Home Army

The Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa; Polish pronunciation: [ˈarmʲa kraˈjɔva], abbreviated AK) was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance). Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish Government-in-Exile, and it constituted the armed wing of what became known as the "Polish Underground State".

Estimates of the Home Army's 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000, the most commonly cited number being 400,000. The latter number would make the Home Army not only the largest Polish underground resistance movement but one of the three largest in Europe during World War II. The Home Army was disbanded on 19 January 1945, when Polish territory had largely been cleared of German forces by the Soviet Red Army.

The Home Army sabotaged German operations such as transports headed for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union. The Home Army also fought several full-scale battles against the Germans, particularly in 1943 and in the 1944 Operation Tempest. The Home Army, in support of the Soviet military effort, tied down substantial German forces and destroyed much-needed German supplies.

Home Guard

Home Guard is a title given to various 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 historic use of the term Heimwehr ("home guard") to describe units officially known as Landwehr ("country guard"), or from an attempted translation of landwehr.

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