Home guard

File:A Zemessardze (Latvian National Guardsman) guards the battalion tactical operations center during the Strong Guard 2016.jpg

A Zemessardze (Latvian National Guardswoman) 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 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
	Canada	Canadian Rangers	1942–
	Denmark	Danish Home Guard	1949–
File:Kaitseliit emblem.svg	Estonia	Estonian Defence League	1918–1940, 1990–
File:Emblem of the Heimatschutz.png	Germany	Heimatschutz of Bundeswehr	1965–2007, 2019–
File:Delhi home guard symbol.png	India	Indian Home Guard	1962–
File:Latvian National Guard emblem.svg	Latvia	Latvian National Guard	1991–
File:Insignia of the National Defence Volunteer Forces (Lithuania).png	Lithuania	Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces	1991–
File:Coat of arms of the Norwegian Home Guard.svg	Norway	Norwegian Home Guard	1946–
File:POL Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej.svg	Poland	Polish Territorial Defense Force	2017–
	Sri Lanka	Sri Lankan Home Guard	1986–
File:Hemvarnet vapen bra.svg	Sweden	Swedish Home Guard	1940–
File:Territorial Defence Forces branch SSI.svg	Ukraine	Territorial Defense Forces	2022–
File:SDFBranchInsigniaColor.jpg	United States	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)
• 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)
• Malayan Home Guard, auxiliary volunteer police forces in Malaya during Malayan Emergency
• 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
• 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