In the summer of 1944 the situation was desperate for Germany:the eastern front had been broken and the Red Army was advancing rapidly; to the west and south, after taking Italy, the rest of the allies were knocking at the door. Hitler must have thought that in desperate situations, desperate measures... the Volkssturm was created (People's Army).
The numerous losses suffered by the German army and the problems of recruiting new soldiers, made it necessary to modify the previous much more restrictive parameters and initiate a massive and forced recruitment of all men between the ages of 16 and 60 - a contingent of 5 million - through an edict issued by the Führer himself...
The enemy has begun actions to crush our empire, to destroy the German people and their social order; his ultimate goal is the extermination of the German race. […] Since our enemies believe they are capable of destroying us, we have decided to once again use the power of our people. […]
Therefore, I order:
Volkssturms, defense forces of the German people, will be formed in all districts of the Greater German Empire, in which all men between the ages of 16 and 60 capable of bearing a weapon must serve. They will defend the homeland with all the weapons and means at their disposal that seem appropriate. […]
All these new recruits joined the Volkssturm that would remain under the direct orders of the Nazi Party, since they tried to counteract their poor conditions with ideological fanaticism. Hitler Youth members, World War I veterans, and other untrained Germans had to undergo rapid instruction, which, due to the rush, often consisted only of learning how to shoot. The shortage of weapons and ammunition forced to re-oil and dust off old rifles, collector's weapons and even those seized from the enemy. The lucky ones got a Panzerfaust (Armored fist), a kind of bazooka but with a single shot. Logically, they were also not in a position to provide uniforms for the new recruits, so most of them wore civilian clothes and a distinctive red and black armband on the left arm; many chose to use the uniform of their jobs. The Volkssturm was organized into militias made up of 642 men who, in theory, were supposed to defend the cities in which they were formed against the threat of an allied invasion.
Everything changed before the push of the allies, many militias had to be sent to the front to make up for the casualties of the Wehrmacht... they were cannon fodder . The only units of the Volkssturm that were of any importance were those that fought defending their cities. In the Battle of Berlin, some 40,000 militiamen (mostly young and old) became the city's last defense against the Red Army.
The Germans were not the only ones to lay hands on the civilian population in moments of desperation, their Japanese allies also did it... it was the Kokumin Giyūtai .
In March 1945, the Kokumin Giyūtai (Volunteer Corps) were created in Japan as non-combatant units with civil assistance duties. The volunteers (men between 12 and 65 years old and women between 12 and 45 years old) received training in first aid, firefighting, evacuation and rescue… something similar to our Civil Protection. In June 1945, the Volunteer Corps was reformed into a combat militia (Kokumin Giyu Sentōtai ). This new Corps, now made up of men between the ages of 15 and 60 and single women between the ages of 17 and 40, became a reserve group prepared for urban defense against the imminent invasion of the Americans. The surrender of Japan on September 2 meant that these units hardly had a fighting chance.
