Volkssturm, the last defense.

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#1

Volkssturm, The last defence

Of all the measures taken to mobilize Germany’s last manpower resources, the most extreme was the creation of the People’s Army (Volkssturm), a national militia designed to supplement the defense of the homeland.
The Volkssturm was created on 18 October 1944. It stated that all able-bodied men from the ages of 16 to 60 not already in the Armed Forces and able to bear arms were eligible for service, and were to be drawn from all districts (Gaue) of Germany.

Some 700 Volkssturm battalions were organized by the end of the war. The District Leaders (Gauleiters) were entrusted with the establishment and command of the units, assisted by organizers and leaders of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), Sturmabteilung (SA), SS, and the Hitler Youth. All members of the Volkssturm were classed as “Soldiers under the Army Code” for the duration of their service, which was to take place locally wherever a given area was threatened. Those members of the SA, Hitler Youth and Nazi Party who served in the Volkssturm retained their status within those organizations; however, service in the Volkssturm was to take priority over duty in all other Party organizations.
The Volkssturm’s mission was to surround and contain large seaborne and airborne landings; guard bridges, streets and key buildings; reinforce depleted Armed Forces units; to plug gaps in the front after enemy breakthroughs; to man quiet sectors, and to put down anticipated uprisings among prisoners of war and foreign workers.
Volkssturm recruits, many already working 72-hour weeks, were given a 48-hour training programme by Armed Forces instructors, and were expected to master the rifle, Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck anti-tank weapons, the grenade-launcher and hand grenades. (In some cases, however, only a couple of hours training was given.) The reality was there were scarcely enough weapons to go around; many were sent into battle armed with hunting rifles or captured weapons, a trench spade, or no weapon at all.

Lack of weapons, ammunition and proper training meant that the fighting ability of the Volkssturm units was practically nil. The desertion rate was high, particularly among those units on the Western front; many older conscripts ignored the call-up, deserted, drifted home when the opportunity presented itself, or simply surrendered to the Allies at the first opportunity. (This was in itself a dangerous course of action – they could be classed as deserters and summarily shot by roving squads of Wehrmacht, SS or Hitler Youth). The younger members drawn from the Hitler Youth, however, were a different story; they put up a fanatical resistance against overwhelming odds.
Many Volkssturm units on the Eastern Front, however, were aware of the Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg’s call for Russian troops to butcher all Germans. They fought tenaciously to buy time for refugees fleeing before the Russian onslaught. Though untrained, unfit and underequipped, they fought not for an ideal, but to save their families and fellow Germans from a Red Army bent on revenge for years of brutal occupation.

#2

Insignia and Ranks:

Volkssturm insignia was highly simplified, reflecting the ad-hoc nature of its creation. Volkssturm insignia consisted of a series of silver pips on a square of black cloth (though photos show that the pips were sometimes pinned directly to the collar). Privates (Volkssturmmann) wore no insignia; corporals (Gruppenfuhrer) a single pip worn centrally, sergeants (Zugfuhrer) two pips worn diagonally. Junior officers (Kompaniefuhrer) wore three pips diagonally, senior officers (Battalionsfuhrer) four pips set in a square. Officers sometimes unofficially added aluminum-cord piping to the edges of the black cloth.

The other piece of identification worn by members of the Volkssturm was the armband. There were a number of variations in colours and design; most featured the title Deutscher Volkssturm Wehrmacht in a variety of scripts, with an eagle-and-swastika either flanking the script, or set in the middle. Photos show it being worn over SA and NSDAP armbands; members of the Hitler Youth often refused to wear Volkssturm armbands, determined to wear their own armband uncovered.

Senior Volkssturm positions were often held by members of the NSDAP or SA, and they sometimes wore the insignia of their position in those organizations, rather than those of the Volkssturm. As well, all members of the Hitler Youth serving with the Volkssturm generally wore their own insignia.

An old “volksturmann” with a powerful weapon, the Panzerfaust 60:

#3

Video showing the recruiting of the first Volkssturm troops:

http://www.wochenschau-archiv.de/kontrollklfenster.php?&PHPSESSID=&dmguid=08E92C00C1F8E153030103009D21A8C03400000000&inf=413920&outf=697280&funktion=play250k

#4

Good info :slight_smile:

You don’t happen to have larger images of Insignia?

Quality of men and equipment reminds of the similar force Stalin placed in the line of fire to slow down german drive to Soviet Capital. :wink:

_

#5

No really, but there was other insignia being the VK under direct command of the nazi party:

NSDAP insignia

By this point of the war,(1944) the insignia of the NSDAP had become exceedingly complex, reflecting the pervasiveness which with the Nazi Party insinuated itself into every level of German society. There were some 97 separate ranks of appointment by the end of the war. This article will not go into all of them, but will instead concentrate on those of the lower echelons (Kreisleiter and below), who were generally in charge within individual battalions of the Volkssturm.

