Home-Army Fifth Operational Corps

Home-Army Fifth Operational Corps
Also called:	Fifth Operational Corps, HAVOC, Scots Guards Special Support Group
Type:	Military organisation
Affiliation:	Scots Guards
Bases:	Chelsea Barracks, Dolerite Base
Leader:	Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart Walter Douglas William Bishop
Notable members:	William Bishop Gwynfor Evans Samson Ware Sally Wright Anne Travers Maisie Hawke
First mentioned in:	Mutually Assured Domination
First appearance:	Moon Blink

The Home-Army Fifth Operational Corps, latterly known as the Fifth Operational Corps, and publicly called the Scots Guards Special Support Group (sometimes Support Unit) was a military organisation which defended the Earth from alien threats in the late 20th century. The organisation's acronym represented the word 'Fifth' with the Roman numeral 'V', spelling HAVOC. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time) While primarily British Army, they also drew officers from the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. (PROSE: The Grandfather Infestation)

The organisation was a successor to the previous four Operational Corps, (PROSE: Mutually Assured Domination) LONGBOW, (PROSE: Moon Blink) and ICMG (PROSE: The Dogs of War) and a precursor to UNIT. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time) Ian Gilmore called the classified Home-Army Operational Corps as "the UK's best kept secret", due to their wide-ranging executive powers: while he didn't want to say they acted above the law, he said Winston Churchill had "made a lot of, shall we say, progressive use of them." (PROSE: The Dogs of War)

Organisation

Senior staff and communications & monitoring were located at Dolerite Base (code-named the Madhouse), under Edinburgh Castle. 1st Battalion were stationed at Stirling Castle, Scotland, while 2nd Battalion initially had no permanent base so they could be a more mobile response unit. A mobile HQ was set up in a Hercules transport plane. (PROSE: The Grandfather Infestation) Later, 2nd Battalion were permanently stationed at Imber Base (colloquially known as the Loony Bin). (PROSE: The Life of Evans) From early 1970, they also had two storage sites, one off the coast of Scotland called Argosy Isle, (PROSE: Times Squared) and another secret facility known only as the Warehouse, located in the county of Kirkcudbrightshire. (PROSE: A Very Private Haunting)

Officers were trained at the Joint Warfare Establishment. (PROSE: The Cult of the Grinning Man, The Grandfather Infestation)

History

After ICMG was destroyed in 1966, several important people in the British government wanted to create another alien defence organisation to replace it. (PROSE: The Dogs of War)

The numerous alien attacks in early 1969 gave Major General Oliver Hamilton and Ian Gilmore the leverage needed to convince the government to create the Fifth Operational Corps. (PROSE: Mutually Assured Domination)

It was funded in large by industrialist Peyton Bryden, who wished to benefit from the advanced alien tech so that Bryden Industries could continue to compete against International Electromatics, so its budget would be 'off the books'. To further keep the group secret, the initial soldiers were often the rotten apples of other regiments so nobody would wonder where they were going. The MOD liaison to the Corps was Peter Grant, who had a niece that was into 'spy stuff'. The HQ of the Corps was located in Dolerite Base with their troops stationed at Stirling Castle and in Imber. Alien technology was confiscated from the Vault and moved to Dolerite until Argosy Isle and the Warehouse was set up. (PROSE: Moon Blink, The Showstoppers, The Grandfather Infestation, Times Squared, A Very Private Haunting)

The Fifth was initially commanded by Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, who was promoted to brigadier shortly before officially taking command of Dolerite Base in Edinburgh. The Head of Science & Research was Doctor Anne Travers. (PROSE: The Showstoppers)

In 1973 (or 1980), Lethbridge-Stewart left the Fifth Operational Corps to create UNIT. He was ordered to pretend that Corps had never existed. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time)

The Corps continued, working on some of UNIT's more secretive operations. After Lethbridge-Stewart took over UNIT UK, Walter Douglas was promoted to brigadier and resumed command. (PROSE: Ashes of the Inferno)

It continued to secretly protect the UK in 1990 but had dropped the "Home Army" label. William Bishop was now second-in-command. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time) By 2000, Douglas had moved on and Bishop was promoted to brigadier and commander of the Corps, before it was finally merged into the newly branded Unified Intelligence Taskforce in the mid-2000s. (PROSE: The Two Brigadiers)