Tides of History: Invasion and Resistance

Author and poet Owen Sheers visits South Wales, the setting for his book Resistance, which was inspired by the tales he heard growing up of a secret rural army trained to hold off a potential German invasion during the second world war.

Owen meets one of the last surviving members of the rural auxiliary unit and speaks to some of the people who had no idea that members of their family were highly trained to move silently through the surrounding countryside, ensuring it became a difficult and hostile environment for the German army to infiltrate. Finally Owen heads underground into one of the secret bunkers, where ammunition was hidden in the Monmouthshire countryside.