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British Volunteer Organisations            

The RAF Auxiliaries and the Royal Navy Reserve take up a similar position to the TA within their services. Both organisations also have volunteer elements attached to their respective service land combat forces, the RAF Regiment and the Royal Marines (RM).

The Army Cadet Force (ACF) is an army affiliated youth organisation, not actually a part of the army but receiving support in the form of equipment, training teams consisting of regular personnel and generally help in running the activities. The officers of the ACF are commissioned and hold actual army ranks. There is also an organisation called the Combined Cadet Force (CCF), affiliated with schools and run as a voluntary extracurricular activity. The CCF can contain army, navy and airforce branches, under the same Detachment Commander. All the ACF, and the CCF army detachments, have a regimental affiliation, and wear the regimental distinctions of those units.

The Officers Training Corps (OTC) is a volunteer organisation that seems to work in much the way as the cadets, but at university level. The aim of the activities is to give the members fieldcraft and leadership skills that will enable them to go on to an army career after graduating, either with the Regular Army, or as TA officers. It comes under the auspices of the TAVRAs (see below), and is actually a part of the TA, but is not formed into proper field units. In case of mobilisation the members would join other units, primarily TA.

Swedish Volunteer Organisations.                 

Compared to the British, the Swedish army has a great number of affiliated volunteer organisations, though the connections seem to be much looser. Taking the Swedish Home Guard, Hemvärnet, organisation as example, their structure is that of a democratic association. Their section and platoon commanders are elected by the local unit and then trained by the army. Generally, their relationship with the army is closer to what the ACF/CCF have with the British army than with the TA’s position. The members of the other volunteer organisations, like the voluntary signallers (FRO), dog handlers (SBK), drivers (SKBR) and medics (Swedish Red Cross) etc, serve with Hemvärnet as well as regular units. Lottorna, the voluntary women’s corps, serve both with voluntary and second-line regular units in the capacity of clerks, cooks, signallers, orderlies etc.

Even considering the recent expansion in Hemvärnet units and the new, significantly more combat-oriented tasks, the low fitness level demanded of the Home Guardsmen, the training, especially of the officers and NCOs, and the standard and amount of equipment issued makes it almost impossible to imagine that Swedish Home Guards units could in any way be used in the fashion of the TA.

Beside the Hemvärnet and Lottorna, the largest volunteer organisation in Sweden is the FBU, a volunteer officers and NCO training organisation. Participation in the courses given by this organisation, combined with practice with regular units in field exercises will actually gain servicemen promotion, in theory, step by step, as high as captain. The organisation and its courses are also frequently used by the Home Guard to train their section and platoon commanders.

The Home Guard Youth and the FBU Youth are the closest things to an ACF in Sweden. They are not, however, anything near as popular as the ACF in Britain, and are sometimes viewed with considerable scepticism by regular officers, due to the attitudes of some of their members and the level of training.

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