Two weeks before Dunkirk, Anthony Eden, Minister of War, announced to the nation on BBC radio his concept of a Local Defence Volunteer force. The Germans were routing the French and British in Belgium and France, Norway was already lost, and within two weeks the cream of Britain's fighting forces would be weaponless and kitless, seeking rescue from the beaches of Dunkirk. Eden's words echoed around every living room in the country: 'In order to volunteer,...