The Serbian State Guard was the military force of the Free State of Serbia, a puppet regime of Nazi Germany founded during World War II. During the war, it remained mostly under command of German Army officers. However, as communist resistance in the country intensified, Prime Minister Milan Nedić of Serbia got Hitler's approval to expand and re-equip the Guard with more modern equipment, and retrain them, under Serbian officers. An exclusive Serbian military unit, it had a strength of some 30,000 personnel by 1945.