The German Volkssturm, or People's Storm in German, was a loosely organized militia formed by the Nazi party in the last months of the war, when shortages of men and materiel required them to 'scrape the bottom of the barrel' in a futile attempt to resist the Allies further. It followed the concept of total war, promoted by the Nazi ideologues in which it was better to fight to the bitter end, along with the destruction of German towns and cities, than it was to surrender. While the idea of such units had existed for a long time, it first came into being in the fall of 1944. Men and teenagers, 16 to 60, in non-essential occupations were conscripted into the Volkssturm. Many of them had been deemed unfit to serve before, and some had already been discharged due to wounds. By February of 1945, as the war raged on, younger 'men', women, girls as young as 14 were also drafted. They were typically trained in the use small arms, grenades, and panzerfausts, however there was strong shortage of equipment including uniforms and weapons, which meant that many were not issued arms, and those who did, often received old rifles or captured weapons for which there were often problems finding ammunition. Many of them also wore their own clothes, or some type of non-military uniform, and they also had to procure their own cooking kit, blanket, etc. The only insignia they had to identify them as members of the Volkssturn was an armband sown into their clothes. In terms of organization, each Kreis or county was supposed to raise and train a battalion under the leadership of the local party authority. Often the trainers were WWI veterans, members of the Volkssturm themselves. Even though these units were initially intended to defend their local towns, they were often sent into battle at the front line, under the command of the Wehrmacht, and often mixed in with regular troops to give them greater effectiveness. This was deemed necessary as early engagements proved disastrous when volkssturm units were sent into combat on their own. As expected, the performance of these units was mixed. Some units, exhibited fanatical resistance, while others were quick to surrender. Those units with greater percentages of WWI veterans also fared better. This does not mean they survived, but they held longer. Another reason why some of these units were sometimes reluctant to surrender was because they were afraid that they would be shot as Partisans, due to their lack of uniforms. Perhaps the most prominent role of the Volkssturm took place during the Battle of Berlin, where approximately 60,000 of their members fought. It is not known precisely how many Volkssturm members died, but it is estimated to be at least a couple hundred thousand, perhaps as high as 600,000. In terms of toy soldiers, this is a set that had not been produced to date, even though we have seen Partisan units made for other nationalities. Recently, Mars Toy Soldiers has come up with the first Volkssturn set that I am aware of. Let's take a look.
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