Army in Overalls

Suppose Great Britain is at war with a Continental power. A squadron of enemy bombers darts out of the fog hanging over the North Sea. British coastal defense guns bark out, several bombers hurtle earthward but a few jab through the curtain of fire and streak for vulnerable inland industrial centres. Word is flashed ahead to the factories. There machines shudder to a stop, squads of workmen, volunteer members of the factory workers' army, drop their tools, pull on light canvas overalls and race to man antiaircraft batteries set up in the grounds. Officers of this army-in-overalls strap on Sam Browne belts as their distinguishing mark of rank. Many a bomber is brought down.

This was the picture broadcast last week by War Secretary Hore-Belisha as he issued the first call for volunteers to join a new army of British workers, which is to be formed as a reserve of the Territorial Army, which is a reserve of the regular forces (see p. 20). Desperately striving to enlist every available male in the defense forces without having to resort to conscription, the War Secretary announced that the new reserve-of-a-reserve will be made up of volunteers between 38 and 50, many of them ex-servicemen, too old for Army or Territorial Army service.

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