Domobrani

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
Belarus	Territorial Defense Troops of Belarus	2002–
Bermuda	Royal Bermuda Regiment	1965–
Canada	Canadian Rangers	1942–
Cayman Islands	Cayman Islands Regiment	2020–
Denmark	Danish Home Guard	1949–
Estonia	Estonian Defence League	1918–1940, 1990–
Falklands	Falkland Islands Defence Force	1892–
Germany	Heimatschutz of Bundeswehr	1965–2007, 2019–
Gibraltar	Royal Gibraltar Regiment	1958–
India	Indian Home Guard	1962–
Latvia	Latvian National Guard	1991–
Lithuania	Lithuanian Riflemen's Union	1918–1940, 1989–
	Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces	1991–
	Lithuanian Armed Forces Military Commandant's Offices Command	2025–
Montserrat	Royal Montserrat Defence Force	1898–
Norway	Norwegian Home Guard	1946–
Poland	Polish Territorial Defense Force	2017–
Russia	Russian Territorial Defense Force	2022–
Sri Lanka	Sri Lankan Home Guard	1986–
Sweden	Swedish Home Guard	1940–
Turks and Caicos	Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment	2020–
Ukraine	Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces	2022–
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) (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 Emergency^[1]
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

References

Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya, Director of Operations, Malaya, 1958, Chapter III: Own Forces