The discussion distinguishes Home Guard exercises away from home from exercises on familiar ground. Units serving as the enemy for regular troops could perform respectably outside their districts without exceptional results. In examples associated with preparations for D-Day, local Home Guard formations caused much greater difficulty for regular forces in their own areas. These exercise claims support the argument for local knowledge, although they cannot establish how the same units would have performed during an invasion.
Notable Point · 3:11:41-3:12:27
Why familiar ground mattered in Home Guard exercises
Exercise examples suggest that Home Guard units gained much of their effectiveness from detailed knowledge of their own districts.