Older local defenders could bring military experience and a strong personal reason to resist invasion. Britain's Home Guard provides the example, with World War I veterans imagined defending children and grandchildren from the enemy they had previously fought. Age alone gives little reason to expect weak resistance when a defender's family is directly threatened. The same reasoning applies to Malta: isolated parachutists entering houses would face residents who knew the ground and were defending their own homes.
Notable Point · 3:34:40-3:35:46
Veterans, family ties and determination in local defence
The argument for taking the Home Guard seriously combines wartime experience with the motivation to protect families and familiar ground.