Memories of the Home Guard
"The aim of the mobile unit was if an enemy broke through the lines, we would he sent to plug the gap," recalls Wally.
Wally of the High Street, Thornton Heath, served with Jack Gale, whose account of Croydon's own Dad's Army was printed in Heritage last month.
"Our headquarters used to be at Lanfranc School, which was then in Thornton Road," he says.
"A lot of time was spent training how to fall off a moving lorry in full kit and we also trained in unarmed combat. We were taught how to disable an enemy tank by jamming the tracks with an army blanket.
"Weapons by this time were a lot better, we trained with short rapid machine guns, which could damage your fingers if you did not keep them away from a small hole at the barrel end.
"Another weapon we had at the time was the Northover Projector, which fired small glass bottles, a mixture of phosphorus and petrol.
"Once broken, the two chemicals mixed and burst into a sheet of flame.
"It was good to see the pictures of the unit once again," he adds.
"George Fisher who, with his accordion, could start many a sing song and Sergeant Peter Lesperance used to shout 'I may have a French name but I am still British'."