Tank

Tank (pronounced tangk)

(1) A large receptacle, container, or structure for holding a liquid or gas.

(2) A natural or artificial pool, pond, or lake (a now rare British and US dialectical form).

(3) A light-proof container inside which a film can be processed in daylight; any large dish or container used for processing a number of strips or sheets of film.

(4) In the military, an armored, self-propelled combat vehicle, armed with cannon and machine guns and moving on a caterpillar tread.

(5) Slang term for a prison cell or enclosure for more than one occupant, as for prisoners awaiting a hearing.

(6) In fashion, as tank top, a type of sleeveless shirt.

(7) To do poorly or rapidly to decline rapidly; to fail.  In competitive sport (as tanking), intentionally to fail.

(8) As belly tank racer, a specialised class of motorsport using vehicles constructed using WWII surplus auxiliary under-belly aircraft fuel tanks.

1610-1620: A Portuguese import from India, from the Gujarati Hindi ટાંકી (tānkh & ṭāṅkī) (artificial lake; cistern, underground reservoir for water) or the Marathi टाकी (ṭākī, tanken & tanka), the Indian forms possibly from the Sanskrit tadaga-m (pond, lake pool) and reinforced in the later (1680s) sense of "large artificial container for liquid" by the Portuguese tanque (reservoir), contraction of estanque (pond, literally “something dammed up”), derivative of estancar (hold back a current of water; to dam up; block; stanch, weaken (related to the modern English stanch)), possibly (unattested) from the Vulgar Latin stanticāre (to dam up; block; stanch, weaken).  That’s not conclusive, some sources even suggesting the Portuguese word is the source of those in the Indian dialects.  While, at this distance, cause and effect can be difficult to determine, there were links also to languages in west Asia, and the Gujarati, Marathi and other Indian forms may be compared with the Arabic verb اِسْتَنْقَعَ‎ (istanqaʿa) (to become stagnant, to stagnate).  Synonyms include vessel, container, pond, pool, reservoir, keg, cask, cistern, basin, receptacle, vat, cauldron, tub & aquarium.

#Free Britney tank top.

Tank proved an adaptable verb.  The most obvious sense (to pour or put into a tank) was noted first in 1900 but may earlier have been in oral use.  Perhaps surprisingly, the meaning in sporting competition "deliberately to lose” is documented only from 1976 when it was used in a magazine interview by a female professional tennis player noting the practice among the men on the tour.  It’s been suggested use in boxing may have pre-existed this but no evidence has been offered.  As an adjective, “tanked” has been used to describe the inebriated since 1893.

The meaning "fuel container" is recorded from 1902 and came to be applied to just about every transportation vehicle or platform using liquid or gaseous fuels (cars, trains, aircraft, rockets, missiles etc) and even missiles using solid fuels.  Exceptions seemed to be made for novel technologies such as nuclear-powered devices and hydrogen where “cell” seems preferred if the storage tank is exchangeable although tank is still used for fixed hydrogen storage.  It’s tempting to suspect “fuel tank, gas tank or petrol tank” may have been in use prior to 1902 because oil tank is documented from 1862 but all sources quote 1902 as the first recorded instance although the first use of tanker to describe a ship designed to carry oil or other liquid cargo was in 1900.  The railroad tank-car is attested from 1874 and the slang term for a jail-cell is from 1912.

Lindsay Lohan in Gucci tank top.

Two certainly unrelated aquatic terms emerged about the same time.  The first fish-tanks, for hobbyists or as ornamental objects, were advertised in 1921, a year after the tank suit (one-piece bathing suit), so named because it was worn in a swimming tank, a slang term for swimming pools since circa 1890.  The tank top, an item of women’s casual-wear which blended the styling of the tank suit with a tee-shirt was released in 1968.  The first think-tank (in the sense of a formal research institute) established was the Centre for Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, California in 1959.  Think-tank is widely used in colloquial language and the formally established think-tanks have become so associated with political agendas they’ve long habitually needed a modifier (left-wing, liberal, conservative etc).

