Simon Forty, author of ‘Red Army Into The Reich’, provides a visual explanation of the formation of the Volksstrum in WWII, with direct quotes from history’s most reviled figure.
As the Russian and Western forces got closer to Germany itself and attrition led to infantry shortages, the German high command realised that it would need to involve more men in the fight. And so, the Volkssturm was born. Hitler was always inspired by Prussian history and the Volkssturm is reminiscent of the Landsturm that fought Napoleon in 1813–1815.
With that in mind, surprisingly perhaps, it was Heinz Guderian—at that time Chief of the General Staff—who suggested the idea, but in a rather different form. His Landsturm was supposed to be led by serving officers and would consist of men who were capable of active service but had been hitherto exempt. Guderian thought it best handled by the paramilitary Sturmabteilung and had roped in Wilhelm Schepmann, head of the SA, to run it.
The Nazi high command had another view of this, changed the name to Volkssturm and put Bormann and Himmler involved. The result was that the call went out to a vast number of untrained men. There were too few weapons—in spite of what the propaganda photos showed—and too few trained men to train those conscripted.
Hitler’s Decree on the Formation of the Volkssturm
“After five years of tough struggle, as a result of the failure of all our European allies, the enemy is on some fronts near or on the German borders. He is trying hard to smash our Reich, to destroy the German people and their social order. His ultimate goal is the extermination of the German race.
As in the autumn of 1939, we are again completely alone facing our enemies. Then, in a few years we succeeded in solving the most important military problems through the first large-scale deployment of our German people’s power, and in securing the existence of the Reich and thus Europe for years to come. While the enemy now believes they can strike the last blow, we are determined to carry out the second large-scale mission of our people. We must and we will succeed, as in the years 1939 to 1941, by relying exclusively on our own strength, not only to break the enemy’s will to destroy, but to throw it back again and keep it from the Reich until a peace that safeguards the future of Germany, its allies and thus Europe is guaranteed.
We oppose with the total commitment of all German people the desire of our Jewish international enemies to annihilate us.
In order to strengthen the active forces of our Wehrmacht and in particular to wage relentless struggle wherever the enemy wants to set foot on German soil, I therefore call on all German men who are capable of armed forces to engage in combat. I order:
1. In the districts of the Greater German Reich, the German Volkssturm is to be formed from all men capable of arms between the ages of 16 and 60. They will defend their home soil with all weapons and means, as far as they appear suitable.
2. The Gauleiter in their districts is responsible for setting up and managing the German Volkssturm. Above all, they should make use of the most capable organizers and leaders of the tried and tested institutions of the party, the SA, SS, the NSKK and the Hitlerjugend.”
Their first “uniform” was an armband. Determined that Germans would fight the Bolsheviks to the last man, as head of the Replacement Army, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler controlled the organization; Bormann was in charge of the administration. The results were, predictably, mixed, so much so that on January 28, 1945, Hitler had to issue another order:
“The experiences in the East show that Volkssturm … units used independently have only very little fighting strength and can be smashed quickly. The fighting strength of these units, which are usually strong in numbers but insufficiently armed for modern fighting, is incomparably higher when they are used within the framework of the field army. I therefore order that when Volkssturm units as well as troops of the field army are available in a combat sector, mixed combat groups (brigades) are to be set up under unified command, so as to give support and backbone to the Volkssturm units.”
Some Volkssturm units fought well—the 3/115 Siemensstadt Battalion in Berlin made up of 770 mainly WWI veterans is always held up as an example: 26 of them won the Iron Cross. Other units, more sensibly, slipped away into the shadows discarding weapons and uniforms when the Allies arrived. The Red Army regarded them as semi-terrorists and treated them in the same manner that the Germans had treated Soviet partisans—with little mercy. These photos show the German propaganda view of the Volkssturm preparing for combat:
3, 4 Parading with Panzerschreck and Panzerfäuste.
5 A youthful Volkssturmmann with an MP 40.
6 Training with an MG34.
7 Learning how the Panzerfaust works.
8 Older weapons were impressed into service.
9 Trenches were prepared.
Red Army Into The Reich
By Simon Forty
The last year of the war saw Russian offensives that cleared the Germans out of their final strongholds in Finland and the Baltic states, before advancing into Finnmark in Norway and the east European states that bordered Germany: Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. By spring 1945 the Red Army had reached to Vienna and the Balkans, and had thrust deep into Germany where they met American, French and British troops advancing from the west. The final days of the Third Reich were at hand.
Simon Forty has worked in military and history publishing as editor and author for over 40 years. Following in his father’s footsteps he concentrates on highly illustrated books that combine historic material with modern photography, much of it by long-time collaborator Leo Marriott.
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