TRACES of Churchill’s secret Second World War guerrilla army have been uncovered in an archaeological dig at Coleshill, on the Oxfordshire border.

They include what may be the remains of a bunker used to train ordinary British people selected by covert recruiters, in the arts of sabotage, disruption and assassination.

If the Nazis had invaded, the guerrillas’ brief was to hide in bunkers throughout the country, and comeout at night to wreak havoc until they died in battle or at the hands of the Gestapo.

Between 1940 and 1944, about 2,000 people are thought to have trained at Coleshill before dispersing to live ordinary lives until a crisis which, mercifully, never came.

But their story has remained largely hidden, as they were sworn to secrecy about their role.The latest investigation was organised by the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team (Cart), set up to research the role of the auxiliary units and their base at the property, now owned by the National Trust.

Cart founder Tom Sykes said: “It’s nice that after 70 years, and with the help of the National Trust, we’re able to uncover more of the secrets that Churchill probably wouldn’t have wanted us to know about.

“What we have uncovered is evidence that there is plenty more to be uncovered.

“The biggest thing is that by finding the shaft near the existing operational base, we have confirmed there are probably more.

“We suspected this all along, and it needs further investigation. This is merely the beginning.”

Major finds include what is either the entrance to another bunker nearby or a demonstration model of a counterweighted trapdoor entrance, and the concrete bases of long-gone buildings used during the war.

A volunteer digger uncovered the shaft to the newly discovered bunker on his very first archaeological dig.

Mr Sykes said the find confirmed much of what experts had believed about how the recruits were trained.

Prior to the dig, investigators found traces of living quarters in the stable block, the foundations of the old house, a guard house on an approach road, the remains of weapons and other equipment, and an underground training base in the nearby woods.