advance guard

Noun

 * 1) A unit or units leading the way of advancing or marching troops, guarding them from ambushes, reconnoitering and pursuing the enemy, etc.
 * 2) An individual soldier in the same role.

Quotations

 * Every precaution was taken; and in some of the denser portions of the jungle they regularly felt their way with advance guards and flankers, who, poor fellows, had a most tough job to force their way through the tangled creepers and undergrowth. — G.M. Fenn, "Middy and Ensign", 1883.
 * Each attacking column was divided into three parts, a forlorn hope of twenty men leading, which was followed by an advance guard of one hundred and twenty, and then by the main body. — Theodore Roosevelt, "Hero Tales From American History", 1895
 * My native land is one of those rugged isles which form the advance-guard of Scotland in the Northern Ocean. — R.M. Ballantyne, "The Crew of the Water Wagtail", 1875

Translations

 * Crimean Tatar: avangard
 * Dutch:
 * Finnish: etujoukko
 * French:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Ancient: πρόφυλαξ
 * Macedonian: претхо́дница
 * Portuguese: guarda avançada
 * Russian:


 * Greek:
 * Ancient Greek: πρόφυλαξ