The Volkssturm was the creation of the Nazi Party in the final days of World War II. Its function was a last-ditch defense of Germany against the expected invasion by the Allied Armies on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. / History shows that there have been instances of people with their collective "back to the wall" who have rallied, closed ranks, created militia forces, and hurled back the invaders. The principal reason for the Volkssturm's failure was rooted in Germany's inability to work as a whole. Volkssturm records are filled with instances of its leaders' gross dereliction of duty and misuse of power that bordered on the criminal. Had such behavior not been present, and the Volkssturm program started earlier so as to enable the armament industry to gear up for the manufacture of the needed extra weapons, then this pathetic organization might have done far better than it did as shown by its war record. / Unfortunately, the Germans did not keep volumnious records after January, 1945, so that the records do not provide information about the last stages of the dissolution of the Third Reich. / There is much to learn from a study of the Volkssturm in light of the problems faced by the United States today. It is not that the United States is likely to need an armed militia force to defend its borders from attack, but it will need to be able to field quickly a larger army should a war with the Soviet Union occur. The mistakes made by the German government in the formation of the Volkssturm should not be repeated again. / Considerable thanks are due to the staffs of the National Archives, modern Military Branch, the Department of State Archives, the Florida State University Library, and the Library at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-06, Section: A, page: 2062. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74859 |
| Contributors | WRIGHT, BURTON, III., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 311 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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