Field artillery training started in Civil Guard already in year 1919. First artillery pieces that it received for the purpose were old Japanese 75 VK/98 mountain guns. Starting in 1920 CG got also other field guns of considerable variety, while also old 75 VK/98 mountain guns remained in its inventory use 1930's. Training units of CG-artillery were 2-gun and 4-gun strong batteries referred as Civil Guard artillery batteries. Instead of being part of area and district system, these Civil Guard artillery batteries were directly under the command of General Headquarters of Civil Guard. Between 1918 - 1921 Civil Guard had also manned fixed artillery batteries of old Russian 152 K/77-120p fortification guns located to Carelian Isthmus in Suvanto - Vuoksi area due the Bolshevik threat, but this proved short-lived as local civil guards in the region had little resources for guarding and maintaining the guns on their own. Live-fire training for CG field artillery was quite limited as the oldest field gun types were typically in rather poor shape and number of shells made available for more modern artillery pieces was very limited. Only notable exception to limited number of shells were previously mentioned 75 VK/98, for which early on there were over 500 shells per gun in inventry, but also represented gun model for which Army saw no practical use and hence refused to acquire any additional ammunition supply.

PICTURE: 76 LK/13 or 76 LK/10-13 infantry guns in use of artillery training course of Finnish Civil Guard at year 1934. (Original photograph part of Jaeger Platoon Website photo collection. Unlicensed use of photograph prohibited). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (113 KB).

Another interesting part of Civil Guard organization directly under GHQ of Civil Guard and having its own uniforms was Civil Guard Navy. The idea for Civil Guard Navy was based on the British Auxiliary Fleet and first immerged at year 1919, but of the idea took until year 1923 to materialize. Early on Civil Guard Navy contained only three divisions seagoing division with boats, sea mine division with fewer boats and coastal artillery division. The coastal artillery division was separated from Civil Guard Navy and turned into coastal artillery Civil Guards in year 1932. In total by end of year 1925 over 30 Navy Civil Guards with 42 divisions were established and in addition of Baltic Sea they operated also in largest Finnish lakes. The number vessels in use of Civil Guard Navy was quite small and highly varied being mainly whatever privately owned civilian motor or sailing boats were available for maneuvers, but their number was still notable on a Finnish scale. Largest and most wealthy Civil Guards of CG Navy were able to buy some boats in 1920's and 1930's, but only few of those were actually built specifically for their use. In addition they had occasionally few old motor boats, which Finnish Navy loaned to them. Participants of the first Civil Guard Navy maneuvers included: About 200 boats, 14 tugboats, and about 650 men. Their planned wartime use was supporting coastal artillery with guard duty, liaison and transport missions. Members of CG Navy had also received training for installing and clearing sea mines and were familiar with signalling, naval guns and torpedoes. The obligatory minimum amount of training for CG Navy members was 6 days/year.

PICTURE: Two of the armed motorboats of Civil Guard Navy photographed in manoevres on Lake Pyhäselkä near city of Joensuu. These boats seem to be armed with Colt-Browning M/1894 machine guns. Having machine gun for motorboat was apparently somewhat rare for boats of Civil Guard Navy. Photographed by Erkki M. Aarnio presumably sometime in between 1927 - 1936. Photo source North Karelia Museum (Pohjois-Karjalan museo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 ND Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (71 KB).

Civil Guard organization had also two aircraft, which were operated by Aviation Company (Ilmailukomppania) of Helsinki Civil Guard. Both were trainer aircraft bought by Civil Guard in year 1931 and could be used as float planes or be operated from land. VL Sääski II was two-seater biplane with aircraft registration OH-HEA. It was designed by State Aircraft Factory (Valtion lentokonetehdas) and was destroyed in a crash already in May of 1935. Finnish Coastal Guard used VL Sääski II aircraft for maritime surveillance, while Finnish Air Force used them as basic trainer aircraft. Finnish Air Force declared its remaining twelve VL Sääski II aircraft obsolete in November of 1942. Another trainer aircraft owned by Civil Guard organization was Junkers A 50 Junior with registration OH-SKY and bought from Germany at year 1931. The Junkers did not see much use, was also registered as SK-1 by Finnish Air Force, in year 1936 and in late 1930's was rented for Finnish Air Defence Alliance (Suomen ilmapuolustusliitto - civic organization, which promoted increasing funding of Air Force). While taken over to Finnish Air Force in year 1939, it did not see any real use with Finnish Air Force. On its first flight Junkers' engine stalled and crash landing resulted the plane being written off from inventory of Finnish Air Force in April of 1940.

