Home guard

A Zemessardze (Latvian National Guardsman) guards the battalion tactical operations center during the Strong Guard 2016 (Zobens 2016) distinguished visitor's day.

Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.

The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting with units formed by German immigrants in Missouri, and may derive from possible historic use of the term Heimwehr ("home guard") to describe units officially known as Landwehr ("country guard"), or from an attempted translation of landwehr.

Military units[]

Active[]

	Country	Name	Active
	Sweden	Swedish Home Guard	1940-
	Norway	Norwegian Home Guard	1946-
	Denmark	Danish Home Guard	1949-
	Estonia	Estonian Defence League	1918-1940, 1990-
	Latvia	Latvian National Guard	1991-
	Lithuania	Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces	1991-
	India	Indian Home Guard	1962-
	Sri Lanka	Sri Lankan Home Guard	1986-
	Poland	Polish Territorial Defense Force	2017-
	United States	State defense forces of State governments and Territory governments	1917-

Historical[]

• Aizsargi (Latvia, 1919–1940)
• Home Guard (Unionist), during the American Civil War
• Confederate Home Guard (1861–1865) during the American Civil War
• Croatian Home Guard, several historic military formations during 19th and 20th century
• (1918–1919)
• Home Guard (Austria) (Heimwehr) (1920–1938) paramilitary unit of Fatherland Front Party
• Home Guard (New Zealand) (1940–1943)
• Home Guard (United Kingdom) (1940–1944)
• Home Service Force, British force for the 1980s-90s.
• Indian Home Guard, units raised from Indian tribes to support the Unionists in the American Civil War
• Kikuyu Home Guard, a government paramilitary force in Kenya (1953–1955)
• Lithuanian Riflemen's Union (1919–, unofficial since 1991)
• , auxiliary volunteer police forces in Malaya during Malayan Emergency^[1]
• Slovene Home Guard (1943–1945)
• Volkssturm Nazi Germany (1944-1945)
• Volunteer Defence Corps (Australia) (1940-1944)

Similar Units[]

• Civil Guard (disambiguation)
• Home Army (Armia Krajowa), Poland, World War II
• Fencibles, British temporary militia's
• Boeitai, a Japanese home guard force of World War II
• Kaitseliit, Estonian Defence League
• Local Defence troops (Finland)
• Militia
• Ordenanças, Portuguese home guard from 1570 to 1831
• Omakaitse, Estonian Home Guard in World War II
• State defense forces, home guards of individual U.S. states
• United States Guards
• Wachdienst, an auxiliary organisation erected by the Third Reich in Germany during the last months of World War II

Other[]

• Home Guard (Shannara), in Terry Brooks' novel series
• Home Guard potato, a variety of first early potato

References[]

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