laststandonzombieisland

This propaganda photograph was published in “Das 12 Uhr Blatt” (Literally “The 12 o’clock paper”), a Berlin daily rag, on 23 December 1944. It shows a Volkssturm militiaman from East Prussia with a letter from home near the Christmas tree.

The aging Volkssturmmann holds a Faustpatron 30 disposable anti-tank grenade launcher in his hand, the puny forerunner of the Panzerfaust line that was good for about 30 meters– hence its designation– but could still penetrate about 5 inches of armor at that distance.

With the majority of able-bodied men aged 18-37 in front-line units, and those 38-45 in second-line garrison units such as Landesschützen (fortress infantry) on the “Whipped Cream Front” in Denmark and Norway, the Volkssturm typically was filled with old men 45-60 and 16 & 17-year-old kids with the ratio being roughly 7:1 old-to-young.

The above Volkssturmmann is well equipped for the force, as generally, most members were lucky to get an armband and a captured recycled foreign rifle such as a Dutch Mannlicher or French Berthier, likely with only a packet of ammo, with a sprinkle of anti-tank weapons. 

The Christmas of 1944 was grim for the nominally six million strong (in theory, never in reality) as 1945 would be a tough year, and many of the Great War vets and seedcorn in its ranks would not live to see its end.

The lucky ones would be able to surrender to the Americans without much of a fight, while those in the East, well, those ledger pages never really caught up.