Uniforms of the Swedish Home

Guard - Hemvärnet

Introduction

The “Landstorm”, instituted in 1885, was a secondary military force of volunteer soldiers above the age of 30 and a predecessor to the Home Guard established in 1940. An Act passed in the parliament in 1942 disestablished the “Landstorm” and was replaced by the newly established Home Guard. The Home Guard was established in 1940 according to an parliament Act passed on May 29, 1940. The plan was to established a Home Guard force of 50,000 soldiers. However, there was a great interest in the Home Guard and they soon numbered 100,000 soldiers. There were a shortage of uniforms for the Home Guard. Landstorm insignia m/1905 and armlet m/1911 were the first distinguishing marks of the Home Guard. They were later replaced by cap badge m/1940 and armlet m/1940 and a temporary thin cotton uniform m/1940 worn over civilian clothes. The image to the right shown Landstorm armlet m/1911.

Uniform m/1940

Uniform m/1940 was a temporary solution due the lack of uniforms for the Home Guard. The uniform was merely a two-piece overall made of cotton fabric worn over civilian clothes. It consisted of coat m/1940 and trousers m/1940. The coat was unlined and made of un-impregnated cotton, single-breasted with 5 buttons and equipped with two side pockets and a folded collar. It soon became clear that this uniform was less suited for field service. The image to the right shows Home Guard coat m/1940. Miliseum. Digitalmuseum.

Uniform m/1941

The first real uniform of the Home Guard was uniform m/1941. This uniform was assigned to the soldiers of the Home Guard in October 1941 and was made of a more durable fabric than uniform m/1940. The uniform m/1941 consisted of coat m/1941, trousers m/1941 and garrison cap m/1939. The coat was made of a gray-brown- green impregnated canvas, single- breasted with 5 buttons and equipped with a folded collar and two side and two pockets, all with flaps. The image to the right shows Home Guard coat m/1941, Company Commander. Army Museum, Digitalmuseum. The branch insignia m/1940 (armlet) of the Home Guard was worn on the left upper sleeve. The branch insignia was made of cloth and was composed of a blue crowned escutcheon containing a yellow “H” and three yellow crowns. The “H” is short for Hemvärnet, the Swedish name of the Home Guard. The image to the left shows Home Guard branch insignia m/1940. The trousers was made of the same fabric as the coat and equipped with two side pockets and a hip pocket. Part of the uniform was winter cap m/1941. The combat helmet assigned to the Home Guard was helmet m/1921. In 1943 the Home Guard acquired a peaked ski cap, m/1943. See photos below.

Rank Insignias of the Home Guard

The rank insignias of the Home Guard were blue stripes worn on the lower parts of the sleeves for the petty commanders such as corporals and sergeants. Team commanders (Corporals) wore 2 stripes and platoon commanders (Sergeants, Swe: Furir) 3 stripes. The image to the right shows the three stripes worn by Platoon Commanders, There were only one NCO rank in the Home Guard at the time, a rank corresponding to Staff Sergeant, and they wore 2 chevrons on the lower parts of the sleeves. Officers wore blue insignias of metal in the shape of rhombuses on their shoulder straps. A Home Guard Company Commander wore two rhombuses and Home Guard Region Commander wore three rhombuses. the image to the left shows the rank insignia for a Home Guard Company Commander. Army Museum.