Another adjectival example has (predictably) ancient roots: the septic tank.  Septic (septic circa 1600) was from the Latin septicus (of or pertaining to putrefaction) from the Greek septikos (characterized by putrefaction) from sepein (make rotten or putrid, cause to rot).  The septic tank is attested from 1902 and was used even in UK rhyming slang as “the septics” to refer to Americans (ie the tank in septic tank rhyming with “yank”).

The sardonic humor of war: March 2022, a young lady from Ukraine in a tank turret.

Johnson and Shipley Belly Tank Racer (1955), Bonneville Salt Flats, circa 1963.

Belly tank racers were built in the post-war years using World War II (1939-1945) era surplus auxiliary under-belly aircraft fuel tanks as bodies, mated to whatever ever engines fell conveniently to hand.  Because the tanks were designed to have optimal aerodynamic properties to minimise drag during flight, they were ideal for straight line speed and most belly tank racers were used for top-speed record attempts at venues like the Bonneville Salt Flats where runs of several miles were possible.  The auxiliary fuel tanks had a profound influence on course the war because they made possible for relatively short-range interceptors like the North American P51D Mustang and ground-attack platform like the Republic P47D Thunderbolt to gain the range required to escort the Allied heavy-bomber fleets to Berlin and other targets in Central Europe.  Not only did this inflict upon the Luftwaffe's dwindling fighter resources losses from which it never recovered, the growing number of raids compelled the Nazis to allocate for home defence large numbers of the 88 mm canons as anti-aircraft flak, meaning they couldn't be used in the anti-tank role on the Eastern Front where the need was so great.  Beyond this, it was the success of the drop-tank (so called because the tanks could be jettisoned as soon as the fuel was expended, thereby reducing weight and gaining aerodynamic advantage) equipped Mustangs & Thunderbirds in decimating the Luftwaffe which meant the Allied control of the skies during the Normandy campaign following the D-Day landings (6 June 1944) was barely contested.  

One outlier is the tankard.  Despite being something used to hold liquids, it’s said to be a phonetic coincidence, tankard apparently unrelated to tank which it long pre-dated.  The origin of tankard (large tub-like vessel) is uncertain, like corresponding Middle Dutch tanckaert.  One suggestion is it’s a transposition of kantard, from the Latin cantharus (a large drinking cup with two handles or a fountain or basin in the courtyard of a church used by worshippers to purify prior to entry) and another ponders a link with the French tant quart (as much as a quarter).  The meaning "drinking vessel" was first noted in the late fifteenth century.

In military use (to describe the armored vehicle moving on continuous self-laying articulated tracks and with mounted canon), the word is from 1915.  The development of the tank proceeded initially under the auspices of the Royal Navy which probably seems strange but happened that way because the organization with the most expertise in the steel fabrication and with the heavy engines needed was the navy which formed the Admiralty Landships Committee to coordinate the operation.  On Christmas eve 1915, the Committee of Imperial Defense, reviewed the proposal for what was then called the "caterpillar machine-gun destroyer" and approved it “for secrecy” being a project of the “Tank Supply Committee”.  Charmingly, it seems both "cistern" and "reservoir" also were proposed a cover names, all based on the physical similarity, early in production, between the armored vehicles and the navy's water-storage tanks; the admirals preferred the punchier, monosyllabic "tank".

First used in action on the Western Front, at Pozieres ridge, on 15 September 1916, the name was quickly picked up by soldiers and has been part of military jargon since, including derived forms: the tank-trap (ditch, sometime with steel structures) attested from 1920, the tank-destroyer (a kind of propelled grenade, later versions including the bazooka and the famous late WWII German Panzerfaust) from 1928 and the tank-buster (ground-attack fighter aircraft with 40mm canon) in 1942.  In 1940, a French general described the English Channel as “a good tank ditch” and suggested he was more optimistic than most of his colleagues that the British could resist invasion.  So it proved, the scale required for the armada assembled in 1944 an indication of just how good a tank ditch it was.

