Hines EDP |
The son of the commander of Britain's home defence forces during the second world war is set to open a replica of an underground hideout for British resistance fighters. Lord Ironside, the patron of the museum of the British Resistance Organisation at Parham Airfield, will be there to perform the opening ceremony at noon on Sunday July 4th. It was his father, General William Ironside - who subsequently became Lord Ironside - who was responsible for the volunteers. The museum is the only one dedicated to the civilian men and women of the GHQ Auxiliary Units - volunteers whose job was to stay behind when invasion appeared imminent in the early in the early days after defeat at Dunkirk, and commit mayhem behind enemy lines. It is based next to the memorial museum at Parham in honour of the 390th Bombardment Group of the United States 8th Army Air Force, whose airmen operated from the base from 1942 to 1945. Both museums
will open on what is a significant day - American Independence Day. |
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| There will be displays from other museums in East Anglia, as well as a display of military vehicles and second world war recreation uniforms.The underground operational base for the Second World War fighters was recreated thanks to a lottery grant of more than £4,000 from Awards For All. The design
has been based on an underground operational bunker used by a secret British
resistance "cell" based at Stratford St. Andrew, near Saxmundam.
It allows visitors to see how volunteers lived, entering the bunker in
groups of six. Members for the secret auxiliary units, formed during the early 1940s to resist any German invasion, would have hidden out in the bunkers between operations. John Warwicker, who has been heavily involved in the project, said they were "absolutely delighted". He was one of 10 volunteers who helped recreate the bunker. The museum
has also attracted £5,000 in funding from Suffolk County Council
through the locality budget of Peter Howard, a local member. Article taken from East Anglian Daily Times June 2004. |
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The Museum of the British Resistance Organisation is a Registered
Charity
No. 284146 and relies on volunteer support
©2009 Parham Airfield Museum
Secrets
of the past: Parham Airfield museum researcher John Warwicker,
left, and tour guide Roger Kindred