Home Guard: Difference between revisions

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* Various characters in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series are mentioned in passing as being members of their armed forces' Reserves. Typically, such characters will be a bit older and wiser than their similarly-ranked companions, and officers of the Grayson Space Navy reserve forces are mentioned as having slightly different rank insignia.

* Frequently shows up in the [[Ryan Verse]] by [[Tom Clancy]]. In particular, a brigade of the North Carolina National Guard plays a pivotal role in ''Executive Orders'', General Gennady Iosefovitch Bondarenko manages to field an entire division of reservists in ''The Bear And The Dragon'', and John Kelly (later [[Badass|John Clark]]) is threatened with being recalled to active duty since he checked the box for joining the reserves in ''Without Remorse''

*In [[Lord of the Rings]] Hobbits are described as having a Shire Muster. The only time it sees combat in the book is toward the end when they face bandits. However a long time ago they had repulsed an orc-raid. They had also sent archers to join the expedition to destroy the Witch-King of Angmar, in alliance with Gondor, what was left of Arnor, and the Elves of Rivendell. Then too the Brandybuck clan which lived on the borders and were [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Hobbits]](yes there is such a thing, [[Downplayed Trope|well sort of]]) are described by Merry as fighting off evil tree spirits from the Old Forest. And in the book itself they even ''try'' to assemble a force to defy the Nazgul though they really didn't know what they were getting into.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

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** It was never quite as poorly-equipped as some fictional examples, however; whilst most of its members were exempt from the draft by virtue of age or a minor disability, most agricultural workers were exempt from the draft, and a fair percentage of them owned their own shotguns and varmint rifles which they knew how to use.

* In the U.S. this is called the National Guard, which traces its lineage back to [[Older Than They Think|1636]], with the formation of the Massachusetts Bay Regiments, local militias formed together by the colonial government into larger units so they could more effectively deal with the Pequot tribes.

**The Founding Fathers had a fear of [[The Generalissimo| military takeovers]] that goes back to [[Oliver Cromwell]] or even to [[Magna Carta|Medieval Kings]] who wanted to rule without Parliament. This is a normal theme in English history and is coincidently why the Royal Navy has more prestige(you can't do a coup with ships unless you can figure a way to take them inland). Because of this they put to much confidence in the militia. In point of fact they were a fine recruiting pool and made for a nation in which effectively [[Everyone Is Armed|everyone had been to boot camp.]] But when they were put into battle ''as'' militia, they usually found that militia who were serving out of state, commanded by(often elected) non-professional officers who were neighbors of the men they were supposed to order to their deaths and half-trained anyway. The result was that they of course ran. When militia was used properly(I.E. as a building block) in the [[American Civil War]] both sides could field a proper army in a remarkably short amount of time.

** In modern times, National Guardsmen typically are equipped with the same gear as their "Regular" Active Duty brethren, although up until the later years of the Cold War, it wasn't unusual for them to use obsolete equipment that had been cast off by the regular service, particularly for the Air Guard, since military aircraft are considerably more expensive than an infantryman's kit.

*** In addition to the National Guard, certain states even have a State Guard, essentially a National Guard writ small, which the Federal government has no claim to without the Governor's consent. These are typically intended to guarantee that the state will have at least a small reserve force of trained personnel if a crisis arises locally while the National Guard is deployed elsewhere.

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* Although it is very rare, the Boy Scouts themselves have been known to serve in this role in particularly trying times. The Polish Boy Scouts fought against the Germans during [[World War II]] as part of [[La Résistance]], often serving as scouts and messengers, and at one point late in the war even using ''tanks'' that they had captured from the Germans to help [[Big Damn Heroes|liberate a Concentration Camp]].

* Near the end of [[World War 2]] Nazi Germany had the [[wikipedia:Volkssturm|Volkssturm]]. Military service has been part of German culture for decades, so in theory, the Nazis would be able to scrounge up a massive reserve force that could hold off the Soviets. However, in practice, the majority of Volkssturm members were old men and veterans of the First World War. It pretty much boiled down to giving someone a gun and hoping they could kill enough Russians.

* The Kamikaze were this. Because Japan was out of trained pilots(most of these were dead, the replacement program was inferior to begin with and needed more flight time then they had fuel to spare), the rather brutal alternative they came up with was to turn half-trained pilots into missiles. However callous, tactically it wasn't one of their worst ideas although they would have been better off surrendering. In any case though at first glance it has the weird Japanese romanticism about [[Suicide Mission|Suicide Missions]] the effect was the same as how many nations thought of their home guard. They recruited them from civilians(usually educated young men)and sent them into a desperate battle they did not have much expectation of coming back from. Unlike Poles, Russians, Germans, and later Haganah troopers they were expected to push the button on themselves rather then just [[Suicide by Cop| fighting until they died]]. Thus they were not really the most bizarre example of the Japanese military cult's romanticism. That "honor" would probably go to Saipan where civilians including women and children were pressured into killing themselves in full view of the American invaders.

*The Fyrd was the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo Saxon]] version of this. They owed a period of time a year. [[Alfred the Great]] tinkered with the calender to make sure the call up came to differing parts of the country in a staggered schedule.

*The Swiss are famous for this, and aside from those that were doing mercenary service that was their main force.

*Greek hoplites were for the most part this. Phalanx warfare was made to be for a home guard. All anyone had to do was ''push''.

*The [[Israelis With Infrared Missiles|IDF]] has always maintained a tradition of this that enabled it to punch above it's weight class. More noticeable was in the 1948 war. During that time sometimes concentration camp survivors were given rifles right off the boat and [[Tear Jerker|sent into hopeless attacks.]] Those few who survived, of course, [[Earn Your Happy Ending|became citizens.]]