British Mark I, 1916.

The first tank (150 built) used in combat, the Mark I was deployed in an attempt to break the stalemate of trench warfare.  Protected from small arms fire and able to crush barbed wire emplacements, the early tactical use was as a device to clear a pathway for infantry assaults but, although the first effects were dramatic, counter-measures were soon developed and it wasn't until later in the war it became clear the tank had to be used en masse, as a strategic weapon.  The  rhomboidal shape, unusual by later standards, meant the twin 57mm (2.25 inch) canons had to be side mounted; a turret arrangement would have resulted in a centre of gravity which would have rendered the structure unstable.  By war's end, the British had built more than two-thousand tanks but the design which would most influence future development was probably the French FT.

The German's versatile Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III; 1940-1945) self-propelled gun.

Tanks and self-propelled guns (SPG) are visually similar and sometimes confused.  The difference is that a SPG doesn’t have the rotating gun-turret which gives the tank such a flexible range of fire, SPGs having a range of barrel adjustment usually only in the vertical plane.  They are also almost always less armored, often slower and either with lighter or no subsidiary defenses.  In some ways, the SPG may be compared with a tank in the same way a battlecruiser differed from a battleship.

Soviet era T-34 medium tank (1940-1967 (USSR) still in use by some armed forces)).

The T-34 was one of the outstanding tanks of WWII, its superiority over the German Panzers a shock to the invading Wehrmacht in 1941.  It used a powerful 76.2 mm (3 inch) canon which for years out-gunned almost everything ranged against it but perhaps its most clever feature was a simple design trick, armor sloped at a tumblehome 60^o which afforded a high degree of protection against anti-tank weapons, shells tending to glance off rather than penetrate or explode.  Such was its influence, aspects of the concept and details of design were copied by both by allies and the enemy and, early in the war, there was no better battlefield weapon.  The T-34 had a lasting impact on tank design and there's more of a lineal path from the T-34 to the later Panzers, the Panther and the Tigers, than from earlier German designs.

German Panther: PanzerKampfwagen V (1943-1945 (Germany); 1944-1949 (France)).

Neither as heavily gunned or armored as the better known Tiger family, the Panther was rushed into production to counter the Soviet T-34.  It was immediately effective but the lack of time fully to develop the design meant problems of reliability and field maintenance were never wholly solved.  Like any tank, a compromise between cost, performance, range, firepower, mobility and protection, the Panther was fine machine in the circumstances and its performance in open country and for long-range deployments was outstanding.  Had the Panthers been fully developed and available in strategic numbers earlier in the war, many battles might have taken a different path and, like the "revolutionary" submarines developed late in the war, it was a case of what Donald Rumsfeld (1932–2021: US defense secretary 1975-1977 & 2001-2006) would later call a "unknown known"; even in 1939 the Germans had the technology to build the Panther and had resource allocation been more efficient, there would also have been the industrial capacity to produce them at the scale needed for them to be used as a strategic weapon.

Lindsay Lohan in tank top.

Flachkühler

Flachkühler (pronounced flak-koo-ler)

In German, (literally wide cooling device (radiator)), a name adopted by Daimler-Benz to describe the W111 Mercedes-Benz coupés and cabriolets built (1969-1971) with a lower, wider radiator grill than the earlier W111 (and W112) coupés and cabriolets (1961-1969).

