Roman auxiliaries Auxiliaries in the Roman army were recruited from provincial tribal groups who did not have
Roman citizenship. As the
Roman army of the
Republican and early
Empire periods was essentially based on the
heavy infantry who made up the
legions, it favored the recruitment of auxiliaries that excelled in supplementary roles. These included specialists such as missile troops (e.g.
Balearic slingers and
Cretan archers),
cavalry (recruited among peoples such as the
Numidians, and the
Thracians), or
light infantry. Auxiliaries were not paid at the same rate as legionaries, but could earn
Roman citizenship after a fixed term of service. By the 2nd century AD the auxiliaries had been organised into permanent units, broadly grouped as
Ala (cavalry),
Cohors (infantry) and
Cohors equitata (infantry with a cavalry element). Both cavalry and infantry numbered between 480 and 600 men each. The mixed cohors equitata usually consisted of six
centuries of foot soldiers and six
squadrons of horsemen. Specialist units of slingers, scouts, archers and camel mounted detachments continued in existence as separate units with a regional recruitment basis. .
United Kingdom and the British Empire At the start of the 18th century, the English (from 1707,
British) military (as distinct from
naval) consisted of several regular and reserve military
forces. The regular forces included district
garrison artillery establishments that maintained forts and batteries, as well as field artillery, ready for war, with the batteries brought up to strength in war time by drafts from other military or naval forces, and field artillery
trains formed during wartime, all of which would be absorbed into the
Royal Artillery on or after its 1716 formation, and the
Royal Engineers (an officer-only corps responsible for planning naval and military works in garrisons and on expedition), both of which, with the civilian-staffed stores, transport, Commissariat, and other departments were all parts of the
Board of Ordnance, and the English Army (after 1707, the
British Army), composed primarily of cavalry and infantry. The Horse and Foot Guards were considered parts of the British Army, though falling under the Royal Household there were differences in their command and administration. There were also other minor forces of little military significance, such as the
Yeomen of the Guard. The reserve military forces included the
Honourable Artillery Company and the
Militia (or
Constitutional Force), which was normally an infantry-only force until the 1850s. To these would be added the mounted
Yeomanry and the
Volunteer Force, though the latter existed only in wartime until the 1850s. Similar reserve forces were raised throughout the British Empire. The reserve forces were auxiliary to the regular forces, and not parts of them. They were under the command of local representatives of the Crown (expressed as
the Monarch, although by the 19th century the monarch had become a figurehead for the British Government, which was responsible to Parliament). In the British Isles, the reserve forces were controlled by
lords lieutenant of counties until 1871, when the British Government took direct control. In the British colonies, which refers to those administered from 1782 to 1801 by the
Home Office, from 1801 to 1854 by the
War and Colonial Office, from 1854 to 1966 by the
Colonial Office, from 1966 to 1968 by the
Commonwealth Office, from 1968 to 2020 by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and since 2020 by the
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and not to
protectorates, which fell under the purview of the
Foreign Office, or to
British India, which was administered by the
East India Company until 1858, and thereafter by the
India Office, the governors were generally appointed also as Captains-General or Commanders-in-Chief with similar powers to lords-lieutenant (in some colonies, notably
Imperial fortresses such as
Bermuda, the Governor was always a senior naval or military officer who also had control of units of the regular forces). The Reserve Forces were originally for local service, embodied for home defence in times of war or emergency. During the latter half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, these various military forces would be increasingly integrated with the regular force, as the
British Army became when the Board of Ordnance was abolished and its military corps (by then including the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and the
Royal Sappers and Miners), as well as the commissariat, ordnance stores, transport, and barracks departments, were absorbed into the British Army in 1855. During the same period, the
British Army Regular Reserve was created (in 1859 by
Secretary of State for War Sidney Herbert, and re-organised under the
Reserve Force Act 1867) and, to prevent confusion, the Reserve Forces were increasingly referred to instead as the
Auxiliary Forces or the
Local Forces. Officers of the Reserve or Auxiliary Forces took precedence below British Army officers of the same rank (officers of the Yeomanry force and of the Volunteer Force similarly took precedence below officers of the Militia Force). When auxiliary units worked with Regular Forces, overall command was held by the highest-ranking officer of the Regular Forces, providing he held the same rank (or higher) as the highest-ranking officer of the Auxiliary unit. The personnel of the Auxiliary Forces were not originally subject to the
Army Act, or the earlier
Mutiny Acts, though by the end of the 19th century they had become subject to the act while embodied for training with regular forces or for active service. Although remaining nominally separate forces from the British Army, the units of these forces in the British Isles became numbered sub-units (squadrons, battalions, or companies) or regular British Army corps or regiments, and ultimately were funded by the
