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A few details about the German Home Guard. In many respects it is similar to the British Home Guard. Old men and youths, ill equiped, ill trained. Makes one wonder how effective the BHG would have been had the German invasion taken place. Jimbert   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.
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Germany had had a colossal reservoir of Junior leader experience, and up to 1870 a duplication of Armies. So I suggest they were a far more militaristic country. Witness the FreiKorps, SA, and SS. Mushroomed within months. And a lotm of their veterans would have joined the Volkssturm Of course Germany was a country with many cities and immediate access to the countryside, not the large suburban sprawl which England grew between the wars. And like us, they'd had a large number of Colonial wars Africa, Far East) on which to cut their teeth. So I suggest it's a good job the Home Guard and Volkssturm never met. Peter |
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Did the French have any similar Home Guard? sunday |
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Sunday In the Franco Prussian war the French had their Communards who were separate from the Army, and were very much a Political anti Monarchy anti Middle class bunch, who were shot in pleasingly large numbers by the Prussians and the french Army. WW 2 found the French Resistance who were not a constitutionally organised outfit, and many will say did bugger-all except play at politics. This of course is totally unfair as they were valuable assistants to our SOE and on D-Day proved to be invaluable. Without the French Resistance the D-Day invasion would have been a failure and we would be staggering under the Nazi yoke, and the USA would be an Irish Colony. Peter |
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The French and the Italians have a para-military policing organisation, the French Gendarmes and the Italian Carabinieri and I think those would be, in effect, Home Guards. There was another French outfit, the Milice who were recruited in Vichy France to assist the Germans. It's difficult to categorise the Milice as Right or Left wing since both elements joined it.many were butchered by the resistance after the war, amd as usual, often to pay back old scores or to vacate property desired by the other side. Alexander Boyd the author has written a lot on this theme. |
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Ref. message #3: I give up, Flashman. What is that weapon? I found something similar, the VG 1-5 semi-automatic carbine (Versuchs Gerat 1-5), but I'm certain it is not the weapon you're looking for. sunday |
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To elevate the realms of site boredom into a truly exquisite torture, I have transferred the Home Guard weapons in posts 10 and 11 into MILITARIA and created a new thread, Substitute Standard Weapons, and havce accordingly wiped 10 and 11 above. So there. |
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Flash Your getting your history in a bit of a twist. The Communrds had nothing to do with the Franco Prussian war. They get their name from the Paris communes that first appeard 1871 after the 1870 war. They were led by students who barricaded the streets in protest at poverty and the supposedly subverting of the French Revolution by the rich. The Communards set up Barricades through out Paris. The government put them down ruthlesly killing thousand, many inocent people who had the misfortune to live in the barricaded areas. The Book 'Les miserable' by Victor Hugo is based around the period. In fact Victor Hugo was exiled in the UK for his support of the communards. Most of the Communards demands were later met. and Hugo became a national hero. The word communist came from the communards as did the red flag. The Gendarmes, Carabinieri, Civil Guard etc., were never home guard. All were originally military police in a loose sort of way, but after the success of Robert Peels Police. They were also given the role of a National Police force and have remained so to this day. The British Home Guard had special secret Guerilla units formed. Arms caches were laid down in case of a German invasion. The units were trained to carry out actions against the German occupiers including assasination of collaberators. Strangly these groups were trained as were the early commandos by men who had fought in the Spanish Civil war, but were originally not allowed to join the British army because of their communist connections. Arnie |
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I'M GETTING POOR COPY FROM THIS REPLY, AS WE ARE ALL.WHAT I AM SAYING TO SUNDAY IS THE INSTANCES OF CITIZENS' ARMIES. WHO ALTHOUGH NOT STATUTORY BODIES, IN MANY WAYS PARALLED THE HOME GUARD, AND YOU CAN SEE THE COMMUNE CARRIED OUT AN ADMINISTRATIVE AS WELL AS PARA MILITARY FUNCTION. -
I AM EQUATING THOSE BODIES INCLUDING THE HOME GUARD AS PARA MILITARIES The French and the Italians have a para-military policing organisation, the French Gendarmes and the Italian Carabinieri and I think those would be, in effect, Home Guards. There was another French outfit, the Milice who were recruited in Vichy France to assist the Germans. -
YES, THE COMMUNE EMERGED AFTER THE PRUSSIANS LEFT, MY MISTAKE. -
Throughout April and May, government forces, constantly increasing in number - Prussia releasing French POWs to help the Thiers government -, carried out a siege of the city's powerful defences, and pushed the National Guards back. On 21 May a gate in the western part of the fortified city wall of Paris was forced and Versaillese troops began the reconquest of the city, first occupying the prosperous western districts where they were welcomed by those residents who had not left Paris after the armistice. It seems an engineer (who had spied regularly for the Thiers government) found the gate unmanned and signaled this to the Versaillais. The strong local loyalties which had been a positive feature of the Commune now became something of a disadvantage: instead of an overall planned defence, each "quartier" fought desperately for its survival, and each was overcome in turn. The webs of narrow streets which made entire districts nearly impregnable in earlier Parisian revolutions had been largely replaced by wide boulevards during Haussmann's renovation of Paris. The Versaillese enjoyed a centralised command and had superior numbers. They had learned the tactics of street fighting, and simply tunnelled through the walls of houses to outflank the Communards' barricades. Ironically, only where Haussmann had made wide spaces and streets were they held up by the defenders' gunfire. During the assault, the government troops were responsible for slaughtering National Guard troops and civilians: prisoners taken in possession of weapons, or who were suspected of having fought, were shot out of hand and summary executions were commonplace. The Commune had taken a "decree on hostages" on April 5, 1871, according to which any accomplice with Versailles would be made the "hostage of the Parisian people," its article 5 stating furthermore that the execution by Versailles of any war prisoner or partisan of the regular government of the Paris Commune |
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Flash The Gendarmes originated in the 15th Century as Heavy cavalry in the French Army. Napoleon gave them a role in the French army as Military Police (Provost Marshal) Later they were given the role as a National police force both roles they still have. I cannot see them as an Home guard force thay have at all times been fully proffesional. The Malice' was the Vichy militia formen by the arch Vichy traitor Pier Laval who was executed They were certainly not left wing. If anything they were a Facist militia. The French in 1940 the upper and middle class, thought life would be better ruled by the Germans rather than the elected Socialist Government of Msr Blum. France had only about 600 German civil servnts, Yugoslavia had over 12,000. At the out set the resistance came from vetrans of the Spanish Civil war and the French Communists. The Resistances worst enemy were the Malice'. Only 4% of the French population supported the underground. After the war De Gaulle re wrote history and this figure became 94%. Apart from fighting the under ground the Malice', were in the forefront of rounding up the Jews and sending them east. They also ensured that those selected for forced labour in Germany went. |
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My last tour in Germany (1/80 - 1/83) I came to know several veterans of the Volkstrum. Each patrol had a soldier assigned to it, they were the ones with working firearrms and ammo (usually 5 rds.) Their vehicles were steam powered, horse drawn, benzine powered. Sometimes the patrol would have a Panzerfaust in addition to its rifle. Most weapons were merely the tools found on a farm or in a factory. Were they effective? Not in a strictly military sense perhaps, but the members were proud of their service. Had it come down to it, the British homeguard might have been as, if not more, effective, but not more proud of their service. |
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