Children and military training

[big_castor]

There's a really good book about the Hitler Youth by H.W. Koch that I read a few years ago.   If my memory is correct, membership in the HJ became compulsory in 1936 but enforcement of that rule became more and more difficult as the war advanced.   Attendance varied a lot because many youth found the regular HJ Meetings "boring"

Before the war and during the early years, the training was somewhat similar to that of our own Air, Army and Sea cadets although it seem that a lot more initiative was left to the local units.   According to Koch, the training became more and more military as the war advanced.   HJ notably served with the air defence units, manning guns or searchlight and acting as "runners" between batteries.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Good points, Sqn CO.  I think another "real world" tasking that HJ may have found themselves faced with was rubble clearance in bombed cities.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Going a little off topic, the ancient Spartans had an interesting system. For those of you unaware children at the age of 6 would begin training for military service. From age 5 or 6 until 20 they would train and drill. They would serve in the military from 20 until 60. All spartan males were soldiers.  Their training was very physically brutal but the end result was pretty amazing in my opinion. A pretty good read is the book Gates of fire by Steven Pressfield. It covers children growing up as spartans as well as their helot slaves. It has a lot about warriors, the mentality behind soldiers, training, sacrifice and duty. Probably one of the best books i've read. A lot of the lessons in the book could apply to todays military as well. It finishes with 300 spartans and their helot slaves holding off the 2 million man army of the persians for 7 days.

Uh, back on topic now

 

[Infanteer]

Ah, the Spartans.

Much of what we know about Sparta is second hand hearsay.  Much like the "German Myth" of WWII, history has been plagued by the "Spartan Myth" that seems to show Sparta as the ultimate Warrior State.  In reality, the story of Sparta is much more complex.  This "Spartan Myth" was largely the result of Greek writers of Contempory Greek city stats that were critics of Athenian Democracy; they saw Sparta as the alternative.  (Can you tell Classical Studies was my minor?)

 

[Spr.Earl]

The age of emancipation is 16 in most provinces/states.

With Perent's consent,but once you are 17 it's your call.

 

[shaboing]

1.) yes there are laws against useing children as soldiers, but I don't know if you notiched or not, but the bad guys don't always play by the rules

2.)Its not a M4

Looks like a toy M16A2 rifle. Looks like it has a M16A1 style rear sight, parts of the rifle look very blocky, also the bolt carrier looks red(look through the open ejection port cover).

my thoughts exactly, the thing that i noticed first was the red, that to me means its a toy gun, i'm no expert on the subject yet though