Home guard is a title given to 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 historical 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 Territorial Defense Troops of Belarus 2002– Royal Bermuda Regiment 1965– Canadian Rangers 1942– Cayman Islands Regiment 2020– Danish Home Guard 1949– Estonian Defence League 1918–1940, 1990– Falkland Islands Defence Force 1892– Heimatschutz of Bundeswehr1965–2007, 2019– Royal Gibraltar Regiment 1958– Indian Home Guard1962– Latvian National Guard 1991– Lithuanian Riflemen's Union 1918–1940, 1989–Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces1991–Lithuanian Armed Forces Military Commandant's Offices Command2025– Royal Montserrat Defence Force 1898– Norwegian Home Guard 1946– Polish Territorial Defense Force 2017– Russian Territorial Defense Force 2022– Sri Lankan Home Guard 1986– Swedish Home Guard 1940– Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment 2020– Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces 2022– State defense forces of State governments and Territory governments 1917–
Historical & Defunct Aizsargi (Latvia, 1919–1940) Home Guard (Unionist), during the American Civil War Civilian Irregular Defense Group program (1961-1970) during the Vietnam War Confederate Home Guard (1861–1865) during the American Civil War Croatian Home Guard, several historic military formations during 19th and 20th century Czechoslovak Home Guard (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) (1952-1957) 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) Malayan Home Guard, auxiliary volunteer police forces in Malaya during Malayan EmergencyConduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya, Director of Operations, Malaya, 1958, Chapter III: Own Forces Narodnoe Opolcheniye, Russia Slovene Home Guard (1943–1945) Veterans Guard of Canada (1940–1947) Volkssturm, Nazi Germany (1944-1945) Volunteer Defence Corps (Australia) (1940-1944) Volunteer Fighting Corps, Japanese armed citizen militia (1945)
Similar units Auxiliary Units City guard Civil Guard (disambiguation) Gendarmerie Home Guard (India) Home Army (Armia Krajowa), Poland, World War II Fencibles, British temporary militias Boeitai, a Japanese home guard force of World War II Kondei, ancient Japanese militia of the Nara and Heian periods Local Defence troops (Finland) Militia Ordenanças, Portuguese home guard from 1570 to 1831 Omakaitse, Estonian Home Guard in World War II United States Coast Guard Reserve "temporary reservists" during World War II 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
See also Irregular military Irregular warfare Insurgency weapons and tactics Internal security
References