Southern Exmoor during World war II

The Second World War brought enormous change to Exmoor and brought the area out of its relative isolation. Infantry and artillery training turned Exmoor into a noisy battleground, land was ploughed for corn and potatoes, men left the land for the army and Land Army women and prisoners of war arrived to work on local farms, older and younger men joined the Home Guard, and evacuees swelled the population although the holiday trade languished. Southern Exmoor escaped the worst horrors of the Second World War. Casualties among local men who joined up were light.