It was formed from two former Yugoslav gendarmerie regiments, was created with the approval of the German military authorities, and for a long period was controlled by the Higher SS and Police Leader in the occupied territory.

It assisted the Germans in imposing one of the most brutal occupation regimes in occupied Europe and helped guard and execute prisoners at the Banjica concentration camp in Belgrade.

[2] It was the only area of the partitioned Kingdom of Yugoslavia in which the German occupants established a military government, to exploit the key rail and riverine transport routes that passed through it, and its valuable resources, particularly non-ferrous metals.

[3] The Military Commander in Serbia appointed Serbian puppet governments to "carry on administrative chores under German direction and supervision".

[4] On 29 August 1941, the Germans appointed the Government of National Salvation (Влада народног спаса / Vlada narodnog spasa) under General Milan Nedić, to replace the short-lived Commissioner Administration.

[5] The Serbian State Guard (or SDS) was established by Nedić on the basis of an understanding he reached with the German Military Commander in Serbia, General der Artillerie (Lieutenant General) Paul Bader, and the Higher SS and Police Leader in Serbia, SS-Obergruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei (SS-General of Police) August Meyszner,[6] regarding the maintenance of law and order in the occupied territory.

It was formed on 10 February 1942 from two former Yugoslav gendarmerie regiments, Drinski and Dunavski,[7] but the law formally creating the force was not issued by Nedić until 2 March 1942.

[10] Nedić intended that the SDS would not only maintain law and order and guard the borders, but also monitor the people's requirements and offer assistance and protection in areas such as "health care, cultural, educational and economic life".

In late 1941, prior to the formation of the SDS, the Serbian gendarmerie had participated in the German-led Operation Uzice, which drove the Partisans and Chetniks from the Užice area.

The SDS also included former members of the gendarmerie that had assisted German troops to round up hostages to be shot at both Kraljevo and Kragujevac in October 1941.

[19] Despite their limited independence, the SDS actively engaged in dehumanising Jews, Roma and communist Serbs, and in killing people from those groups or delivering them to the Germans for execution.

[21] In March 1942, Nedić suggested to the Germans that the SDK and Pećanac Chetniks be incorporated into the SDS and that he take control of the force, but this idea was firmly rejected.

Nedić had threatened to resign several times previously for similar reasons, but on this occasion the Germans took it more seriously and offered him an audience with Adolf Hitler.

[37] In late March, SDS unit of Mihajlo Zotović participated in anti-partisan action, alongside German forced and Albanian militia in 6 villages on Pasjača mountain.

The SDS was then renamed the "Serbian Shock Corps (Srpski udarni korpus or SUK) of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland" once again under the command of Radovanović and it joined the withdrawal of other Chetnik formations towards the Sandžak region then into northeastern Bosnia.

[43] In the last days of December 1944, the SUK participated, along with other Chetnik formations, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Partisan-held city of Tuzla in northeastern Bosnia.

Most were transported to Austria where they were used in labour battalions under the direction of Organisation Todt, but about 1,500 were allowed to move to the Ljubljana Gap area, where they could join other collaborationist forces, such as the SDK or the Chetnik formations of Momčilo Đujić or Dobroslav Jevđević.

[47] The Review of the Serbian State Guard (Glasnik Srpske Državne Straže) was the official gazette of the SDS, published from 1942 to the end of 1943.