Family survival changed the Home Guard's measure of success

Many Home Guard members would have sons serving elsewhere while wives, daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren lived nearby. Some relatives might have been evacuated from cities into their homes. Delay offered time for naval interdiction and regular-army counterattacks, as well as an opportunity for those relatives to escape. A further motivation was the belief circulating in Britain that the German army had become even less concerned about civilian casualties than in the previous war. This motivation depended on what British defenders believed, with differences between German units explicitly acknowledged. A defender prepared to sacrifice his own survival for relatives' safety could force a maneuver army to spend time and resources it needed for a rapid advance.