Circa 1860s: The construct was Flach + kühler.  The adjective flach (the singular flacher, the comparative flacher and the superlative flachsten) (shallow (wide and not deep)) was from the Middle High German vlach, from the Old High German flah, from the Proto-Germanic flakaz of uncertain origin.  The construct of the noun Kühler ((1) cooler (anything device which cools) or (2) radiator (of an internal combustion engine) was kühlen +‎ -er.  Kühlen was from the Middle High German küelen, from the Old High German kuolōn & chuolen, from the Proto-Germanic kōlōną & kōlēną and related to kalaną (to be cold).  It was cognate with the Hunsrik kiele, the Luxembourgish killen, the Dutch koelen, the Saterland Frisian köile, the English cool (verb) and the Swedish kyla.  The German suffix -er (used to forms agent nouns etc from verbs (suffixed to the verb stem)) was from the Middle High German -ære & -er, from the Old High German -āri, from the Proto-West Germanic -ārī, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, from the Latin -ārius.  When used as an adjective, kühler was a comparative degree of kühl ((1) cool (of temperature), (2) calm, restrained, passionless and (3) cool, frigid (particularly of the emotions)), from the Middle High German küele, from the Old High German kuoli, from the Proto-West Germanic kōl & kōlī, from the Proto-Germanic kōluz & kōlaz, from the primitive Indo-European gel-.  It was cognate with the Dutch koel and the English cool.  Flachkühler is a noun; the noun plural is Flachkühlers.

1965 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet (Hōchkühler)

The dimensions of the grill used on the Mercedes-Benz W111 coupé & cabriolet was dictated by the height of the three litre straight six (M189) engine used in the more exclusive W112 (300 SE) versions.  The M189 was one of several de-tuned variants of the M198 used in the 300SL Gullwing & Roadster (W198) which had started life as the M186 in the big 300 (W186, “Adenauer”) saloon before revealing it’s competition potential by gaining victories at the Nürburgring, the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico and, most famously, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  In the sports cars, the long-stroke six had been installed at an angle of 50^o and fitted with a dry sump which permitted a low hood (bonnet) line but in the W111 & W112 the engine was in a conventional perpendicular arrangement and used a wet sump, further adding to the height, thus the relatively tall grill.  The smaller sixes used in the car (2.2 litre (M127); 2.5 (M129) & 2.8 (M130)) were of a more modern, short-stroke design and didn’t demand such a capacious engine bay but production line rationalization didn’t make viable two different sets of coachwork for what were low volume models.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Coupé (Flachkühler)

By the mid 1960s however, Mercedes-Benz realized their gusty, high-revving sixes were technologically bankrupt and for success in the vital US market, they needed a mass-market V8.  Their big-block 6.3 litre V8 (M100), introduced in 1963 with the 600 Grosser (W100) wasn’t suitable for down-sizing so a physically smaller range was developed, the first of which was designated M116; released in 1969 and in displacements of 3.5, 3.8 & 4.2 litres, it would serve the line until 1991.  The 3.5 came first and in 1969 it was fitted to the W111 coupé & cabriolet.  By then, the old 3.0 litre six had been discontinued so the tall grill, which by then had come to look rather baroque, as no longer required and the factory took the opportunity to modernize things and the new, lower wider grill came to be known as the Flachkühler (literally “flat cooler” and best translated as “flat radiator”, the engineers deciding the earlier design should be referred to as the Hōchkühler (high radiator).  Hōch (high, tall; great; immense; grand; of great importance) was from the Middle High German hōch, from the Old High German hōh, from the Proto-West Germanic hauh, from the Proto-Germanic hauhaz, from the primitive Indo-European kewk-, a suffixed form of kew-; it may be compared to the Dutch hoog, the English high and the Swedish hög.

1968 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE Cabriolet (Hōchkühler, left) and 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet (Flachkühler, right).

Because of the first oil shock in 1973, the plans for mass-market (a relative term) Mercedes-Benz V8s were interrupted for a while but the 3.5 litre W111s had already reached the end of the line before the embargo began.  Produced only until 1971, they were always expensive and only 3,270 coupés and 1,232 cabriolets were built and, it being another age, they were available with a four-speed manual gearbox, an option a few actually choose.  The Mercedes-Benz manual gear-change was a rather clunky thing but such is rarity value, they have a cult following.  The whole ecosystem of 280 SE 3.5 coupés and cabriolets is actually a cult in itself, perfectly restored cabriolets commanding prices in excess of US$500,000 and some German tuning houses will charge even more for examples modernized with attributes like ABS, later V8 engines, transmissions and suspension.  Even now, although in essence the structure dates from the late 1950s and the mechanicals a decade later, the appeal remains because the things are remarkably usable in modern conditions and ascetically, nothing Mercedes-Benz has made since has anything like the elegance.