Images of uniforms, the Home Guard

Combat Uniform m/1939

Initially only the Home Guard Region Commanders (Hemvärnskretsbefälhavare ) and Home Guard District Commanders (Hemvärnsområdesbefälhavare) were assigned the new combat uniform m/1939. Subordinated Home Guard commanders then still wore the Home Guard uniform m/1941. The Home Guard branch insignia (armlet m/1941) was worn on the left upper sleeve. Headgear was garrison cap m/1939 with cap badge m/1940. In 1943 peaked cap m/1943 was introduced and worn by the officers of the Home Guard. This cap was similar to peaked cap m/1939 but equipped with blue piping and the Home Guard cap badge, made of blue and yellow enamel. Greatcoat m/1939 was assigned to the Home Guard in 1943. Like on the coat, the Home Guard armlet was worn on the left upper sleeve of the greatcoat. A few adjustments were done to the uniform of Home Guard. The new Home Guard branch insignia, collar tab m/1946, was worn on both collar tips. The image to the right shows collar tab m/1946 of the Home Guard. Army Museum. Also, a volunteer insignia m/1946 (Swe: frivilligtecken) for the Home Guard was introduced in 1946 and worn on the left breast pocket. It was a blue ellipse plate with a gold colored emblem. Also, there were 18 different variants of this insignia worn by subordinated branches of the Home Guard, the so-called “industrial civil defense units” (Swe: Driftsvärnet). The image to the left shows volunteer insignia m/1946 of the Home Guard. Army Museum. The image to the right shows volunteer insignia m/1946 used by the industrial civil defense units organized by the Swedish Railroad Company, SJ. Army Museum. Rank insignias were worn on the shoulder straps. In 1952, the former rhombus rank insignias worn by officers were now replaced by stars. One star was Deputy District Commander and two stars District Commander/Company Commander and three stars Region Commander. Platoon commander (NCO) wore a star button. Deputy Team Commander (Vice Corporal) wore 1 stripe, Team Commander (Corporal) 2 stripes and Deputy Platoon Commander (Sergeant) 3 stripes. The rank insignias was made in bronze or gold color depending of rank. The soldiers of the Home Guard weren’t assigned combat uniform m/1939 until 1945. However, it took a 5 years before all soldiers of the Home Guard were equipped with uniform m/1939. The Home Guard armlet (branch insignia) worn on the left upper sleeve was abolished in 1946. Instead the Home Guard was equipped with a special collar tab for the Home Guard, collar tab m/1946. The collar tab was made of metal and contained, like the armlet, an “H” and three crowns. See above. The positions of the Home Guard ranks were adjusted in 1952 to better match the ranks of the Army. Before, platoon commanders held the rank of Sergeant (Swe: Furir) and were now raised to the rank of Staff Sergeant (Swe: Sergeant) while Deputy Team Commanders were striped of the rank Corporal (two stripes) down to Vice Corporal (one stripe) to better match the ranks of the Army.

Combat uniform m/1958, m/1939-1958 and

m/1959

The combat uniform m/1939 worn by the Home Guard was at the end of the 1950s gradually replaced by the then new combat uniforms m/1958, m/1939-1958 and m/1959. These uniforms were the same as the ones worn by the Army, but worn with the insignias of the Home Guard. The image to the right shows soldiers of the National Home Guard wearing combat uniform m/1939-1958. The photo was taken on June 6, 1967. My own collection, Hans Högman 2012.

Service Dress Uniform m/1960 and m/1968

Since 1960, the Home Guard is authorized to wear all military articles of clothing as the Army. Service dress uniform m/1960 was in other words also used by the Home Guard. Commanders of the Home Guard above the rank of Sergeant (Swe: Furir) were authorized to wear service dress uniform m/1968. However they had to acquire this uniform by private means.

Service Dress Uniform m/1987A

Home Guard commanders are authorized to wear service dress uniform m/1987A according to to the same regulations as for uniform m/1960.

Combat Uniform m/1990

The Home Guard was authorized to wear combat uniform m/1990 in 1999 and the Guard uniform is composed of the same articles of clothes as the Army. Collar tab m/1958 is worn with the branch insignia of the Home Guard on the combat jacket. Commanders of the Home Guard are wearing rank insignias of the left collar tip. Nationality insignia is worn on the left upper sleeve. The Home Guard was authorized to wear berets in 2003. The Home Guard beret is made of brown felt and equipped with Army cap badge m/2002.

Related Links

• About the Swedish Home Guard • Uniforms of the Landstorm • Military Uniforms of the Women’s Voluntary Defense Services • Uniforms of the Swedish Lotta Corps (Lottakåren) • Designation of Swedish military uniform models • Aircraft Warning Service - Female Aircraft Observers, Sweden • Reference literature Top of page