War Office, making them technically parts of the British Army. The Yeomanry and the Volunteer Force merged under the
Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 in 1908 to become the
Territorial Force. Although still meant to be local service, this force sent drafts of volunteers to regular battalions, and then entire units, overseas during the First World War. The potential to serve overseas in wartime became a permanent part of its role after the war when it was re-named the
Territorial Army, remaining nominally a separate force (or army) from the British Army until 2014 when it became the
British Army Reserve. The Militia in the British Isles was replaced with the Special Reserve in 1908, which sent drafts of replacements to regular units in wartime. After the First World War, this force was allowed to lapse. In British colonies, a number of militia and volunteer units continued to exist after 1908, generally being re-organised eventually on Territorial lines (though not administered as parts of the Territorial Army, and remaining local service). Most of these units continued to be viewed as auxiliary to the British Army, rather than parts of it (as this was no longer true of such units in the British Isles, this has led to the misconception in recent decades that these units are not part of the British
military as the uninformed presume
British military to connote
British Army, although the
Combined Cadet Force and the
Army Cadet Force in the United Kingdom also remain separate forces). Today, the territorial units of the two old
Imperial fortresses that remain British,
Bermuda and
Gibraltar, the
Royal Bermuda Regiment and the
Royal Gibraltar Regiment, are considered parts of the British Army, while the
Royal Montserrat Defence Force and the
Falkland Islands Defence Force (both being single unit entities, with the unit named as a Force), as well as the
Cayman Islands Regiment and the
Turks and Caicos Regiment are technically auxiliaries (this is an archaic distinction, and makes no difference to the ways they are administered or deployed).
British in Spain The
Auxiliary Legion was a British military force sent to Spain to support the Liberals and Queen Isabella II of Spain against the Carlists in the
First Carlist War.
Boer War During the
Second Boer War Boer auxiliaries were employed by the British Army under the designation of "National Scouts". Recruited in significant numbers towards the end of the war from Afrikaner prisoners and defectors, they were known as ("hands-uppers" i.e. collaborators) by their fellow Boers.
North-West Frontier Khussadars were tribal auxiliaries employed by the British administration in regions of the
North West Frontier of the
British Raj. Distinguished only by armbands they provided convoy escorts as a substitute for regular troops and units of the para-military
Frontier Corps.
Volunteers, Militia and Yeomanry Prior to the creation of the
Territorial Force in 1908, the term "Auxiliary Forces" was used by the British Army to collectively cover
Yeomanry,
Militia and
Volunteers. That is to say the various part-time units maintained to act in support of the
Regular Army (UK).
Ireland The
Auxiliary Division was a British
paramilitary police unit raised during the
Irish War of Independence 1919–1921. Recruited from former officers of the British Army who had served during World War I, the Auxiliary Division was a motorized mobile force nominally forming part of the
Royal Irish Constabulary.
Cumann na mBan was the preceding organisation of the Women's Arm of the
Irish Volunteers that acted as an auxiliary in the
Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence.
World War II reassemble a section of a
pom-pom gun during
World War II In 1941, the British government created an organization of
Auxiliary Units in southern
England, capable of waging a guerilla war against occupying forces should Britain be invaded by the
Nazis. Since the invasion never came, they were ultimately never used in combat. The Auxiliary Units were meant to carry out assaults on German units, along with damaging train lines and aircraft if necessary. While working as full-time, active duty personnel, the women's services of
World War II were titled as or seen as auxiliaries to the male services. These services were: •
Local Defence Volunteers, or Home Guard •
Women's Royal Naval Service •
Auxiliary Territorial Service •
Women's Auxiliary Air Force •
Air Transport Auxiliary •
Women's Home Defence •
Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) The
Royal Auxiliary Air Force was originally an auxiliary of the Royal Air Force, when it was first conceived and formed in 1924. Today the RAuxAF acts as a
military reserve; this is reflected in its more common name 'RAF Reserve'. or
M1917 Enfield rifle Other former British military or governmental auxiliary organizations included: •
Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service a former auxiliary to the
Royal Navy •
Royal Naval Auxiliary Service a former auxiliary to the
Royal Navy •
Royal Naval Minewatching Service a former auxiliary to the
Royal Navy •
Royal Naval Supply and Transport Service a former auxiliary to the
Royal Navy •
Royal Observer Corps a former auxiliary to the
Royal Air Force Dominion organisations Auxiliary organizations of
Dominions of the British Empire: telegraphist operating Medium Frequency Direction/Finding (MFD/F) equipment at
VAOC Headquarters at
Victoria Barracks. • Australia •
Australian Women's Army Service •
Volunteer Air Observers Corps (Australia) •
Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force •
Women's Royal Australian Naval Service • Canada •
Aircraft Identity Corps •
Canadian Women's Army Corps •
Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division •
Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service • Newfoundland •
Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland • New Zealand •
New Zealand Women's Auxiliary Air Force Denmark • , a former auxiliary of the
Danish Home Guard from 1952 to 2004.
