[Palle]

Well, as it is now, Formation 060 of the Danish OOB is a company of Infantry.

It consists of:
-One Unit 184 - Heavy Infantry Group (Militia)
-Three Formation 037 - Heavy Infantry Platoon, each again consisting of 3 Unit 186 - Heavy Infantry Group (Militia)

I assume this represents the 550 Danish Home Guard Companies spread all over. But the unit I served in in from 1988 till... well till now... is somewhat different. I shall try and elaborate a bit here. You may let yourself inspire as you see fit. The period I know best is the one from 1988 till about 2000. As my peak of activity was 1988 to 1997.

Let us start by establishing that The Danish Home Guard is a manyfacetted organisation and was so even more in the past, especially right after WWII when it was basically the Resistance continuing under another name. But I shall try and keep my description simple.

1. The Home Guard are volunteers serving because they have the will to defend their country; I shall never forget old Vagn who remembered 9th of April and was active with us young hotspurs exactly because of that as long as he could walk on every single maneuver. They are generally highly motivated, but have little actual experience as all training and learning is evening and weekends only; except special courses which usually takes a week. That being said every single Home Guard Company has a wide variety of soldiers; from old men unfit for anything but observation (one of the main tasks to young hotspurs and a lot of veterans of the Army (who will usually be mustered back to their regiments in case of war after a week or two with the Home Guard who musters before the actual Army).

2. The Home Guard at that time had more weapons available than depicted in Unit 190. We also often used m72 (66mm LAW), until about 2000 and every Home Guard Company had between 1 and 6 (mostly it was 2) M66 Sniper Rifles (a modified version of the G3).

3. The Home Guard harbours Engineers, Snipers (not just Marksmen, but proper snipers, trained to operate in the group (mostly), alone or as a team of 2; I was one for a few years after I stopped as a group leader, and working alone) and dogs. The assault effect mirrors the engineer and the dogs probably cannot be (they are quite far between anyway. Back then with more companies there were one in every fourth or so). There were at least one sniper in each company.

4. A standard Home Guard Company was organised as follows:
-Command Platoon; consisting of the Command Group, Signals Group, Supply Group and Support/food-supply Group.
- 1st Platoon, consisting of a command troop and 2-4 Grps (usually 2 in peacetime)
-2nd Platoon, same.
-Reserve, Men of 50+ would be in the reserve used only for guard duties and surveillance (except old Vagn), men of 60+ only for surveillance (except old Vagn). In case of war, these would be formed into groups and join the active parts of the Company. Taking the larger part of the responsibility for the Guard and Surveillance duties to free the more combat-ready groups for combat and help keeping them supplied.

5. The Company would have 4- 6 vans, either the Army's VW-Transporters or Civilian requested ones. My dad had volunteered all those of his carpentry firm in case of war.

6. Each infantry group would carry 5 x 20 shots for every G3, 500- 1000 shots for the LMG (MG3), 4 grenades for the Carl Gustav and one hand grenade each as standard. Group Leader would always have a radio.


Some companies would also have special units. My group of young and very dedicated men became a special Company-, then District- Response Group and we would sometimes be granted SEP status unofficially (hence without the cool gear), SEP was the Home Guard's Special Recon Force who worked with the LOPKESKs, Frømændskorpset and Jægerkorpset. Today SEP is called SSR. They worked independently, we worked through Company and district, but would be a patrol. Depending on tasks we would sometimes ditch the heavy Carl Gustav and bring an extra LMG or a couple of lighter m72 instead. The Sniper of 1st Platoon was also in my group and we trained at least 20 hours every week. And that is just an example.


Anyway. How would that be reflected in the game?

First I propose a +5 Morale and -5 Experience (unless that evens out?) to the Home Guard Units. Generally speaking, we were very well motivated indeed, but we lacked experience. Except SEP, who should probably have +5 in both.

Secondly, the Company would best be reflected in the following OOB:
- Command Section (FO like in the new LOPKESKs?)
- 2 Supply Canisters (if includable in the Comp, though I know Don does not want it), it should be canisters as we only had small arms ammo.
- 4 Lt trucks or even Technicals/vans from the Green/Red OOB.
- 2 crappy infantry groups of old men with G3s and LMGs, no Carl Gustav.
- MMG group.
- Possibly two Scout Groups, but they would have to be pulled from the two other platoons' manpower, taking an infantry section from one of those.

-1st Platoon Cmdr (FO)
- 1st Group, decent infantry on par with regular professional Danish army; with LMG and Carl Gustav. Possibly a Marksman as well.
- 2nd Group, Militia with LMG and Carl Gustav.
- 3rd Grp, crappy militia from the reserve and with no Carl Gustav, possibly m72 though. Used for guard duty of vital areas and Plt HQ.
-If no Marksman in 1st Group, add a sniper.

2nd Platoon is the same, except possibly with no decent group, usually a sniper there as well.

It is now 04.00 I will experiment a bit tomorrow to see what is possible. Whatever you wish to include (even if it is none), will make me happier. It looks a bit more like the varied service I know so well. Though it has changed again with the regular army spending all its energy in Helmand. The Home Guard has actually taken over the real local defence now (whereas before we would guard the army's mobilisation, survey and observe and parts of us would be making pinpricks against an expected massive WAPA invasion, then start partisan actions if overrolled, and a number of companies have been changed to and trained as Motorised Infantry.

Thanks for your time Don, sorry to be so convoluted. I hope it is at least clear what units I am talking about in the first place.