[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] conscription age

[Sig Matt]

"Conscription age:"
 
To add a few remarks and hopefully fill in some blank areas.
 
I am relying on my memory, I have no documentation. 
As WW II dragged on and the manpower shortage became increasingly critical the minimum conscription age was lowered in steps.
My older brother was conscripted in 1943 at age 16 1/2 into the Reichsarbeitsdienst.  Arbeitsdienst was a 1 year tour, (a means of introducing city-boys to physical labor and discipline.[my interpretation]). 
A year later when he was 17 1/2 he received the order to report to the military.
 
After a training period in his last letter he wrote that the unit would be transferred to the western front.
In mid December 1944 we received an official notice that he was missing in action in Northern France. Later we learned that he had been killed in November 1944, 2 weeks before his 18th birthday. 
 
Russia showing compassion to ethnic Germans by assigning them to other war theaters.
It is my believe that the reason was much more likely to be to prevent desertion or 
simple surrender.
 
My cousin, who was born 1923 in Volhynia, reports that in 1936 the family was resettled to Kazakhstan. In 1942, aged 19, he is 'drafted' into the Trud Army, he serves 5 years in a central Siberian Camp then he is moved to the far north-east, the Kolyma region of the Magadan Peninsula where they are building additional labor camps.
He reports that a large majority of the postwar labor camp inmates were former Russian soldiers, including all ethnic minorities, who had been German Prisoners of War.  Alexander Solzhenitsyn confirms that in his Gulag Archipelago series.  
My cousin survived his 10 years to be released in 1952.
 
On the opposite side of that issue:
During WW II there was a Russian Unit of 'Volunteers', which included ethnic Germans and other ethnic minorities, fighting in support against the Red Army on the Eastern Front. The Unit was known by a special name, which regrettably, I don't recall at the moment.
 
Stalingrad, February 1943:
The commanding German General Paulus, thought of as a capable 'new generation' Officer, irretrievably cut off from resupply and reinforcement, realizing the futility of continuing the bloodshed, surrenders with his surviving troops. 
Later his name is being used, in apparent collaboration with the enemy, in across the frontline enemy propaganda. In leaflets, air dropped behind German lines, soldiers are told that 'the war is lost, give up now', etc. with General Paulus name at the bottom.
(I have not come across anything yet that would either confirm or deny the authenticity of the Generals complicity.)
 
The 'Volksturm'
 
The Reichsministerium for Propaganda worked effectively to the very end.
In late summer or fall of 1944, as enemy forces were approaching the German borders, 
Party Officials proclaimed the Volksturm edict: All male persons 16 to 60 would be marshaled to defend the "Vaterland" and that secret 'new weapons' would win the war in the end.
In East Prussia, the leading Party Official, Gauleiter Erich Koch announced that with the Volksturm he would defend the German soil to the last man.
An old schoolbuddy of mine reports (at age 16 he was 2 years older than I am) that sometime in late fall 1944 they were mobilized, issued outmoded guns, ill fitting uniforms and new shovels and with little training moved to the eastern frontier of East Prussia to dig defensive infantry trenches. Before long the Russian Winter Offensive began. The Volksturm Unit disintegrated in chaos and confusion. It is believed that most of the survivors were absorbed into regular Army units.  
 
Frontline Coffee Clutch
 
In our 8 years of German Volksschule we received a smattering of history which included 
WW II. After the Nov. 1917 Revolution in Russia the new powers let it be known that they were interested in ending the military hostilities against Germany. This resulted in various local frontline 'time outs', such as for Christmas and New Years and possibly other occasions.
A Treaty between the two sides ending hostilities was signed in March 1918.  
That is not to say however that at other times there were no serious battles fought on both sides. 
 
Serious battles
 
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his book "August 1914", published 1971, illuminates some scenes.
By mid-August 1914, the Russian General Alexander Samsanov had pushed the German troops back to occupy a good half of East Prussia. The German High Command becomes alarmed and with new leadership at the front a battle ensues Aug. 26 to 29th near Tannenberg. Communication on the Russian side is not well organized. Samsanov is surprised when it's over, 2 Russian Corps are annihilated and 3 other corps are reduced to half their strength. The remaining troops are in full retreat. Some sources claim Russia suffered 150,000 casualties and lost 93,000 as prisoners of war.
General Samsanov, with a loyal group of his retinue trying to pick their way at night through swampy forests, is totally exhausted, emotionally drained. At a rest period he separates from the group, a shot is heard. He had committed suicide. 
 
As a counterpoint I must mention another page out of Solzhenitsyn's story. 
 
