Hitler's Last Levy

The Volkssturm 1944-45

Hans Kissel

• Publisher: Helion & Company
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781906033545
• eBook ISBN: 9781908916174
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

An in-depth account of the formation Nazi Germany's militia army as a desperate attempt to delay its defeat during the waning days of WWII.
 
A companion volume to the very successful In a Raging Inferno—Combat Units of the Hitler Youth, Hans Kissel's study offers a highly detailed account of the German Volkssturm, or Home Guard. Formed from men unfit for military service, the young, and the old, this ad-hoc formation saw extensive combat during the desperate defense of the Reich, 1944–45.
 
The author describes the Volkssturm's training, leadership, organization, armament, and equipment, in addition to its active service on both the Eastern and Western fronts. The text is supported by an extensive selection of appendices, including translations of documents and many fascinating eyewitness combat reports. This edition also includes over 150 previously unpublished black-and-white photos, and four pages of specially commissioned color uniform plates by Stephen Andrew.

Appendices

APPENDIX I

Instruction to the Party Chancellery 12/44 dated 1 September 1944

Action to be taken by the Party Chancellery in the consolidation measures

1. I authorise the Leader of the Party Chancellery to issue the necessary instructions in my name to the Gauleiters responsible for the consolidation measures or called upon to support such measures.

Other authorities within the NSDAP Reich leadership are not authorised to take effective measures without being instructed to do so by the Leader of the Party Chancellery.

2. The Gauleiters are responsible for taking all measures to ensure that construction works on defensive positions are implemented as soon as possible.

3. The Leader of the Party Chancellery shall nominate for the integrated management of the overall action representatives who shall be directly responsible to him and report directly to him. He is authorised to bring in suitable Party comrades from other authorities within the Party.

4. The Reichsorganisationsleiter shall make available NSDAP management and supervisory personnel as instructed by the Leader of the Party Chancellery.

signed: Adolf Hitler

Directive 278/44, issued by the Party Chancellery on 27 September 1944

Re: Maintenance and security of defensive positions

As ordered by the Führer, I hereby charge the Gauleiters responsible for the construction of defensive positions with the following responsibilities:

1. The maintenance and security of the positions constructed by them and not yet occupied by our troops, including all material stored within them and built into them.

2. The formation of security garrisons which on the approach of the enemy shall defend the positions until a planned defence can be organised by the armed forces.

The necessary measures are to be taken in agreement with the responsible Deputy General Commands; the security garrisons are to be set up within the framework of the Volkssturm.

signed: M. Bormann

APPENDIX II

Decree of the Führer 25 September 1944
concerning the Formation of the Volkssturm

(Reich Legal Gazette 1944, T. I. S. 253)

After five years of the hardest fighting, and as a result of the failure of all our European allies, on some fronts the enemy are close to or at the German borders. They are summoning their strength to smash our Reich, and to annihilate the German people and its social order. Their ultimate aim is to exterminate the German.

As in autumn 1939, we are now once again facing the united front of our enemies completely alone. In a few years we once succeeded, by the first major effort of the power of our German Volk, in solving the most important military problems, and guaranteeing that the Reich, and thus Europe, would continue for years to come. While now the enemy believe that they are about to strike the final blow, we are resolved to carry out the second great effort of our Volk. We must and we shall succeed, as we did in the years 1939–1941, building only upon our own strength, not only in breaking the will of the enemy to exterminate us, but in throwing them back and keeping them out of the Reich until a peace can be secured which will guarantee the future of Germany, the future of its allies, and the future of Europe itself. In the face of the well-known desire of our Jewish-international enemies to exterminate us, we set the total commitment of all German people.

To reinforce the active forces of our Wehrmacht and in particular to carry out a merciless struggle wherever the enemy wishes to enter upon German soil, I call to arms all German men capable of wielding them.

I order that:

1. In the Gaue of the Greater German Reich, there shall be formed, from all men between the ages of 16 and 60 years of age who are capable of bearing arms, the Volkssturm. It shall defend German home soil with all weapons and means as shall seem to be suitable.