1953 Morgan Plus 4 ("flat radiator", top left), 1955 Morgan Plus 4 (top right), 1969 Morgan Plus 8 (bottom left) and 2024 Morgan Plus 6 (bottom right).  Thematically, not all that much has changed since 1954 although under the skin there is much is the modern Morgan which is "most modern".  

Strangely, the idea of the “flat radiator” had been around for a while in the vernacular of collector car circles but it referred to another aspect of geometry.  In 1952, Morgan of Malvern Link, Worcestershire, was (as it is now) a cottage industry manufacturing pre-war sports cars with more modern engines and they received advice from the manufacturer of their separate headlight assemblies that because MG’s new TF (due for release in 1953) would have its headlamps integrated into the bodywork, production of the housing was ending.  There being no alternative supplier, Morgan were compelled to follow MG’s lead restyle things so the headlamps were faired in.  Concurrent with this, the Morgan factory took the opportunity to do one of their rare styling changes, abandoning their long-establish upright radiator grill one mounted in a cowl that blended into the hood (bonnet).  It wasn’t exactly the onset of modernity but there presumably was some aerodynamic gain.  Just to assure buyers change wasn’t being made for the sake of change, disc brakes would have to wait another few years.  The change to the grill was made in 1953 although, because of the way Morgan operated, some of the older style cars were actually assembled later than the new.  The cars with the traditional Morgan look which features the upright grill are known among aficionados as the “flat radiator Morgans”.

Impromptu Flachkühler: In October 2005, Lindsay Lohan went for a drive in her Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG.  There was a low-speed unpleasantness with a van which caused the roadster to suffer a Flachkühler.

Carpet

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Flak

Flak (pronounced flak)

(1) Ground-based anti-aircraft fire using explosive shells.

(2) In casual use, criticism; hostile reaction; abuse.

1938: From the German Flak (anti-aircraft gun), condensed from Fliegerabwehrkanone (literally "air defense gun"), the acronym deconstructed from Fl(ieger) + a(bwehr) + k(anone).  The sense of "anti-aircraft fire" became generalized in English from 1940 and the flak jacket is attested from 1956.  The metaphoric sense of "criticism" is American English circa 1963.  The synonym (and military verbal shorthand) is ack-ack, which appears to have developed independently in the German and allied military, the former using (from 1939) acht-acht (eight-eight) as an informal reference to the 88mm canon, the later being World War I (1914-1918) signalers' phonetic spelling of "AA".  Jargon has its own life and even after the NATO Phonetic Alphabet was standardized in 1956, ack-ack was so distinctive and well-known there was no suggestion it should be replaced by alpha-alpha. 

Lindsay Lohan in flak jacket.

The homophone flack (public relations spokesman) was first noted in US use in 1945, initially as a noun but, almost immediately became also a verb and it’s always had the sense of handling adverse criticism; if necessary by lying ("taking the flak" as it were).  The origin is murky; there’s a suggestion it was coined at entertainment industry magazine Variety but the first attested use was in another publication.  Flack was said to have emerged because of a coincidence in existence between flak being used to describe criticism (analogous with anti-aircraft fire) and a certain Mr Flack, said to be a public relations spokesman in the movie business but, given the accepted etymology, most regards this as an industry myth.

The 88mm Flak Canon

Panzer VI (Tiger Tank 1) with 88mm canon, Sicily, 1943.

The German 88 mm anti-aircraft canon was developed during the 1930s and was one of the most versatile and widely used weapons of World War II (1939-1945), deployed as field artillery, in anti-aircraft batteries, in ground assault and anti-tank roles and, on the larger tanks, as canon.  The naval 88, although the same caliber, was an entirely different weapon, dating from 1905.

88mm Flak Gun, Russia, 1941.

