Croatian Home Guard (Independent State of Croatia)
| Hrvatsko domobranstvo | |
|---|---|
Croatian Trefoil
|
|
| Active | 1941–1944 |
| Country |
 Independent State of Croatia
|
| Branch | Army Air Force Navy Gendarmerie |
| Size | 143,000 (1943) 70,000 (1944) |
| Colors | Red |
| Engagements | World War II in Yugoslavia |
| Commanders | |
| Commander-in-chief |
 Ante Pavelic
|
| Minister of Armed Forces |
_in_Independent_State_of_Croatia.svg){kind=small} Slavko Kvaternik
|
| Notable commanders |
Viktor Pavičić Vladimir Laxa |
The Croatian Home Guard (Croatian: Hrvatsko Domobranstvo) was part of the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia which existed during World War II.
The Croatian Home Guard was founded in April 1941, a few days after the founding of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) itself, following the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was done with the authorisation of German occupation authorities. The task of the new Croatian armed forces was to defend the new state against both foreign and domestic enemies.
Its name was taken from the old Royal Croatian Home Guard – the Croatian section of the Royal Hungarian Landwehr component of the Austro-Hungarian Army.
The Croatian Home Guard was originally limited to 16 infantry battalions and two cavalry squadrons – 16,000 men in total. The original 16 battalions were soon enlarged to 15 infantry regiments of two battalions each between May and June 1941, organised into five divisional commands, some 55,000 men. Support units included 35 former Yugoslav light tanks returned by Italy, four engineer battalions, 10 artillery battalions (equipped with captured Royal Yugoslav Army 105mm weapons of Czech origin), a cavalry regiment in Zagreb and an independent cavalry battalion at Sarajevo. Two independent motorized infantry battalions were based at Zagreb and Sarajevo respectively.
The fledgling Army crushed the revolt by Serbs in eastern Herzegovina in June, and fought in July in eastern and western Bosnia. They fought in eastern Herzegovina again, when Croatian-Dalmatian and Slavonian battalions reinforced local units. By the end of 1941, the NDH military forces consisted of 85,000 home guard and the national police force of about 6,000.
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