2. The formation and command of the Volkssturm within their Gaue shall be the responsibility of the respective Gauleiters. In carrying out this responsibility, they shall principally make use of the most capable organisers and leaders of the tried and tested Party establishments, the SA, SS, the NSKK, and the HJ.

3. I nominate SA Chief of Staff Schepmann as Inspector of Firing Training, and NSKK Korpsführer Kraus as Inspector of Motor Vehicle Mechanical Training of the Volkssturm.

4. During the period of their service, the members of the Volkssturm shall be considered to be soldiers within the meaning of the Defence Act.

5. The membership of Volkssturm members in other organisations shall remain unaffected. However, service in the Volkssturm shall take priority over any other service.

6. The Reichsführer-SS, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Reserve Army, is responsible for the military organisation, training, armament and equipment of the Volkssturm

7. Combat deployment of the Volkssturm shall be ordered on my instructions by the Reichsführer-SS in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Reserve Army.

8. Military instructions for implementation shall be issued by Reichsführer-SS Himmler in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Reserve Army, and political and organisational instructions shall be issued on my behalf by Reichsleiter M. Bormann.

9. The National Socialist Party is meeting its highest obligations of honour to the German Volk by placing its own organisation as the first line champion of this struggle.

Führer Headquarters, 25 September 1944.

The Führer Adolf Hitler

The Leader of the Party Chancellery

M. Bormann

The Head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht

Keitel

Reichsminister and Head of the Party Chancellery

Dr. Lammers

APPENDIX III

Instructions for implementation relating to the Führer
Decree concerning the formation of the Volkssturm 27 September 1944

National Socialist German Workers Party

Party Chancellery

The Leader of the Party Chancellery

Führer Headquarters, 25.9.44

Directive 277/44

Re: Instructions for implementation relating to the Führer Decree concerning the formation of the Volkssturm

I. Organisation:

1. The Gauleiters shall immediately register, for the formation of the Volkssturm, all Volksgenossen capable of bearing arms and aged between 16 and 60 years.

2. In mobilising men for the Volkssturm, regard shall be had to the vital war tasks of armaments, food, transport and communications.

3. The Volkssturm shall be formed by the appropriate authorities on the basis of Kreise and Ortsgruppen. It is to be organised in companies and battalions.

In dealing with all questions relating to the formation of the Volkssturm in the Gaue, and the selection of battalion and company commanders, the Gauleiters, if they do not principally take action themselves, shall nominate an assistant. This assistant must be a convinced, fanatical and thus totally committed National Socialist, a troop commander who has a proved his worth in frontline service, and a good organiser, and thus be able on the instructions of his Gauleiter to carry out the formation of the required units and the selection of suitable commanders as quickly as possible.

The names of such assistants are to be notified to me by telegram no later than 30 September 1944, giving details of the individual’s career, both military and within the Party.

4. The appropriate authorities shall assume responsibility for the management and training of political advisers with experience at the front, members of subsidiary organisations, police officers or other Volksgenossen. They are to be selected on the basis of the following criteria : loyalty to the Führer, steadfastness, and military ability.

II. Equipment and Training

1. The armament of the Volkssturm shall be carried out in collaboration with the Gauleiters by the authorities directly subordinate to the Reichsführer-SS in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Reserve Army.

2. The Volkssturm shall receive particular training in anti-tank and infantry combat. In the Gaue on the borders of Germany, training manoeuvres are to be carried out on the actual terrain of existing defensive positions.

3. The training of members of the Volkssturm shall be carried out at least once per week; if possible, such training shall not disturb the normal civilian occupations of Volkssturm members.

III. Recognition of Volkssturm members (Vol...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Publishers’ Note
• Foreword
• Creation & Organisation of the Volkssturm
• The Volkssturm in Action
• Volkssturm Uniforms & Equipment
• Appendices
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
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