However, its stellar reputation belied to some extent, latter-day battlefield reality.  Like much mass-produced German weaponry of World War II, the 88 lost some of its comparative advantage as the allies’ quantitative and (with a few notable exceptions, especially in jet and rocket propulsion) qualitative superiority in materiel became apparent.  As an anti-aircraft gun, the Flak 88 needed high muzzle velocity to reach the altitudes at which bombers flew (20,000+ feet (6000+m)) and to achieve that the projectile itself was relatively small.  The high velocity made the Flak 88 a formidable anti-tank weapon, but did limit its effectiveness as field artillery.  Right to the end however, it remained a potent force wherever the terrain was suitable.

Zoo Flak Tower, Berlin, 1945.

One place the Flak 88s weren’t used was on the three huge concrete structures in Berlin called the Flak Towers.  Because the newer British and US bombers flew at higher altitudes, the bigger 128 mm canon was required.

The best known of the structures was the Berlin Zoo Flak Tower (Flakturm Tiergarten), the construction of which was induced by the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) first bombing raids on the city in August 1940.  Even by the standards of the time, these attacks were small-scale and of no obvious military value but, like the raid on Tokyo staged by the US in 1942 and the seemingly quixotic cross-border incursions by forces of indeterminate origin probing Russia’s “special military operation”, they compelled a disproportionately large re-allocation of civilian and military resources.  Early in the war, Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) in his capacity as head of the air force (Luftwaffe) had been asked if the industrial Ruhr was at risk of being bombed and he assured the nation: “No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr… if one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Göring. You can call me Meyer.”  The Reichsmarschall might have believed his own publicity but the RAF did not though few in 1940 thought the more distant Berlin was vulnerable and the first raids, pin-pricks though they were compared with what was to come, embarrassed the Nazi hierarchy and convinced Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) to fear that ominous mantra of the 1930s: “The bomber will always get through”.

Accordingly, needing to retain popular support and well aware of the capital’s lack of air-raid shelters (though the leading Nazis and their families were well provided for), the Führer ordered the construction of huge anti-aircraft gun towers, the designs submitted for his approval as early as the following March.  Construction began immediately and the first, the Berlin Zoo Flak Tower, was made operational within months and in its massiveness was entirely typical of the architectural practices of the Third Reich.  Reflecting Hitler’s preferences, it was rendered in a neo-Romantic style and any medieval soldier would have recognized it as a fortress, albeit one on a grand scale.  It gained its name by virtue of its proximity to the municipal zoo and the term “tower” was a rare instance of modesty of expression during the Nazi era.  The reinforced concrete structure was as tall as a 13-story building with a 70 x 70 m (230 x 230 feet) footprint and in addition to the flak guns on the roof, it housed an 85-bed hospital, extensive storage space for art works & cultural artifacts as well as the capacity to provide shelter for some 15,000 people (a number greatly exceeded later in the war when the raids became both frequent and severe.

The installed armament was a battery of four 128 mm (5 inch) twin Flak mounts, augmented by 20 mm (¾ inch) and 37-mm (1½ inch) guns on lower platforms, the sides of the tower 8 m (26 feet) thick, the roof 5 m (16 feet).  The versatility of the design was proven when in 1945 the city was under assault by the Red Army and the big guns were deployed at low angle, proving highly effective as tank destroyers and according to the estimates of both sides, delaying the entry of Soviet troops by almost two weeks.  Even then, after the city had been occupied and the surrender negotiated, the Germans remained in control of the tower, the thick walls having withstood all attacks.  After the war, it proved difficult to demolish and it was only in 1948, after several attempts and over 100 tons of explosives that finally it was razed, the land eventually returned to the Berlin Zoo.

Volkssturm

Volkssturm (pronounced folks-stuhm)

1944: A German compound, the construct being Volk +‎ -s- +‎ Sturm (a civilian militia (literally “people's storm”) formed during the last days of the Third Reich.  Volkssturm is a proper noun.