In order to more fully explain the system of collar patches and piping, it will be necessary to explain a little of the structure of the NSDAP. The Gau or Region was the basic unit of the Nazi Party’s administrative organization, each one corresponding to an electoral district (though some sources equate this to the various provinces) in Germany. There were forty-two Gaue, led by a Gauleiter (ten more were later added in the occupied territories).

Each Gau was subdivided into a number of Kreise (roughly, Districts), each headed by a Kreisleiter.

Each Kreis was, in turn, divided into a varying number of Ortsgruppen (roughly, Local Groups), headed by an Ortsgruppenleiter.

In rural areas, the Ortsgruppen usually consisted of a number of towns and villages; in larger urban areas, there were often more than one Ortsgruppen. Inside the Ortsgruppen streets and houseblocks were combined and organized into Zellen (Cells), led by a Zellenleiter (Cell Leader), and, the smallest unit of the Party, the Block, led by a Blockleiter (Block Leader).

Each unit had its leader who was responsible to the leader of the next biggest unit; each unit also had its staff to rule the several fields of social and political life. The bigger units (those at the Gaue and Kriese level) had its own organizational staff in the form of offices which worked in separate fields of administration, education, finance, propoganda, press and health offices.

Rank within the NSDAP was shown on the collar patches alone. NSDAP Political Leaders were allocated four colors for the collar patches, and four colors for the piping colors on the collars, arm bands, edges of the collar
patches and the crown and cap bands of the peaked caps. They were:

Ortsgruppen –light brown cloth with pale blue piping
Kreisleitung – dark brown cloth with white piping
Gauleitung – bright red cloth with dark red piping

(The fourth, carmine-red cloth with gold-yellow piping, was for members at the Reichsleitung or National level. These were generally Ministers of State and their staffs, which will not be discussed in this article.)

The lowest rank in the NSDAP, the Political Leader Candidate, non-party member (Politischer Leiter-Anwarter nicht Pg.) wore just the patch. The next rank, Political Leader Candidate, party member (Politischer Leiter Anwarter) featured a small gold thread eagle-and-swastika. The ranks of Helfer and Oberhelfer featured one and two gold stipes.

The ranks of Arbeitsleiter to Hauptgemeinshaftsleiter featured from one to four gold pips, with one or two gold stripes. The ranks from Abschnittsleiter to Hauptabschnittsleiter had a single oak leaf, with one or two gold leaf stripes. The ranks of Bereichsleiter to Gauleiter had from two to four oak leaves in clusters, with one or two gold leaf stripes. These patches were worn on both sides of the collar.

#6

I really dont know much about the Home Guard, but I think the organization in the VK gaves it a more militarised formation:

VK paybook:

#7

I noticed the Volksturm ranking system appears to be very much like the Waffen-SS’

I wonder if this is ironic…

#8

Same as the SS the Volksturm was under direct control of the NSDAP, not the Wehrmacht. Actually e.g. the Hitler youths drafted into the Volksturm became automatically members of the SS ( a fact that haunted them for years after, but also other Wehrmacht units were towards the end of the war simply transfered into the SS).

Jan

#9

Volkssturm NSDAP insignia (continue)

The higher ranks of the Volkssturm – Colonel and above – were often members of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), and sometimes wore the uniform of that organization. Though Party officials had a number of tunics for a variety of functions, in combat it is likely that they wore their Political Leader’s tunic.

This was light brown in color, and consisted of a deep stand and fall collar, with five external buttons down the front closure; two pleated breast pockets with straight flaps and exposed buttons, and two unpleated bellows pockets with straight flaps and exposed buttons on the skirts; and deep turn-back cuffs.
It was generally worn with brown shirt and tie, though it is likely such niceties were not observed in the front lines. In general, the tunic was worn with brown breeches and high marching boots. However, it is likely a number of other forms of trousers and footwear was worn as well.
The NSDAP greatcoat was likely also worn in addition to the standard Wehrmacht greatcoat.

NSDAP officer wearing the brown greatcoat, his armament is a Panzerfaust 30.

The greatcoat was light brown in color, and identical in cut to the Army greatcoat, though generally of finer quality material. It was double-breasted, with a deep stand-and-fall collar, had two rows of six gilt buttons, and reached to the mid-calf at least.

There was a cloth half-belt with two buttons in the rear of the waist, and a central rear vent, hidden in an inverted pleat, which reached from collar to hem.There were two slanted slash pockets just below the waist, with rounded flaps. The cuffs had deep turn-backs. Versions with a dark green collar were also manufactured.