East Germany In
East Germany the FH for () was an
auxiliary police service from 1952 to 1990.
French Africa France made extensive use of tribal allies (
goumiers) as auxiliaries in its North African possessions. During the
Algerian War of 1954–62 large numbers of Muslim auxiliaries (
Harkis) were employed in support of regular French forces.
Germany The
Freiwillige Polizei-Reserve (FPR; Voluntary Police Reserve) was an
auxiliary police service of the
German state of
Berlin. It was founded on 25 May 1961 as reaction to the emerging
Combat Groups of the Working Class and should originally help out the
Berlin Police in riots and to defend
West Berlin in case of an attack (urban warfare and object protection). For this purpose, the police reservists were trained in the use of
small arms. This auxiliary force was shut down in 2002
Italian Social Republic •
Female Auxiliary Service Italian colonies Between 1924 and 1941 the Italian
Royal Corps of Colonial Troops employed auxiliary units of
Dubats to police the frontier and desert regions of
Italian Somalia.
Japan During the
Russo-Japanese War, Japan made use of Manchurian
honghuzi as auxiliaries against Russian forces.
Nazi Germany German
paramilitary police forces, called
Hilfspolizei or
Schutzmannschaft, were raised during World War II and were the
collaborationist auxiliary police battalions of locally recruited police, which were created to fight the
resistance during World War II mostly in occupied Eastern European countries. Hilfspolizei refers also to German auxiliary police units. There was also a
HIPO Corps in
occupied Denmark. The term had also been applied to some units created in 1933 by the early
Nazi government (mostly from members of
SA and
SS) and disbanded the same year due to international protests. Certain German auxiliary units, such as the
Reserve Police Battalion 101, committed horrendous massacres of
Jewish,
Romani, and
other targeted ethnic groups while serving with the
Wehrmacht and
Einstazgruppen in Eastern Europe. The example of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 came to exemplify both
civilian participation in the
Holocaust, as well as the active knowledge of how immoral their actions were among perpetrators of the Holocaust. Throughout their service on the Eastern Front, when ordered to execute civilians
en masse, members of the Battalion were frequently given the opportunity to reject participation in the events in lieu of standing guard at the perimeter or other less violent tasks. Battalion members were frequently rotated to avoid war fatigue and their veritable psychological destruction, and when participating in the atrocities they often tried to shoot away from infants, mothers, and minors, preferring to try to shoot the elderly or the ill to ease their conscience. They would frequently turn to heavy drinking to try to quell the mental anguish caused by participation in these acts. While a minority was generally able to escape participation in the acts, most were willing volunteers, succumbing to social pressures pushed by an atmosphere of shared guilt and fervent hypermasculine nationalism. With an increase in the amount of troops needed to serve on the frontline, women were allowed to serve as auxiliaries to the Wehrmacht, known as
Wehrmachthelferin, to take over duties within Germany. The Nazis conscripted German women and girls into the auxiliaries of the
Volkssturm. Correspondingly, girls as young as 14 years old were trained in the use of small arms,
panzerfausts,
machine guns, and hand grenades throughout the war.
Hiwis were
auxiliary forces recruited from the indigenous populations in the areas of
Eastern Europe first annexed by the
Soviet Union and then occupied by
Nazi Germany.
Adolf Hitler reluctantly agreed to allow recruitment of Soviet citizens in the Rear Areas during
Operation Barbarossa. In a short period of time, many of them were moved to combat units.
Finland ''
von Falkenhorst with the sisters of the
Lotta Svärd, a
Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women, in the summer of 1941 during the
Continuation War •
Lotta Svärd Poland •
Women's Auxiliary Service (Poland) Rhodesia •
Security Force Auxiliaries United States Auxiliary military units in the United States have largely stemmed from the era of the Second World War, finding a place in assisting the United States Military with resupply, surveillance, aid transportation, and military intelligence. Most historical units were dissolved around the end of the war in 1944–1945, with many integrating into the command of their formerly male counterpart units. •
Women's Radio Corps (dissolved c. 1919) •
Women Airforce Service Pilots (dissolved 1944) •
Ground Observer Corps (first program dissolved 1944, second 1958) •
Women's Flying Training Detachment (dissolved after World War II) •
Women's Army Volunteer Corps (dissolved 1945) •
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (dissolved and integrated 1978) == Current military or governmental auxiliaries ==