PICTURE: Both aircraft of Civil Guard photographed in Santahamina sometime in early 1930's On the left Sääski II and on the right Junkers A 50 Junior. In this photograph both aircraft are equipped with skis to operate from runway of snow and ice. Unknown photographer. Photo source Finnish Aviation Museum (Ilmailumuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 ND Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (97 KB).

As far equipment used for training goes, maybe the most unusual item was Reposaari coastal artillery battery, which was built belonged to Reposaari Naval Civil Guard (Reposaaren merisuojeluskunta). Finnish coastal artillery had been planning coastal artillery battery to Reposaari Island apparently for providing protection for nearby Mäntyluoto Harbor, but had failed to find financing. Wealthy local businessman Werner Hacklin (1880 - 1958) provided funding and Reposaari Naval Civil Guard built as voluntary work the coastal artillery battery, for which Finnish coastal artillery provided two 120mm coastal guns. Building of the coastal artillery battery was completed in year 1935 and it contained two gun pits and fire control position built from concrete. Later at year 1936 also wooden observation tower was added and year 1939 ammunition storage, which was built from concrete. Year 1941 two 120mm coastal guns were replaced with three 152mm coastal guns. After World War 2 the coastal artillery battery remained in more limited use of Finnish coastal artillery, which did not completely end using its area until late 1990's. Being in Finnish west coast near city of Pori / Björneborg the buildings and trenches connecting them have survived to this day.

Shooting as part of training and guns of Civil Guard

Effective use of small arms and shooting with them was and is a vital part of military skill set. Civil Guard decided to include target shooting and competitions into its activities from the start and developed keen interest for marksmanship, but early on this was not easy. Hunting was popular among the Finns living in rural areas, but the usual hunting weapon had been a shotgun, not a rifle. Following Civil war Finnish Armed Forces standardized to Mosin-Nagant M/1891 rifles plus 7.62 x 54R cartridge and dumped much of their non-standard guns to Civil Guard.

PICTURE: Kneeling position in rifle shooting competition in between Civil Guards at year 1927. Guardsmen appear be shooting from (150 meter?) rampart of rifle range and are wearing Civil Guard uniforms m/22. Photographed by photo studio Union. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (286 KB).

Rifle was the standard type of firearm for Civil Guard organization and each of its guardsmen was routinely issued one. Originally rifles issued by Civil Guard organization were either its property or had been loaned from Armed Forces, with later on also privately funded rifles being added to the mix. When Mosin-Nagant M/1891 was the standard rifle model for Armed Forces early on it was also de facto standard rifle model of Civil Guard organization from the start. But due to Mosin-Nagant M/1891 not being available in large enough numbers early on four of Civil Guard Districts were equipped with Japanese rifles captured during Finnish Civil War. Being non-standard for Finnish military Japanese rifles were gradually replaced with Mosin-Nagant rifles circa 1925 - 1928.

