It was established by the fascist Ustaše regime of Ante Pavelić in the NDH an Axis puppet state in Yugoslavia during World War II.

[2] Securing the rear areas were some 32,000 men of the Croatian Gendarmerie, organised into 5 Police Volunteer Regiments plus 15 independent battalions, equipped with standard light infantry weapons, including mortars.

For this reason, the decision was made to retreat across the border into the Austrian part of Nazi Germany, in order to surrender to the British forces advancing north from Italy.

By 1944, the home guard had 90,000 men, though only 20,000 were front-line combat troops, organised in three mountain, four Jager and eight static garrison brigades, and the 1st Recruit Training Division.

[7] The Ustaše militia was created on 11 April 1941 when Marshal Slavko Kvaternik appointed a separate staff to control the various volunteer groups that had risen throughout the NDH as the Yugoslav Army collapsed in the face of the Axis invasion.