User:Dumelow/Mobile Defence Corps
Developed from the Mobile Civil Defence Column established by the Home Office in the early 1950s as an experiment in moving large bodies of civil defence personnel to cities affected by atomic bombing. The need for these grew with the development of the Hydrogen bomb and the MDC was established to fill the role. National Service ended in 1960.[1]
Formed by Royal Warrant.[2]
Command came through the Directorate of the Mobile Defence Corps.[3]
Intended establishment reduced to 36 battalions by 1956, with an expected annual intake of 7,500 men from the army national service.[4]
The 36 battalions were to be of 750 men each.[5]
Formed of army and RAF reservists with a month's training in civil defence.[6]
British Army unit. Established 1 April 1955, disbanded 28 February 1959.[7]
Had rescue and fire battalions. Volunteers to establish cadres of 25 battalions came from the Anti-Aircraft Command, disbanded in 1955.[8]
Trained in civil defence and intended to support civilian civil defence organisations and military units assisting the civil power. Most members were national servicemen serving as reservists. With the end of National Service the British government considered it would not have enough volunteers to fill the ranks of the corps and it was disbanded on the order of Christopher Soames, secretary of state for war. TO compensate for its loss training in civil defence roles was fiven to artillery and infantry units of the Territorial Army, with one annual camp in every four to be devoted to civil defence.[9]
Originally intended to build up to 48 600-man battaliosnw ithin 4 years of establishment. Men would be mobilised in line with the other reserves, the MDC battalions would be under the command of the local Army Commander and deployed in consultation with regional civil defence authorities. Intended that the MDC's training depots would process 10,000 men a year. Afterwards the men were liable for 15 days a year training. The trainers were drawn from the permanent ranks fo the RAF and Army, with a number of civilian trainers. Officers and NCOs were volunteers.[10]
Disbandment was announced in December 1958. By this time the government had abandoned plans to move civil defence volunteers across the country in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.[11]
Later the intended establishment aim was 36 battalions in the Army Emergency Reserve. 33 battalions were formed by the end of 1958 accounting for 14,000 men of whom only 15% were volunteers. The war office cosidered transferring the volunteer soldiers to teh Territorial Army but this was rejected as impractical. Maximum complement of the corps would have been 29,500 men. The battalions also had their own medical sections. The former corps members who rmeained liable to recall would have been allocated to TA units in the civil defence role. The volunteers were directed towards the civilian civil defence organisations and the TA; some 44 MDC officers requested transfer to the TA after the disbandment was announced.[12]
By 1957 became solely an army unit, RAF involvement having ceased.[13]
Duncan Campbell called it the first step in the dismantling of the British civil defence establishment.[14]
- ^ Craine, Simon; Ryan, Noel (2011). "Protection from the Cold": Cold War Protection in Preparedness for Nuclear War. Wildtrack Publishing. pp. 116–117. ISBN 978-1-904098-19-5.
- ^ Bozman, Ernest Franklin (1967). Everyman's Encyclopaedia. Dent. p. 477.
- ^ Roper, Michael (1998). The Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660-1964. Public Record Office. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-873162-45-3.
- ^ Notes on Current Politics. Conservative Central Office. 1956. p. 17.
- ^ Onward (London). 1956. p. 14.
- ^ Grant, Matthew. "Civil Defence Policy in Cold War Britain, 1945-68" (PDF). PhD thesis. Queen Mary, University of London. p. 136.
- ^ "The history of the Mobile Defence Corps notes". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
- ^ "Mobile Defence Corps". Oral Answers to Questions — British Army – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 14 June 1955. TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
- ^ "Mobile Defence Corps (Disbandment) - Hansard - UK Parliament". Hansard. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
- ^ Statement on Defence 1955. H.M. Stationery Office. 1955. pp. 23–24.
- ^ Grant, M. (12 November 2009). After The Bomb: Civil Defence and Nuclear War in Britain, 1945-68. Springer. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-230-27404-4.
- ^ "British Army (Mobile Defence Corps) - Hansard - UK Parliament". Hansard. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
- ^ Brassey's Naval Annual. Praeger Publishers. 1957. p. 132.
- ^ Campbell, Duncan (1983). War Plan UK. Paladin. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-586-08479-3.