The Henley Home Guard headquarters was just around the corner in the Drill Hall on Friday Street.  It was their job to protect the local area in the event of an invasion.  The 5^th Oxfordshire (Henley) Battalion formed one of seven Home Guard battalions in Oxfordshire, totalling over 1,000 men. The Henley Battalion was divided into four companies and each company was divided into platoons of 25-30 men. The Home Guard was a serious effort to make the country safe in the event of an invasion.  They were taught how to march, drill, throw Mills Bombs and operate a firearm – mainly by those with previous experience, often from WW1.  Mr Brayne recalled that his platoon mounted sentry duty on Henley Bridge, only patrolling from the guard room to halfway across the bridge, the other half was in Berkshire, and therefore not their responsibility as Henley was in Oxfordshire.

The Henley Home Guard patrolled the bridge but not the River Thames, which was the responsibility of a branch of the Home Guard, called the Upper Thames Patrol (“UTP”). The UTP members cruised the river and walked its banks 24hrs a day from 1940 to Nov 1944.  Each member committed at least 71/2 hours per week unpaid.  Pubs near to the river were commandeered as headquarters for the group, and the UTP became known as the “Up The Pub” lot.  The mostly private launches, usually with the owner as a crew member, were provided with an identification badge, fuel and a lock pass.  At least two crew members were armed.  Their duties were to protect locks, weirs and ensure no enemy activity on the river was signalling to aircraft.  In an invasion they were responsible for blowing bridges and locks and opening weirs as a means of defence.  From August 1940 all bridges were primed with explosives that could be detonated to prevent capture in the event of an invasion.  Most bridges still have the explosive within them as after the war a lot of it could not be removed from the tightly packed drill holes, so they were sealed with explosive still in place. Fortunately, the explosive needs a detonator to set it off, so it is considered quite safe!