An incident on the East Prussian front that happened before the battle at Tannenberg.
    A Russian Colonel Vorotyntsev is riding with 3 Cossacks in the area of the Neidenburg-Usdau road trying to locate the position of neighboring units on his right flank. But all he finds is a big void, neither Russian nor German troops are to be seen anywhere.
In front of them was a hillock, its slope dotted with a sparse growth of young pine trees, Vorotyntsev decided to ride up there to have a look around. Just before reaching the top, they are surprised to hear a strange, growling noise, which immediately stopped. As they ride over the brow of the hill, there in front of them were - Germans! Facing them only 10 paces away was a car that had obviously just driven up and switched off its engine.
Seated in the car were 4 Germans, no less amazed than the 4 mounted Russians.
At first both sides were too nonplussed to do anything. Then with a hissing rustle the Cossacks drew their swords.
The officer sitting behind the general produced a revolver and flourished it. With some difficulty, the man sitting on the other side of the rear seat pulled out a light machine gun.
   The Colonel's aid deftly unslung his rifle and pushed a round into the chamber.
   They were all sufficiently keyed up for a fight to have broken out spontaneously, which would have finished them all. But the Cossacks  - and the Germans even more so - were trained to wait for a word of command. 
   The General did not draw his revolver and gave no order. Bolt upright and unafraid, he surveyed the unusual situation with amused astonishment.
    Realizing this, Vorotyntsev did no more than keep a grip on the handle of his sword.
    As the horses did not neigh, and the car's engine was no longer running, the silence on the warm hilltop was such that the only sounds to be heard were the horses' breathing and the buzzing of flies and mosquitoes.
    As the moment of sun-warmed quiet and faint humming went by without a shot being fired, the threat of death passed from all 8 men. 
   The General, his head craning, continued to stare ahead of him with extreme curiosity, as though forbidding anyone to shoot or slash at him. A trace of humor lurked in his features, perhaps in the twitch of his bushy moustache, which bristled out to either side, he clearly had a sense of the absurd, which he showed at once as he said with mock severity:   
"Colonel, I should have taken you prisoner"
   Even before he had had time to grasp the significance of this encounter and decide how best to act, Vorotyntsev caught the tone of relaxed, cheerful reproach. In the same mood, and with a shade more jocularity, Vorotyntsev with a smile replied: "No, your Excellency, 
I'm the one who should take you prisoner".
   Machine gun, revolver, and swords were all lowered. 
   The General countered: "You are, after all, in our territory."
   Entering into the spirit of the exchange, Vorotyntsev replied: "This area is in our hands." Then he added in a slightly crisper tone: "And if I may venture to give you a piece of advice, General, you would do better to leave."
   However, the General instead asked: "Please, Colonel, what is your name?"    
   "Colonel Vorotyntsev." He answered.
   The General politely introduced himself, the same glint of humor sparkling in his eyes:
"And I am General von Francois."   
   "Ah," the Colonel replied "was it your car we fired on yesterday? Why were you trying to get to Usdau?"
   The General burst out laughing: "It was reported my troops were already there."
The Cossacks, sensing the mood of the conversation, grinningly sheathed their sabers.
The German officer also put his revolver away.
   "Are you Russian?' von Francois continued.
   "Yes, I'm Russian." Vorotyntsev smiled, and seeking a way out of this impasse continued:
   "Pardon, your Excellency, I must move on." Another look into the general's eyes, and a fleeting glance at the machine gun. Would the Germans shoot them in the back? No, impossible! "Goodbye, your Excellency"
   With the same blend of amiable irony the general replied with a wave of three fingers of his hand: "Adieu, adieu!"
   The Cossacks too, understood the meaning of this gesture and, following the colonel, they jerked their horses around and galloped off down the hill in amusement.
   At that moment the Germans burst into a roar of laughter.
   The German machine-gunner might still shoot them all down with a burst of fire. But that would be unthinkable after their civilized encounter, and utterly unseemly for a great commander who was about to take his place in history.  
  German General Hermann von Francois was Commander of the 1st Corps in East Prussia.
 
Sofar Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
 
When put into context the various apparent contradictory remarks make more sense.
 
Sig Matt
 
 
Paul Rakow <rakow at ifh.de> wrote: 
    
  
   Dick, 

  
   I know that two of my great-uncles were in the Czar's army in WWI,
  
   one spent the War in Vladivostok, and one on the Turkish front, so 
  
   neither were sent to fight directly against Germany. I've always thought
  
   that that was rather considerate on the part of the Russian command. 

  
   Since you are asking about which land had the GRs loyalty, I also
  
   have an example of loyalty to Prussia lasting a long time after emigration.
  
   When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, my great-grandfather
  
   Luis Gruenke travelled back from Liske in Volhynia to Bromberg, and
  
   enlisted in the Prussian army, even though his ancestors had left
  
   Prussia by 1820. I confess that when I first heard from relatives
  
   that Luis had been in the German army in 1870 I was a little sceptical, 
  
   I thought there might be a muddle between the Kaiser and the Czar, but
  
   I've confirmed this by finding records of his service in Berlin. The
  
   elderly aunts really do know what they're talking about. 

  
   Paul Rakow
  
   rakow at ifh.de

  
   > Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] conscription age
  
   > 
  
   > Thanks, Bruce, Kyle,Willi and Rita, for the war stories. There must be more 
  
   > of them out there, waiting to see the light of day. Right?
  
   > 
  
   > Dick Benert
  
   > 

  
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