One member of the Volkssturm was the philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), noted for his seminal work in phenomenology & existentialism, a flirtation with the Nazis which he spent the rest of his life rationalizing and an affair with the Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906–1975).  He was drafted into the Volkssturm in 1944 and apparently dug anti-tank ditches.  Although some sources claim a youthful Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger, b 1927; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus since) was a member of the Volkssturm, he was actually drafted as a Flakhelfer (an auxiliary attached to an anti-aircraft (flak) unit).  According to the Pope Emeritus, he was never part of shooting at anything.

Volk was from the Middle High German volc, from the Old High German folc, from the Proto-West Germanic folk, from the Proto-Germanic fulką.  It was cognate with the Dutch volk, the English folk, the Swedish folk, the Norwegian Bokmål folk, the Norwegian Bokmål folk, the Icelandic fólk and the Danish folk.  Volk is famously associated with its best understood meaning (people of a certain race united by culture, history, descent & language) with the phrase used by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 and head of state 1934-1945) to describe the “Führer state”: Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer! (One People, One Realm, One Leader!).  Whatever the inconsistencies in the reality of the Nazi state, the phrase is an accurate description of the Nazi vision of how the German nation should be understood.  Historically, Volk was also used in the sense of (1) “the common people, the lower classes, the working classes” (now largely archaic), (2) “a large gathering of people (a crowd) in any context” & (3) in zoology (especially entomology) to refer to a herd, covey, swarm, colony etc”.

Sturm was from the Middle High German and Old High German sturm (storm), the retention of the u vowel being irregular; it was lowered to o because of a mutation in all other West Germanic languages (and the Old Norse), despite German being the one Germanic language where a-mutation most consistently occurred, especially of u to o.  A Sturm was a “strong, blustery wind; gust; gale; squall; a storm or tempest” and in Prussia the imagery appealed to the military which applied it to mean a sudden, rushed attack and in the Imperial Army created relatively small units called Sturmtruppen (storm troopers).  As a technique, the precise infiltration tactics of the Sturmtruppen weren’t a German invention and had probably been part of organized military operations as long as warfare has been practiced but the development of rapid-fire weapons had limited the effectiveness of the use of massed formations and during the nineteenth century, the concept of the surgical strike became popular and nowhere was it more fully developed than in the Prussian army manual.  The best known example of the used of the word in this context was the notorious Sturmabteilung (the SA, literally "Storm Detachment"), the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party which was a vital component of the structure until power was gained in 1933, after which, having outlived its usefulness to the point where (a as formation with a membership of millions many discontented with the results of the party had offered them once in power) the Nazi hierarchy (and the army) came to regard them as a (at least potential) threat and a bloody purge (Nacht der langen Messer (Night of the Long Knives), also called Unternehmen Kolbri (Operation Hummingbird)) was executed.

Austrian Sturm.

In Austrian viniculture, Sturm is a beverage made from white or red grapes that has begun to ferment but that has not yet turned into wine.  It’s not obviously appealing to look at and is most popular between late September & early October, served usually poured in a pint glass or large tumbler and resembles a hazy, unfiltered beer.  Sturm is unusual in that it’s a partially completed product, being still fermenting and that said to be a large part of the appeal and there’s much variation, some made with red grapes (though most are from white) and they tend from the sweet to the very sweet, all sharing a fresh, juicy, slightly fizzy quality.  Definitely not made for connoisseurs, Sturm is meant to be guzzled.  As a point of note for English speakers, when the word Sturm is used in the original (meteorological) context, the word has no association with rainfall; a Sturm may be accompanied by rain but it refers only to strong winds.

The Volkssturm was a civilian militia created by the Nazi Party after Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945) was appointed Reichsbevollmächtigter für den totalen Kriegseinsatz (Reich Plenipotentiary for the Total War Effort) in the wake of the attempted assassination of Hitler in July 1944.  The attempt clearly focused the Führer’s mind on the dire situation confronting Germany or, as Goebbels noted in his diary: “It takes a bomb under his ass to make Hitler see sense”.  By then however it was already too late.  Had the Germany economy been moved to a total war footing during 1941 it might have altered the course (though probably not the outcome) of the war but, paradoxically, the authoritarian Nazi state lacked the structure to impose the controls the democracies were able quickly to implement early in the conflict.

