Swedish Home Guard
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The Swedish Home Guard, or Hemvärnet, is a Swedish defence organization and a part of the Swedish Armed Forces. The Home Guard consists of local defence units under the leadership of the armed forces, as well as 23 national auxillary defence organizations.
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History
Main article: Sweden during World War II
The Home Guard was officially passed into law by the Riksdag on May 29, 1940, after the beginning of World War II, but units had already been formed by the military before it was passed into law. Home Guard Units were groups of usually eight to 15 men that served as defense units in a time of war, located in towns and in both private and public factories, all throughout Sweden. Members of these small units usually consisted of former professional military men who were equipped with rifles, machine guns, ammunition, medicine, special clothing (uniforms), and had the option of buying additional materials such as skis, sweaters and marching boots. An additional group, called the Lotta corps (Women's Voluntary Defense Service), helped with additional tasks that the Home Unit was unable to perform themselves. The Lotta corps helped provide the home unit with additional items such as socks, scarves and gloves as well as performing all administrative work that the unit could not afford to do themselves. In a time of war, in case the Home Guard was unable to utilize any local hospitals for their use, the Swedish Red Cross was prepared to set up first aid stations to help aid the Home Guard.
Organisation
The Home Guard is organised in Batallions, covering a part of a Län. These batallions are the organised into companies, usually one for every Kommun. The main task of the batallions are to defend and protect vital military and civilian installations throughout the country. Also attached to every batallion is at least one Rapid Response Platoon ( Insatspluton ). The task of this platoon is to operate ahead of time, when the rest of the Home Guard is not mobilized and there is no other general mobilization. They have a much more diversified combat task than the rest of the Home Guard, including Escort, Guarding, and Counter Insurgency.
Method of operation
The Home Guard units are trained to provide local combat units (primarily infantry but also signals troops). This means they know the area where they will function, hopefully better than any invasion force. The focus of the training is on improvised warfare (Guerilla warfare). The Rapid Response Platoons, are more focused on a more traditional infantry warfare, and are trained to be able to work in conjunction with the regular armed forces. The aim is to have all Home Guard battalions ready for combat within two hours of a general alert.
In peacetime the Home Guards main task is to help with search and rescue operations, and to provide assistance to the society in cases of severe trauma i.e natural disasters and alike.
See also
- Lottorna (Swedish Women's Voluntary Defence Service)
External links
- Hemvärnet (http://www.hemvarnet.mil.se) - Official site of the Swedish Home Guard (Swedish only)
- Swedish Armed Forces (http://www.mil.se/?lang=eng) - Official site of the Swedish Armed Forces