Figure 1.--The Hitler Youth Organization (HJ) was a NAZI Party formtion and a mandatory experience for all Aryan German Youth. Even parents who disliked the NAZIs could not prevent their children from being enrolled. And from the beginning the HJ involved military training for the boys. The yonger boys had activities which were only related to the military, disipline, saluting, drill, marching, hiking, camping, wide games (with hand-to-hand physical combat and military touches), and other such activitie. The older boys received actual military instruction, including the use of small arms. Here older HJ boys who look to be about 16 years old are training with military rifles, we think the Mauser Karabiner 98, the standard German infrantry rifle of World War II. Notice that each boy has been issued a rifle and that there is no adult German soldier in this photograph supervising them.

The principal weapon of an infatryman as in World War II was a rifle. It was a high-powered, accurate wepon that an indiviual soldier could carry into battle. Infantrymen were ussued rifles rather than pistols because of their greater range and accuracy. This rifle had been a World War I innovation. It was a major shift from the 19th century. Until after the mid-19th century, infantrymen had primarily fought with muskets. World War II infantrymen used the same bolt-action rifles which had been used in World War II infantrymen. In some cases tey were the exact same rifles. In other cases they were new weapons, but utilized the same basic technology. The British had the World War I highly reliable .303 Mk IV Lee-Enfield, but it was bolt action and not automatic. The Germans had used the Mauser Gewehr 98 in World war I. Just before the World War II they intoduced another Mauser weapon, the Karabiner 98. It was used by all service branches bginning in 1935. Over 14 million were produced. It used the same bolt-action technology used in World war I. The Soviets used the Mosin–Nagant (Винтовка Мосина) a five-shot, bolt-action, internal magazine-fed, rifle. It had a long history, developed by the Imperial Russian Army (1882–91). It was used by both the Tsarist Army in World war I and the Soviet Red army in World War II. It is one of the most mass-produced military bolt-action rifles in history, over 37 million units mabufactured. It was inexpensive to produce, rugged and effective. Only the Americans introduced a radically new infantry rifle. The American semi-automatic M-1 Garand was arguably the best infantry weapon of the War. Not having to chamber a round with a bolt action, significantly increased the levelm of fire that could be placed on an enemy position. It was one area where the German soldiers fought with an inferior weapon. World War II infantrymen began the War with no easily portable artillery that could be carried, and no way of stopping tanks. The World War II infantryman, especially after the first 2 years of the War had tremendously increased firepower capable of stopping or at least slowing doiwn major attacks without armored support even if air cover and artillery were unavailble. Infantry units received light-machine gun and sub-machine guns The American BAR was an effective sub-machine gun, but very heavy. The Americans hesitated to use the BAR in World War I because it used so much amunition and might fall into enemy hands. There was no such hesitation in World War II, but by this time the Germans had superior machine guns and sub-machine guns with much higher firing rates.

Created: 1:16 AM 12/2/2015
Last updated: 1:16 AM 12/2/2015