Popular comedy created a misleading image of the Home Guard. Many of the men who would have defended southern England were First World War veterans still physically capable from farming or other manual work. They knew the roads, fields, bridges, and valleys of their own districts and understood defensive warfare from direct experience. The prospect of an invading army reaching wives, children, and grandchildren gave them an intensely personal reason to hold ground. In the invasion scenario, determined resistance from improvised positions could buy time for families to escape and regular formations to arrive. A German force struggling through those local defenses would also face Royal Navy units prepared to accept severe losses to break into the Channel and destroy its transport lifeline.
Notable Point · 2:14:57-2:19:10
Home Guard veterans brought local knowledge and trench experience to invasion defence
First World War veterans defending familiar ground and endangered families would have imposed a costly close-range fight on any German landing force.