Early on Mosin-Nagant M/91 rifles issued by Civil Guard were often in very poor shape having gone through battles of World War 1 and Finnish Civil War. Between 1918 - 1923 Civil Guard organization also found it difficult finding rifle ammunition of acceptable quality (in particular for reasonable price). The basic necessities needed for shooting training were accurate rifles and good ammunition, so the rifles needed to be repaired and a supply of ammunition organized. When it came to repairing and building rifles Civil Guard established its own Asepaja (Gun Workshop) in year 1919 and it proved highly useful, although in large scale of things results of its hard work only appeared slowly. As Civil Guard's Gun Workshop got developed further and grew larger in size at April of 1921 it was renamed as Suojeluskuntain Ase- ja Konepaja Oy (Civil Guard's Gun and Engineering Works Ltd), which over time got better known for abbreviation of its name - SAKO. A temporary solution to the ammunition shortage was guardsmen loading ammunition for their own use in local Civil Guards with simple re-loading equipment supplied to them, and this continued until the ammunition shortage passed. Ultimately two Finnish companies started production of small-arms ammunition - Valtion patruunatehdas (State Cartridge Factory) in year 1925 and SAKO in year 1929. Not surprisingly SAKO became the main supplier of rifle and pistol ammunition for Civil Guard organization. The ammunition types it mostly supplied to Civil Guard before World War 2 were 7.62 x 54R ammunition needed for rifles and machine guns plus 7.65 x 21 ammunition for Bergmann submachine guns and Parabellum pistols.

PICTURE: Loading their own rifle ammunition was apparently quite popular among guardsmen of Civil Guard, who were active in shooting competitions. Hence SAKO manufactured simple loading tool kits, which Civil Guard was supplying to its guardsmen. Unfortunately the loading tool kit seen here is neither complete or in best possible condition, but it does give some idea about the rudimentary and still functional design of these loading kits. Loading their own ammunition was often a way for guardsmen to obtain higher quality rifle ammunition, that what was readily available. Photo source The Hunting Museum of Finland (Suomen metsästysmuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (59 KB).

Shot-out or otherwise worn-out rifle barrels were a major problem with Mosin-Nagant M/1891 early on. Civil Guards also had plenty of units, which had need for carbines, so number of M/91 infantry rifles with sub-standard section of bore in muzzle-end of their rifle barrel were in early 1920's shortened into loosely defined carbine-like version of the rifle, which became known as "Uhlan carbine" (Ulaani-karbiini). Only in few years SAKO had turned out from repair-shop to factory with capability for building new rifles, which proved very handy. Civil Guard organization ended up solving the problem of infantry rifles M/91 with worn-out barrels by acquiring batches of new rifle barrels for the purpose and at the same time slight improvements were made to the re-barreled rifles. The new improved rifle model with heavier rifle barrel profile was named as infantry rifle M/91-24. Infantry rifles M/91-24 were build by SAKO and due to Lotta-Svärd collecting much of the money needed for the project the rifle became generally also known as "Lotta rifle" (Lotta-kivääri). While M/91-24 was the first rifle model designed for Civil Guard, it was long and clumsy. With target shooting and marksmanship as driving forces for rifle development, Civil Guard put effort into trying to get best possible shooting accuracy out of Mosin-Nagant rifle with new improved rifle models and new match-grade ammunition, which were both developed by SAKO. The next to rifle models developed for Civil Guard organization represented more modern universal rifle concept and were military rifles M/28 and M/28-30. The last rifles ordered by GHQ of Civil Guard from SAKO were 20,500 military rifles M/39, from which some 10,500 rifles were delivered before halting of rifle production at end of Continuation War.

PICTURE: Military rifle M/28-30 was the last pre World War 2 rifle model, which Civil Guard developed with SAKO. Notice rifle sling M/30, which was another Civil Guard development, based on US rifle sling M1907 but better and used with variety of Civil Guard rifle models in 1930's. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (66 KB).

Finnish Civil Guard had also had small-bore bolt-action rifles, which it used for basic shooting practice, improvised indoor shooting ranges set up inside those Civil Guard halls which had enough space for it especially during winter months and for shooting practice of Civil Guard boy units. These small-bore rifle apparently included variety of rifle models usually chambered for .22 rimfire (.22 short and .22 long rifle), but there were also some specifically acquired by Civil Guard organization for the purpose - these included GECO rifles model 1923 and 1926 plus rifle marked as "Nalle M/37" (~" small bear M/37"), which was a rifle model, which Civil Guard had ordered from Anschutz. As a related matter at the time barrel inserts installed in barrel of Parabellum pistol and firing 4mm m/20 gallery cartridge enjoyed some popularity among guardsmen of Civil Guard and were also used for indoor shooting.

