Can you help with any background on the local Western Isles Auxiliary Units of WW2?

This was a sabotage organisation set up in 1940 in case of a Nazi invasion.

CART’s volunteer team research and record the Auxiliary Units who were a secret resistance network of highly trained volunteers prepared to be Britain's last ditch line of defence during World War Two.

They operated in a network of cells from hidden underground bases around the UK. This part of the British Resistance Archive website is dedicated to research about these units, their secret underground hideouts known as Operational Bases (OBs) and Observation Posts (OPs), and of course the civilian personnel who were prepared to put themselves in the gravest danger.

The Gazette has received a call for help from CART, who are looking for local information.

A spokesman for the organisation said: “The personnel selected for Auxiliary Units were basically, people who were not called up due to their essential home front roles. These people included farmers, gamekeepers and shop workers.

"These people were very well armed and trained to conduct guerrilla warfare, they were experts in sabotage and weapons, yet it was only in the past few years their secret roles were recognised and in turn surviving members marched at the cenotaph in London on remembrance day.

“Stornoway had three such patrols, our information can be found on our groups website, www.staybehinds.com/county/highlands-islands.

“Our research has traced the names and in some cases occupations of members of the units and we have published these on our site. We are actively looking to revisit our past research and follow up any new information that will help us record the people who would have been Britain’s last hope of survival had the German’s invaded.”

If anybody has any info on the three Stornoway patrols, photographs or recollections of underground shelters, the group would like to hear from you. Contact [email protected]