Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force

The Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (LTDF; Lithuanian: Lietuvos vietinė rinktinė, LVR^[a]) was a short-lived Lithuanian volunteer military unit created in spring 1944, during the last year of the German occupation of Lithuania in World War II, with the support of the Lithuanian anti-Nazi resistance, notably the VLIK, and German permission. Its stated purpose was to counter the advancing Soviet Red Army and maintain security in the General District of Lithuania by fighting Soviet and Polish partisans. The Lithuanian anti-Nazi resistance endorsed the LTDF, seeing it as the core of a future recreated Lithuanian Army that would fight for Lithuanian independence.

In contrast, the Nazi occupation authorities intended to redirect the unit to the Eastern Front and mobilize as many Lithuanians as possible for the German war effort. Lithuanian opposition to Nazi demands led to the LTDF being disbanded one and a half months after its creation by its commander Povilas Plechavičius due to the Nazi occupiers threatening the unit's autonomy. During the subsequent repressions, the German occupiers sent 52 officers to the Salaspils concentration camp, executed 86 LTDF members in Paneriai and deported 1,089 to Stutthof and Oldenburg concentration camps. While some were later forced into Nazi service, all except four of the force's fourteen battalions successfully escaped Nazi persecution. Those who escaped later contributed to the Forest Brothers' armed anti-Soviet resistance.

LTDF was autonomous, staffed by Lithuanian officers, and commanded by the Lithuanian General Povilas Plechavičius. The German Zivilverwaltung agreed not to transfer Lithuanian youth to forced labour in Germany while the LTDF was active. The Soldiers' Union of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (Lithuanian: Lietuvos vietinės rinktinės karių sąjunga), a veterans' organization, was founded in 1997.