PICTURE: Guardsmen of Civil Guard with GECO small-bore rifle sometime in late 1920's. Photographed by Bernhard Åström. Photo crop. Photo source The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (212 KB).

While rifle was the basic weapon for every guardsman, pistols were another matter. Simply put pistols hey were not something Civil Guard organization commonly acquired or issued for its guardsmen. Instead they were usually private property of guardsmen that they had bought with their own money or in some cases property of local Civil Guards, which had acquired them. Early on most common pistol models to see use with guardsmen were Mauser M/96 and Mauser M/1914. But with time pistol M/23 (Parabellum/ Luger in 7.65 x 21) became by far the most common pistol model privately acquired by guardsmen and officers. One might wonder why these specific pistols? Germany had supplied over 1,000 Mauser M/96 to Finnish White Army in 1917 - 1918 and after Civil War Finnish Army transferred remaining Mauser M/96 pistols to Civil Guard, so especially early on they were de facto the standard pistol model for Civil Guard. As to why Mauser M/1914 was so popular among guardsmen as privately purchased pistol one can only speculate - the brand was obviously well-known, the pistol was small enough for pocket carry, apparently did have rather good ergonomics, trigger and sights plus .32 ACP cartridge was commonly referred as powerful enough to be highly popular in police use and also used by number of militaries. As for Parabellum / Luger - its 7.65mm x 22 Parabellum (.30 luger) caliber version was introduced as new standard issue service pistol for Finnish military in year 1923, which is what likely made it rather obvious pistol of choice for guardsmen of Civil Guard.

PICTURE: Guardsmen in summer uniforms seen shooting Mauser M/1914 pistols. While one of them is taking aim, another one who holds a pistol in his hand is apparently waiting his turn. Photographed by Bernhard Åström during Civil Guard manouvers in Hanko probably in 1920's. Photographed by Bernhard Åström Photo crop. Photo source The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (233 KB).

Civil Guard organization did not really spent money acquiring pistols in any real numbers before World War 2. Instead as noted, the pistols used by its guardsmen were mainly privately purchased by its guardsmen and hence their private property, although some inventory of their pistols have survived - likely due to firearms permit system of the time. Finnish legislation required firearms permit for each firearm. Generally firearm permits were handled by Finnish Police, but there were two national organizations who had legal rights for providing firearm permits for their people - Armed Forces and Civil Guard. Hence for guardsmen to have firearm permits for their privately acquired firearms licensed by Civil Guard was common at the time.

PICTURE: Pistol shooting competition of Finnish Civil Guard at year 1931. Shooting position seen here was the standard done for pistols at the time. Pistol was gripped with one hand only, while second hand was placed either to hip or in waist pocket to stabilise shooting position. As to be expected all pistols visible are Parabellums / Lugers. Photographed by Pietinen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (191 KB).

Submachine guns also had in Civil Guard a status that differed from rifles and pistols. They were far less common, but were considerable financial investment of Civil Guard organization for short-range firepower in age when submachine guns had not yet become popular with armed forces. Finnish Civil Guard was world-wide among first military organizations to widely adopt submachine guns with Bergmann submachine gun being introduced in year 1922 and in total it acquired 1,415 Bergmann submachine guns by year 1932. Admitted this early adaptation of submachine gun have been partially related to sort of para-military role of Civil Guard, with submachine gun being generally often seen at the time as police weapon, while universally wide-scale military adoptation happened only later on. During mobilization for Winter War in year 1939 Bergmann submachine guns were transferred to Field Army. At late 1920's Civil Guard also acquired small number of Suomi M/26 and then in early 1930's settled as Suomi M/31 submachine gun as its new standard submachine gun to be purchased from that on, but acquired it in only rather limited number before Winter War. 30^th of September 1939, mere two month before Winter War, Civil Guard small arms inventory contained only 25 Suomi M/26 and 20 Suomi M/31 - and earlier mentioned 1,415 Bergmann submachine guns. When Winter War started in 31^st of November 1939 Finnish Army had only about 4,000 Suomi M/31 submachine guns in its inventory, so Bergmann submachine guns transferred from Civil Guard proved highly useful at that point.

