Britain retains the Home Guard after WW2

The British Home Guard was created in 1940 in response to fears of a German invasion and was disbanded in 1945 after the war ended. But what if the Labour government decided to retain or reraise the organisation after 1945 as a hedge against future threats in the emerging Cold War in a manner similar to the Scandinavian countries?

Obviously this won't have a major effect on history as there's never been a World War Three, but how would such a force be structured and how long would it last and what, if any, effects would it have on the British way of life?

There was a brief revival of the Home Guard idea during the 1980's, when an organisation called the Home Service Force was raised from ex-servicemen and reservists to provide extra security for strategic points in the UK.
 
I always thought the Home Guard could be retained if it could take on more duties, perhapes civil defence or disaster relief work as well as the actually guarding things.

Doubt one of the best British comedies Dads Army would ever have been made if the Home Guard was still about.
 

Delvestius

Banned
I would think that if it were to stay active, I feel that they would deal mostly in anti-communist operations, such as intelligence and propaganda, working closely with united States agents, in addition to those domestic operations CultBoy had listed.
 
it was and it did-got reformed in the 50s and stood down again in 57. At same time the Mobile Defence Corps was also formed which would take in thousands of NS reserves and form mobile columns doing decontamination and security tasks. In 1980s the Home Security Force was formed and numbered 50 odd companies. HSF had SLR's, sterlings, Brens and the odd gimpy. Had a company in Hull,Leconfield, etc.

I'd form something along those lines now -what with the Mumbai situation threat hanging over the UK, although what you really need to counter that sort of threat are parties of retained special forces in every metropolis.
 
The '50s revival was not particularly successful, however the HSF of the '80s and early '90s did quite well. It had a level of experience that often meant if surprised other TA and regular units during exercises.

A Home Guard/HSF would not, IMVHO, be all that effective against Mumbai style attacks unless some of its members were always available. Otherwise CO19 and other Police Firearms Units would respond faster. In London regular soldiers would be available well before any part-timers.
The Home Guard and HSF were very useful in the guarding of Key Points and thus freeing up other units for more active tasks.

IIRC the HSF (as did the UDR) started off with the Lee-Enfield No.4 rifle and progressed through the SLR to the L85. The website of the HSF Association can be found here: http://www.nationalhsf.co.uk/index.html.
 
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