The Polish Rifle Squads (Polskie Drużyny Strzeleckie) was a Polish pro-independence paramilitary

Paramilitary

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

 organization, founded in 1911 by the Youth Independence Organization Zarzewie in the Austro-Hungarian sector of partitioned Poland.

PDS founders included Norwid Neugebauer, Marian Januszajtis-Żegota

Marian Januszajtis-Zegota

Marian Józef Januszajtis-Żegota was a Polish military commander and politician...

, Henryk Bagiński and Eugeniusz Homer.

The organization was similar in spirit to, and closely cooperated with, the Riflemen's Association

Zwiazek Strzelecki

Związek Strzelecki "Strzelec" was a Polish paramilitary cultural and educational organization created in 1910 in Lwów as a legal front of Związek Walki Czynnej, and revived in Poland in 1991....

. It too was supported by the Austro-Hungarian government, which wanted to raise a Polish army for use in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

By 1914 the organization numbered 6,000 members. Most of them joined Józef Piłsudski's Polish Legions in World War I

Polish Legions in World War I

Polish Legions was the name of Polish armed forces created in August 1914 in Galicia. Thanks to the efforts of KSSN and the Polish members of the Austrian parliament, the unit became an independent formation of the Austro-Hungarian Army...

.