PICTURE: 7,65 mm Bergmann M/20 submachine gun and its 50-round box magazine. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (65 KB).

Unlike submachine guns grand majority machine guns, along all heavy weapons such as mortars and field artillery pieces were loaned from Armed Forces. Madsen M/20 and Lahti-Saloranta M/26 light machine guns appear to have been rare in use of Civil Guard and were practically all guns loaned from Finnish Army. Along them Civil Guard had in its use number of more miscellaneous light machineguns, which Army had transferred to it early on - most significant of these were 62 Lewis guns and at most about 20 Chauchat M/15 light machine guns. Machine guns commonly used by Civil Guard organization included mainly various models of Russian Maxim guns and number of Colt M/1895, which mostly saw use with Civil Guard Navy. German 76mm mine throwers and 81mm mortars loaned from Army were used in Civil Guard training in 1930's.

PICTURE: Messukylä Civil Guard seen practicing with 81mm mortar in year 1938. Photographed by E.M. Staf. Photo crop. Photo source Historical Museums of Tampere (Tampereen historialliset museot), acquired via Siiri and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (219 KB).

Rules used in early Civil Guard shooting competitions can sound bit odd to shooters of this day. Hits were measured as centimeters from the center of the target, and sighting in shots or using rifle slings for support was forbidden. Some guardsmen who had the money and wanted better rifle for their shooting purposes bought new (usually 7 x 57 or 6.5 x 55 caliber) Mauser rifles at their own expense. Because often Japanese and Mosin-Nagant rifles M/91 of Civil Guard and their ammunition were less than satisfactory quality early on, special handicap system was introduced for them. The handicap system basically worked like this: Shooters using Japanese rifle got 5% compensation and shooters using Mosin-Nagant M/91 rifle got 10% compensation, while those who used Mauser rifle did not get any compensation. In a way the compensation system did not always work as perceived. Many of the most successful shooters found their competitive edge and took trophies using self-loaded ammunition with Mosin-Nagant M/91 rifles. Work made for shooting sports and marksmanship paid off Civil Guards soon had the best shooters in Finland. When it comes to the overall plan of shooting training in Civil Guard organization, in principle it was to put emphasis on military shooting (fast and precise shooting at various distances), but in reality the emphasis remained on sports shooting (target-shooting accurately from pre-known distance).

PICTURE: Shooting shed in rifle range of Nurmes Civil Guard sometime in 1930's. This was one of the proper 300 meter rifle ranges built by Civil Guards with the butts build from concrete, 150 meter rampart, shooting shed seen here and even shooting pavilion (small house) near the shooting shed. Photographed by Väinö Hämäläinen. Photo source Museum of Nurmes (Nurmeksen museo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (122 KB).

To practice shooting in addition of guns and ammunition also location where to shoot is needed. When gaining independence Finland had only small number of shooting ranges, hence Civil Guards had to took it as their task to build shooting ranges, as not having a place where to practice with their rifles was utmost priority. Year 1930 Civil Guards reported to General Headquarters of having in their disposal total of 962 shooting ranges, which at the time was about 1.5 times the total number of local Civil Guards. But in reality quality of these shooting ranges varied considerably, about half of them were small shooting ranges established in rural villages and used by guardsmen of particular village, which often had little more than open batch of land large enough for rifle shooting from reasonable distance and hill-side to be used backstop. At that time (year 1930) 288 ranges, in other words less than third of those 962 shooting ranges had the butts (näyttösuoja) typical to military rifle range of the time with underground shelter for raising or lowering targets and showing hits. Gradually shooting range situation got better with Civil Guards improving their existing shooting ranges and also by building some new ranges. By year 1934 the total number of proper shooting ranges equipped with shooting shed and the butts had climbed to 486 and in year 1937 it reached 638 total either being built or in process of being built. Year 1938 Civil Guard had in total 734 proper 300 meter rifle ranges equipped with shooting shed and the butts. Especially early on Civil Guard shooting ranges were usually built with voluntary work, but larger and better equipped the shooting range with backstop, ramparts and possible berms requiring major earth moving work and the butts commonly being made from concrete, building them often required use of outside contractors. Starting year 1935 General Headquarters of Civil Guard provided some funding for Civil Guard Districts to assist building of shooting ranges. The number of Civil Guard organized shooting competitions and their participants skyrocketed starting the 1920's. One of the goals of Civil Guard organization was making shooting one the widely popular sports and one could say it succeeded to a large extent. Unfortunately from the hundreds of shooting ranges once built by Civil Guards, very little have survived to this day.

