Ivan Mower
Veteran of the secret wartime Auxiliary Units who did not know his father had also been an Auxilier
IVAN MOWER, who has died aged 97, was one of the last survivors of the highly secret wartime Auxiliary Units who were trained to leave their homes in the event of an invasion and move to specially prepared Operational Bases (OBS) underground.
By mid-1940, the defences of Poland, Norway and the Low Countries had been overwhelmed. German forces were in occupation of north-east France and appeared to be poised to invade England. Pillboxes and tank traps began to appear in the countryside and entanglements of barbed wire on the beaches.
It was decided that the regular defences needed to be supplemented with guerrillatype troops and this led to the formation of Auxiliary Units under Colonel (later Major-general Sir) Colin Gubbins.
Mower was one of nine men who formed the Stradbroke Patrol, with an OB near Eye, Suffolk. There was a sergeant and a corporal; the rest were privates. His comrades, for the most part farm workers, were volunteers for what could have been a suicide mission.
They were to remain hidden in their OBS during an invasion, come up behind the German lines and hinder their advance by laying mines and booby traps, blowing up petrol and ammunition dumps, railway lines and occupied airfields.
Tough, resilient and resourceful, many of them were used to handling guns. One unit had a poacher and gamekeeper on the same patrol. They used service with the Home Guard to explain their absences from home; sometimes they were away all night on a training exercise. Their training included close combat and silent killing, and they became skilful at moving soundlessly through close country at night.
The Auxiliers had priority in the allocation of weapons, and explosives and stores included gelignite, oil bombs, magnesium incendiary bombs, pistols, revolvers and fighting knives.
Some of the OBS were in existing mines and tunnels. Others were constructed of corrugated-iron sections sunk into the ground with concrete-pipe access and escape tunnels. Many were in dense woodland in remote areas with access by way of a grassed-over trap door which only close inspection would reveal.
Mower’s OB was built by the patrol. It consisted of a main chamber constructed from timber and corrugated sheeting with a separate room for bunk beds. The hideout had a flat roof which was covered with soil and well camouflaged. Access was by way of a trapdoor with a gully leading away from it into woodland.
Two schoolboys, for many weeks playing truant daily from school, found the OB and had the time of their lives underground surrounded by weapons, ammunition and incendiary devices. Despite a search, it was some time before they were discovered and, as a result of their pranks, the OB had to be abandoned and rebuilt elsewhere. Remains of it were found by researchers about 60 years after the end of the war.
On one occasion, General (later Field Marshal) Montgomery came to inspect an underground OB. It was in a little spinney on an isolated farm; what looked like a mousehole in the earth was pointed out to him. A marble inserted into the hole ran down a length of concealed gas pipe and fell into a biscuit tin. This was the signal for the patrol leader to emerge from the camouflaged entrance.
Ivan James Frederick Mower was born at Huntingfield, Suffolk, on February 21 1924. Aged 14, he left Stradbroke School and joined the Auxiliary Units in 1940. He underwent training at Bury St Edmunds and Cley on the Norfolk coast.
Unknown to him, his father, Albert, served in the same patrol but at a different time. They had both signed the Official Secrets Act and throughout the war neither said anything to the other about being an Auxilier. It was not until the names of members of the patrol were released in the late 1990s that he discovered the truth.
In November 1944, as the threat of invasion diminished, the units were stood down. Mower was properly conscripted, retrained and shipped off to fight the Japanese in Burma. On V-E Day, May 1945, he was at Gibraltar on a ship bound for Calcutta. After the Japanese surrender, he spent several months in Rangoon clearing up the detritus of war. He received the Defence Medal.
In 1947, he returned to England and worked for many years as a nurseryman at Etheridge Nursery, Stradbroke. After a short illness he retired aged 71. In retirement, he enjoyed shooting, game rearing and gardening.
Ivan Mower married, in 1950, Marjorie Mary Boast. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their son and daughter.
Ivan Mower, born February 21 1924, died April 27 2021