Summary of article in Billed Bladet #14, 2019.
Written by Helle Skram de Fries.
QMII and Mary recently attended a parade on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the formation of the Home Guard.
During that parade a number of very senior guardsmen, who have been members from the very beginning were decorated by QMII.
- Of course they have long since stopped being active members, but being among the founding members and having remained members for so many active years they have been kept on among the currently passive members for life - as IMO a deserved cutesy.
The Home Guard was formed by former Resistance fighters who were appalled that Denmark surrendered after a few hours on 9th April 1940 and who wowed that it should never happen again. When the Russians came, it was expected, Denmark would go down fighting!
(In fact Polish, supported by Russian Marines, were supposed to land south of Copenhagen. Airborne troops were supposed to have landed, taking control of key bridges and East German divisions were supposed to roll up through Jutland a few days after war broke out. - But before that tactical nuclear missiles deployed in East Germany would have destroyed Copenhagen, as well as the towns of Aalborg, Aarhus, Esbjerg, Frederikshavn, Korsør. So would the air bases at Aalborg, Karup, Skrydstrup and Værløse. As well as the fortress at Stevns. And finally the government bunkers Regan East and West - where key persons including the DRF would have taken shelter.
There wouldn't have been much left of Denmark to fight over...)
Another reason why DK surrendered so quickly in 1940 was that the army had been cut down to a skeletal force and had been forbidden by the politicians to prepare defensive position, let alone deploy into defensive position until at the very last minute.
The military was to offer a symbolic resistance - a kind of diplomatic protest by gun.
In the ice cold light of hindsight it was a sound policy that spared Denmark as much as possible from the terrors of war - but it sure isn't something to be proud of!
Many Danes, during and after WWII, when they saw the same politicians in power again, harbored a bitter resentment towards the politicians. So they build up a kind of citizens militia under the military. But with the members having their personal kit, weapon and ammunition at home, so that "the next time" ten of thousands could be mobilized and in place no later than within a couple of hours after an invasion.
The public resentment was high, and the Resistance popular (and as consequence also the Home Guard, combined with a genuine and real fear of a communist fifth column that meant the politicians could not prevent the formation of the Home Guard, even if quite a few feared they could get of control.
There have over the years been several attempts to disband the Home Guard, reduce it or at least disarm it - I won't name a certain party, The Radicals, for being the Home Guard's main adversaries...
And by the late 1980's the Home Guard reached it's peak with more than 70.000 members. Or more than 1 % of the population.
Today, no one wish to disband the Home Guard, not even the far left Unity List have that particularly high on their agenda. Today the Home Guard has been reduced in size but it has also become more professional. The old nickname for Home Guardsmen (I was one myself) was "Weekend warriors" and there was too much truth in that for comfort...
QMII served as as a WAC = Women's Auxillary Corps = In Danish The Lotte Corps. (A male Danish soldier is called Jens, a female soldier a Lotte.) She served from 1958-1970 ending as major a la suite. I.e. having no command.
In 1961 the Lotte Corps came under the Home Guard.
(They were still around when I served in the Home Guard. Issued hopelessly worn out submachine guns, they were little more than female cannon fodder.)
Today women serve on equal footing as males in the Home Guard and issued assault rifles and they constitute some 15 % of the members.
Mary has been a member of the Home Guard for ten years and was on this occasion promoted to captain, or more correctly, issued her three captains stars.
Captain is today the highest rank someone who has not attended the officers academy can rise to. In my time it was lieutenant.
Mary is not attached to a specific company or even region. She belongs to the Home Guard Command - a la suite of course.
ADDED:
A report from the Home Guard:
https://www.hjv.dk/oe/HJK/nyheder/Sider/Flot-markering-af-Hjemmeværnets-jubilæum.aspx
