Security and Assault Corps

Security and Assault Corps
Cuerpo de Seguridad y Asalto
Common nameAssault Guards
Agency overview
Formed9 February, 1932
Preceding agency
  • Compañías de Vanguardia
Dissolved27 of December 1936 (Republican Spain) 8 of March 1941 (Francoist Spain)
Superseding agencyCuerpo de Seguridad Interior (Republican Spain) Policía Armada (Francoist Spain)
Jurisdictional structure
National agencySpain
Operations jurisdictionSpain
Governing bodyMinistry of Governance
General nature
Operational structure
Overseen byDirectorate-General of Security
HeadquartersDirección General de Seguridad
Parent agencyCuerpo de Seguridad y Asalto

The Assault Guards, officially known as the Security and Assault Corps (Spanish; Cuerpo de Seguridad y Asalto), were the riot police units of the urban police force of Spain under the Second Spanish Republic. The Assault Guards were special paramilitary police units created by the Spanish Republic in 1931 to deal with urban and political violence. Most of the recruits in the Assault Guards were ex-military personnel, many of them veterans. It would later on be dissolved in the loyalist zone on the 27 of December 1936 and its personnel and equipment transferred to the newly created Cuerpo de Seguridad Interior while the Francoist regime would go on to disband them in 1941 as part of a broader reorganization of the regime's internal security. The remaining personnel would be subjected to internal purges to ensure loyalty and transferred over to the newly created Policía Armada.

At the onset of the Spanish Civil War, there were 18,000 Assault Guards. About 12,600 stayed loyal to the Republican government, while the other 5,400 defected to the rebel faction. Many of its units took part in front line actions on both sides, often being used as shock troops due to their high degree of training, discipline and specialised equipment.