PICTURE: The butts of Malmi shooting range near their completion. Malmi shooting range in Helsinki was maybe the best known shooting range built by Civil Guard. It was built for World Shooting Championships of year 1937 and remained in use until late 1960's - early 1970's until settlements surrounded and finally swallowed it. What remained from its buildings were demolished after year 1993 and nothing remains of them now. Photographer unknown. Photo source The Hunting Museum of Finland (Suomen metsästysmuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (133 KB).

Civil Guard and sports

The reason why Civil Guard organization supported sports was quite simple: Physically fit people make better soldiers and, in general, wide spread sports which maintain fitness have positive effects on a community. For this purpose it concentrated to few key sports. Likely the most far-reaching effect of these sports was introducing pesäpallo (basically Finnish version of baseball, main developer of this sport was Civil Guard officer Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala) in year 1922 and successfully popularizing and it in such manner, that it still nowadays is the Finnish national sport. For Civil Guard organization popularizing pesäpallo had purposes beyond developing physical fitness and team spirit: Fast short spurts and dashes plus throwing a ball with approximate size of egg hand grenade also useful physical practice for war.

PICTURE: Game of pesäpallo played by Civil Guard in Hesperianpuisto Park in Helsinki at year 1934. Finlandia Hall was later built in place of this ballpark. Photographed by Pietinen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (196 KB).

The most important sports for Civil Guard were cross-country ski, field & track sports (triathlon in particular) and (obviously) pesäpallo with gymnastics also being popular and often used as routine in public evens. From these, cross-country ski slowly became the most important individual sport for Civil Guards. In fact, Civil Guard organization even developed of new kind of cross-country ski design (which was adopted as standard military ski design for Finnish military), which was better suited for forests than traditional Finnish skis. While these sports were well-suited for soldiers, in 1930's Civil guard's sports found even more fitting and militant choice as military pentathlon (hurdles, grenade throwing, bayonet fighting, combat shooting and digging in) gained popularity over other sports.

PICTURE: Guardsmen of Civil Guard on skis. Photographed by unknown photographer probably in 1920's considering all seem to be wearing uniforms m/22. There appears to be very little snow in the ground. (Original photograph part of Jaeger Platoon Website photo collection. Unlicensed use of photograph prohibited). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (188 KB).

Civil Guard also started rewarding its best shooters and the most fit members with fitness badges in 1921. CG fitness badges were issued in three classes and naturally getting the 1^st class badge demanded most fitness. One could way say that Civil Guard organization was the most important sports organization in Finland before World War 2 with number of its guardsmen being far beyond the total membership numbers of other national Finnish sports organizations, although one could question how many of the guardsmen were actively taking part to its sport activities. Another area in which Civil Guard played long-term role in Finnish sports scene was building sports fields, with huge number of sports fields build by local Civil Guards either alone or with local sport clubs. Number of the sports fields built by Civil Guard ended up serving local communities for decades and many of them are apparently still in regular use, although with later modifications.

PICTURE: Three examples of Civil Guard fitness badges. There were three classes of these badges and they existed in two patterns. Original pattern was introduced in year 1921 and replaced with new pattern in year 1934. From left to right pattern 1921 3^rd class, pattern 1921 1^st class with (either gold-plated or bronze-plated) ski fitness ring attached around it and pattern 1934 2^nd class. (Copyrights (c) 2025 Jaeger Platoon Website. Unlicensed use of photograph prohibited). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (119 KB).