Volksgrenadiers

[m10bob]

The German army for centuries was raised by local cities and states, much as the American National Guard. Hessians who fought in the American Revolution were raised in Hesse, (the capital of which is Frankfurt am Main).
One of the plusses of being assigned to a local unit is that you go into combat with your neighbors and friends you grew up with. The downside is, any failure on your part, in combat, will be reported back to your neighbors and loved ones at home.
Obviously, the impetus is very real to "do good"
Other units were raised on the national level, Grossdeutchland and SS units, and Panzer Lehr come to mind, the latter originating from the panzer school, itself.
After units had proven themselves in combat, it was possible for a good unit to be given the honorific title of "Volksgrenadier", which might be similar to the Russian title of "Guards".
The TOE of those Volksgrenadier units might change, as they might be given a further unit of "Fusiliers", (somewhat similar to an infantry heavy weapons unit, infantry-wise).
As the war progressed, and attrition become horrific, ad hoc (decimated units) were put together to form a single unit(for organisational purposes), and given the title of "Volksgrenadier", as more a way of identifying them within the German army as being reconstitued or recycled units.(Several depleted divisions might be brought back to life as a single VG division.)Local identity ended as well.
While the cadre of these units were battle-hardened troops, the enlisted rank in late 1944 were commonly the proverbial "young boys and old men."
For this reason,while some of the earlier VG units were strack hardcore troops, later VG units might only be a battle force on paper only.......

[JEB Davis]

This reminded me of something I just read:

... the German army had always taken the greatest care to see that its units were formed of men from the same province or city, that replacements for casualties also came from the same places and that returned wounded went back to the units with which they started. ...

John Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy (Page 320, Penguin Books, 1983)

P.S. I have been doing a thread with other, much more interesting excerpts from this book.
Click the link and enjoy!

http://spwaw.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9249

[Zardoz]

Hi,

accorind to me knowledge the term "Volksgrenadier" was introduced in 1944 for a new type of infantry division. I do not know the exact OOB but it has 3 regiments with 2 infantry battalions, weak reckon elements and weaker artillery. The name "Volksgrenadier" is without history in the German army. I think, it was introduced to seperate the weaker Volksgrenadier Divisions from regular (and stronger) Grenadier Divisions. So, Volksgrenadier does not designate outstanding division but only a later type of infantry division. Whether one divison was better than another would depend more on the cadre used for buliding the division and whether it got the equipment it should receive.

It is clear that this term is not a honorific title. I remember only the 78. Grenadier Division which got the honorific title "Sturmdivision" (i. e. assault division).

In the Imperial german army there were guard units. The german designation of this is "Garde". The only unit in WW 2 with a similar title was the 1. SS PzDivision "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" which could be freely translated into "Lifeguard Adolf Hitler".