In addition to the Stahlhelm, NSDAP wore their version of the Officer’s peaked cap (Schirmmutze) This was a conventional peaked cap with a red-brown leather peak and leather chinstrap. The crown was light brown, the band dark brown. Waffenfarbe piping followed the crown seam and both top and bottom edges of the band, corresponding to the region (Gaue) the wearer came from. A gilt metal straight-winged spread eagle and swastika emblem was pinned to the front of the crown; below it on the band was a gilt metal oak leaf wreath surrounding a raised, painted metal cockade bearing a swastika on a white field surrounded by a red circle. The leather chinstrap was replaced by a double cord in heavy plaited gold cord.

Various designs of armbands (Kampfbinde) were also worn. These reflected the wearer’s branch of service within the NSDAP, and were completely separate from the members rank within the party.

There were two main branches of service: operational and administrative. All featured a swastika in black within a white circle on red cloth; both the swastika and circle were edged in gold braid (with the exception of the Political Leader Candidate’s armband, which was plain.) They also bore colored piping at the outer edge corresponding to the level at which the wearer was functioning; this followed the same pattern as the piping worn on the rank patches (i.e. pale blue for the Ortsgruppen level, white for the Kreisleitung level, dark red for the Gauleitung level, and gold for the state level). It should be noted that the piping on the armband did not necessarly match the piping on the collar patches, etc.

Armbands worn by those in the Operational area featured a combination of gold braid, oak leaf braid and gilt pips; in general, the armbands became more elaborate the higher the responsibility. The Blockhelfer (Block Helper) had 3mm braid along the outer edge; the Blockleiter (Block Leader) had 10mm oak-leaf braid between two 1mm braids and two 1mm outer braids; the Zellenleiter (Cell Leader) had 13mm oak-leaf braid between two 1mm braids and two 1mm outside braids (the edge piping on these bands could be from any one of the four levels). The Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader) had 16mm oak-leaf braid between four 1mm braids with two 2mm outer braids (the edge piping at this level would have been either white, dark red or gold).

The Stellv. Gauleiter (Vice Province Leader) armband had 20mm oak-leaf braid between two 3mm braids and two 2mm outer braids; the Gauleiter (Province Leader) had 30mm oak-leaf braid between two 3mm braids and two 2mm outer braids (the edge piping at this level would be either dark red or gold).

#10

There is a classic piece of newsreel of the Volkssturm of Berlin, marching off to meet the Soviet menace after having sworn their oath of alliegance to Hitler, overseen by Geobels. When one considers what they were about to encounter, it is no wonder that they didn’t look too happy about the situation in which they found themselves. Personally, I wouldn’t ridicule them, I would simply grieve for them.

#11

Volkssturm weapons training, note the Matilda tank wich is used as a target for the Pz shreck.

http://www.wochenschau-archiv.de/kontrollklfenster.php?&PHPSESSID=&dmguid=08E92C0055BA58DF030103009D21A8C0640B000000&inf=335560&outf=402960&funktion=play250k

There is a classic piece of newsreel of the Volkssturm of Berlin, marching off to meet the Soviet menace after having sworn their oath of alliegance to Hitler, overseen by Geobels.

I think I saw that in youtube, going to look for it.

#12

Profiles of volkssturmmänner in east Prussia and germany.

1- medical private

2-Corporal, the armament is a Panzerfaust 60 and a K 98 carbine.

3- captain of the Hitlerjugend, this combat unit was incorporated in the Vk in march 1945, the armament of this young is a HJ dagger and the RPzb 54/1.

#13

Another distinction between the Home Guard and the Volkstrum was the former was largely well equipped by 1942. Whether this would have helped in an invasion scenario is hard to say. The Home Guard sometimes jokingly called ‘The Rugged and the Buggered’ however were more highly motivated than their unfortunate German counterparts.

Regards digger

#14

Another difference is that the Home Guard, like the Australian version, weren’t tested after their nation had copped a long flogging.

#15

Agreed. I don’t know if Britains Dad’s Army or Australia’s Old and the Bold would have been effective against frontline troops. A good thing we’ll never know.

Regards digger

#16

I’d take a punt that the Australian home defence would have been a lot bloodier than the English one, all other things being equal.

By then we knew full well what we could expect if defeated by the Japanese.

I know in my own family that some terrible decisions were made about the fate of womenfolk, which wasn’t unusual if one reads some of the homefront histories.

I’m sure that there would have been a lot of embarrassing acts by Australians, but I’m also sure that the Japanese would have found out what a kamikaze defence of the homeland was like before they were forced to invent it for their own homeland.

#17

It’s a wonder the Red Army did not tremble with fear.:slight_smile: