Soldiers of the
Volkssturm man a trench system in the late months of the war, armed mainly with
World War l-vintage rifles. The price paid by the Volkssturm for their
last-ditch defence of the Reich is unclear, but the number of those killed or
captured would potentially reach 175,000.
The HJ were just some of the unfortunates caught up in the
final collapse of the Third Reich. For those who became combatants in the
Volkssturm, they stood at the young end of a scale that incorporated thousands
of individuals who had no place facing the combined might of the Allied armies.
On 25 July 1944, having just escaped assassination in the 20
July bomb plot and with Allied forces massing on Germany's western and eastern
borders, Hitler issued a 'Decree for Total War'. He announced on 25 September
that all Germans aged 16—60 who were not Jews, gypsies, criminals or members of
French, Polish or Slovene minorities, and who were not already in the armed
forces or RAD, would join the new 'People's Militia', the Deutscher Volkssturm.
The six-million-strong force would have about 10,180 battalions — limited staff
personnel and rear-echelon facilities, and lack of weapons standardization,
made the battalion the largest tactical unit — divided into four Aufgebote
(levies):
1st Levy: 1.2 million men in 1,850 battalions (400 in
frontier districts); all physically fit 20—60-year-olds without essential war
work exemption, assigned to frontline battalions, quartered in barracks, liable
for service outside their home district, and including all available NSDAP
political officials, Allgemeine-SS, SA, NSKK and NSFK (Nazi Air Corps).
2nd Levy: 2.8 million men in 4,860 battalions (1,050 in
frontier districts); all physically fit 20—60-year-olds with essential war work
exemption, usually organized in factory battalions, quartered at home, liable
for service within their home county.
3rd Levy. 600,000 16—19-year-olds, plus some 15-year-old
volunteers, in about 1,040 battalions; mostly 16-year-old Hitler Youths trained
in the Wehrertuchtigungslager.
4th Levy. 1.4 million 20—60-year-olds unfit for active
service, plus volunteers over 60 in about 2,430 battalions, for guard duty,
including guarding concentration camps. The NS-Frauenschaft (Nazi Women's
League) provided rear-echelon support, and on 23 March 1945 were issued with
firearms.
Not all planned battalions were formed, but at least 700 did
see combat, the vast majority of these recruited from the frontier districts in
the East, who, along with recruits from the South East, found themselves facing
the Soviet forces. Troops recruited from the West were faced with the Western
Allies.
Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, Nazi Head Office Chief and
Hitler's deputy, commanded the militia on the Führer's behalf. He was assisted
by two chiefs of staff: Oberbefehlsleiter Helmut Friedrichs, responsible for
organization and political affairs, and Gottlob Berger, SS Main Office Chief,
representing the SS and Replacement Army commander, Heinrich Himmler. A staff
of army officers, under Colonel Hans Kissel, was responsible for equipment,
weapons and training.
Each of Germany's 42 districts formed a Volkssturmabschnitt
(Volkssturm District) under a NSDAP Gauleiter assisted by an SA general or
senior NSDAP official. A district contained on average 21 Kreise (counties),
each under a NSDAP Kreisleiter assisted by a Kreisstabsführer, and required to
raise about 12 battalions. Berger and Friedrichs achieved a good working
relationship, but Bormann and Himmler frequently clashed for control of the
Volkssturm, a situation exacerbated by a confused chain of command, leaving
NSDAP officials and SA officers resentful of the SS' upper hand.
Given the nature of the recruits, the Volkssturm was given
an ambitious range of missions: surround and contain large seaborne and
airborne landings; eliminate agents and small sabotage groups; guard bridges,
streets and key buildings; reinforce depleted army units; plug gaps in the
front after enemy breakthroughs, and to man quiet sectors; and crush feared
uprisings by the estimated 10 million POWs and foreign workers in Germany.
A 649-man 1st Levy Battalion had a 27-man staff; companies
1—3, each with three or four platoons, containing three or four ten-man
sections; and a 4th infantry howitzer company. Other levy battalions had 576
men. Each company was supposed to have three five-man
Panzernahbekampfungstrupps (Tank Close Combat Squads), each with ten
Panzerfauste anti-tank weapons, often manned by HJ volunteers. Each battalion
received a consecutive number within its district, e.g. Bataillon 25/97 = 97th
Battalion (HQ Konigsberg) in District 25 (East Prussia).
