Talk:Volkssturm

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Contents 1 Home Army 2 Volksturm Small Arms 3 Goebbels 4 People's Storm trooper ? 5 Picture?

[edit] Home Army

This is a mis-link, via a redirect. Does anyone know if this is the the correct term in translation, and whether we have an article under some other name to the formation in question? Alai 09:17, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Volksturm Small Arms

In additional to standard Wehrmacht arms and captured equipment, the Volksturm had numerous arms (mainly experimental) created for it. Perhaps there should be a section added addressing this point.

[edit] Goebbels

Didn't Goebbels play a large part in the formation of the volksstrum? Gavin Scott 08:27, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] People's Storm trooper ?

Doesn't the word 'storm trooper' carry a bit too much meaning? I mean these were mostly youngsters, elders and people who did not want to be there not the elité troops you expect when you read 'storm trooper'.

It was the name of the unit. We can't change that, the article explains the nature of the Volksstrum. Gavin Scott 18:45, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

“Storm trooper” wasn’t the name of the organization—“storm trooper” is at best a generic term for members of the SS; Volkssturmhad little if anything to do with the SS and its name means little more than something like people’s assault [group]; Sturm means “storm” in the sense of an assault, but members of the Volkssturm were hardly storm troopers, all of them being civilians and either young kids, old men, or men unfit for normal military duty. What’s the source for rendering Volkssturm “storm troopers”? If none can be cited, or the only sources for the statement are unreliable, the statement should be removed from the article; see WP:ATT. —–Jim_Lockhart 20:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Picture?

I think the current picture is misleading and inappropriate. It is misleading because it implicates that Volkssturm members were fanatics that rather died than surrender (to US troops). For the Eastern Front it is true most people rather fought to the death than surrender (which would likely mean death as well), on the Western Front this was exceptional (AFAIK). The article also doesn't emphasize enough the last-resort function of the Volkssturm. German wartime propaganda already stated the best weapon of the Volkssturm was their will to fight, and even in reality this was true, again mostly for the Eastern Front. I think it should be emphasized Volkssturm members fought more to save what was left of their country from the Soviets than being Nazi-fanatics, apart from simply being conscripted. Wiki1609 14:38, 2 November 2007 (UTC)