Who doesn’t like a good old gaming scenario map?
Spotted on eBay (screenshot image source), a curious (reprint?) publication called The Defence Of Bloodford Village 1940 by Colonel G.A. Wade MC.
According to Abebooks, cheap used copies of a reprint made in 2016 or print on demand copies are only a few pounds with
“colour maps …
A fascinating “what might have been” account of a fictitious defence of an English village by the Home Guard in the Second World War. Published by the Home Guard late in 1940 when the invasion scare was at its height, the booklet, illustrated with maps, presents a narrative of a war game that might have become all too real. Used in Home Guard training to provides ideas and strategies, the publication gives a unique glimpse into British defences against Operation Sealion.”
Colonel Wade wrote other Home Guard volumes such as Defence Of Houses, 1940 (reprinted) 
And according to the SF Encyclopaedia website a wide range of training manuals:
More Wade Home Guard reprints available here: https://shop.royalarmouries.org/collections/home-guard-training-series
Wade’s Whimsies?
Even stranger, this Colonel George Wade MC was part of the Wade Potteries that produced Wade’s Whimsies, those collectible 1950s to 1970s pottery animals.
At first hearing, Wade’s Whimsies sound like they could have been those strange and deadly (mostly to its users) improvised Home Guard weapons, his version of the weird Hobart’s Funnies tanks from D-Day.
Instead, they were small collectible pocket money ceramic animals.
“Sir George Wade was born George Albert Wade on the 19th July 1891 in Burslem. His father, also George, owned a pottery in Burslem. When George Jnr returned home after the First World War, (he was awarded the MC for Valour in December 1917 with a Bar added in January 1919), his father made him a partner in the company and thereafter the company was called George Wade & Son Ltd.”
In the 1930s, Wade were producing collectible ceramic animals.
During the war Wade was busy writing the Gale and Polden Home Guard training series of books.
“… In the 1950s, Wade began working with the talented modeller William Harper, who worked on developing the now famous Wade whimsies concept …”
https://www.potteriesauctions.com/news/the-wonderful-history-of-wade-pottery
Wikimedia photo of Wade’s Whimsies
Wade’s WW1 military record is described in more detail here:
My few chipped and battered Whimsies from childhood crackers are now long gone (my late Mum had a small collection too).
Sadly as of December 2022, after 150 years Wade’s pottery has now closed. A victim of energy price rises (partly the Ukraine conflict?)
Another small British pottery or ceramics company like Lilliput Lane gone. https://www.wadecollectorsclub.co.uk
Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 28 March 2023
Look Duck and Varnish 