During 1945, Volkssturm units helped form army Gneisenau
formations within the Replacement Army. In January, 26 'Baden' battalions
joined Upper Rhine Infantry Regiments 1—15, later grouped into the 805th and
905th Divisions and 1005th Brigade of the 19th Army — nicknamed the '19th
Volkssturm Army'. The 303rd, 309th, 324th, 325th and 328th and 'Banvalde'
Divisions contained Volkssturm battalions, as did the Volksgrenadierdivisionen
established by Himmler. Other Volkssturm recipients included 16 grenadier
regiments and SS-Grenadier Regiment 'Becker , later part of the Waffen-SS
30.Jatmar Division. Also in 1945, the army formed Festungs units from
Volkssturm companies with army staffs, with the unforgiving job of manning
defensive lines in the East.
Volkssturm recruits, many already working a 72-hour
war-emergency working week, were given a 48-hour training programme by armed
forces instructors, and were expected to master the rifle, Panzerfaust, the
grenade-launcher, hand grenade and Panzerschreck, and in emergency the pistol,
SMG and land mine. In fact there were scarcely enough weapons for the 1st and
2nd Levies, and many militiamen were sent into battle unarmed. The 3rd Levy was
not issued weapons, and the 4th Levy were expected to use hunting-rifles or
captured firearms. Troops were often only issued a trench-spade for
self-defence.
The Gauleiters on the eastern border began to establish a
series of defensive lines during the pause in the fighting after July 1944.
Thousands of local men and women, Hitler Youth, RAD conscripts, POWS and
foreign forced labourers built tank-traps, artillery and anti-tank positions,
protected by earthworks and linked by trenches. Eight lines skirted the East
Prussian frontier, three in Wartheland and two in Upper Silesia. Other lines
faced the Czech border. By December 1944, these lines were manned by armed
forces and Volkssturm units, many organized from January 1945 into fortress
battalions.
In combat, the Volkssturm paid heavily for its role as
last-ditch infantry. Driven from East Prussia by the Soviet offensives of
autumn 1944, they became escorts to the three million refugees heading
westwards along congested snow-swept roads, harassed by Polish guerrillas.
About 750,000 people died from exposure, were killed by overtaking Soviet or
Polish forces, drowned on evacuation ships in the Baltic sunk by Soviet air or
submarine attacks, or caught in the Dresden air raid of 13/14 February 1945.
Some Volkssturm soldiers, aware of the Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg's
encouragement to Red Army troops to butcher all Germans, still stood their
ground to buy time for the escape of the refugees. Others, afraid of being shot
as guerrillas if captured, joined the mass retreat.
The Volkssturm's final, epic defence was in the German
capital itself. The last Soviet offensive began on 16 April 1945.The Oder Line
was breached, and by the 25th Berlin defenders included 24,000 Volkssturm
(18,000 of whom were 'Clausewitz Levy' troops of the 2nd Levy, on six hours'
standby). The fighting was desperate. Those Volkssturm who could find the
courage - bolstered by the threat of SS police squads hanging them for
cowardice — would assault Soviet tanks at close range with Panzerfauste,
utilizing their knowledge of the city's layout. If they secured a good hit,
they might knock out the tank, but the blistering Soviet response frequently
resulted in their deaths.
Nevertheless, many individual Volkssturm rose to the
occasion, and defended their city with a passion. In the battle for Berlin, and
that of Breslau (with 45,000 defenders including 25,000 Volkssturm in 38
battalions) Battalion 21/41 and two Hitler Youth 3rd Levy battalions
distinguished themselves in the fighting.
On 8 February 1945, the Western Allies, in three army
groups, began their advance into western Germany. On the 12th the local
Volkssturm was mobilized and sent to man the Westwall, but they showed none of
the desperate determination of their comrades in the East. Many ignored the
call-up; others surrendered at the first opportunity, or threw away their
armbands and hid in the woods or returned home. The Westwall was quickly
breached and on 7 May the Western Allies met Soviet forces in central Germany.
Hitler deceived himself into believing that a huge civilian
army, led by militarily inexperienced Nazi officials, could stave off Germany's
defeat. The Volkssturm's ultimate failure, however, should not blind us to the
bravery of many of its members who, though unfit, untrained and underequipped,
fought not to preserve their state, but to save fellow Germans from a Red Army
eager to exact vengeance for the brutal German occupation of the Soviet Union.
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