Hitler Youth members with Panzerfausts.

Germany’s military was by 1944 in retreat on three fronts (the position worse still considering the loss of superiority in the air and the state of the war at sea) and armament production, although it would peak that year, was not sufficient even to cover losses.  The same was true of the manpower required to replace battlefield causalities and for this reason, the decision was taken to created the Volkssturm by conscripting males aged between 16-60 who had not yet been absorbed by the military unit.  Initially, the Volkssturm members continued in their usual occupations, drilling in the evenings or on (their now rare) days off or constructing obstacles such as tank ditches or barricades.  Poorly equipped and lacking adequate weapons or even uniforms, the Volkssturm, when finally committed in combat in the battle for Berlin in 1945 were militarily ineffective (their greatest successes coming in the number of Soviet tanks destroyed with the remarkably effective Panzerfaust (tank fist) although with these bazooka-like devices the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) formations proved even more effective) and suffered a high rate of causalities, just as predicted by the Army commanders which opposed their deployment, correctly fearing they would only obstruct movement. 

Volkssturm members with Panzerfausts. 

The Volkssturm truly was scraping the bottom of the manpower barrel but, in terms of the only strategic option left open to the regime, by 1945 it did make sense in that its deployment might delay the advance of the allied armies and it was Hitler’s last hope that that if defeat could be staved off, the differences the Western powers and the Soviet Union might see their alliance sundered, one bizarre thought being that the UK and US might realize their true enemy was the USSR and they might join with Germany in vanquishing the "Bolshevik menace".  The Führerbunker must have been a strange place to be in the last days although few actually shared Hitler’s more outlandish hopes and it’s not clear exactly when Hitler too finally realized his luck had run out but almost to the end, however many of the Volkssturm could be cajoled or threatened to assemble, were sent into battle.  As well as the support of Goebbels, the platoons of the old and sick were championed by Martin Bormann (1900–1945; leading Nazi functionary and ultimately Secretary to the Führer 1943-1945), one of the breed of blood-thirsty non-combatants which right-wing politics to this day seems to attract.  Hitler would well have understood service in the Volkssturm was a death sentence for those not able to sneak away (which many did).  In 1937 in an address to the Kreisleiters (district leaders) in Vogelsang Castle, he described such civilian militias as a “totally worthless crowd” because “drumming up enthusiasm” could never produce soldiers.  Mr Putin may be reaching the same conclusion.

While videos and photographs circulating on the internet suggest the Russian military machine is not now what it once was (and by most until a few months ago presumed still to be), the Kremlin’s problem is not the dire shortage of men available for military mobilization but their collective unwillingness to join the battle.  It’s unlikely the photographs in circulation showing some rather grey and elderly recruits are representative of the mobilization; like every military, the Russian databases will have a few incorrect records but all the indications are that there are shortfalls in the equipment able to be supplied to the troops thus far available for immediate deployment, let alone those undergoing training.  Certainly, the Kremlin’s claim (apparently verified as official) that the September 2022 mobilization would yield some 300,000 troops (there was no comment on how many would be combat-ready) or about 15 divisions (in historic terms) seems unlikely to be realized.  Even had the numbers become available, the course of the special military action (war) thus far suggests even the available Russian forces so reinforced would not been sufficient to conquer, let alone occupy Ukraine but expectations may have been lowered (adjusted in political-speak) to the point where a serviceable and defensible land-bridge to the Crimea would suffice for victory to be declared.  However, that would likely merely re-define rather than resolve the Kremlin’s problems.  It appears too that the Kremlin’s problems pre-date the special military action (war), the aim in autumn of 2021 to recruit 100,000 volunteers to the Russian Combat Army Reserve falling well short, as did subsequent attempts, the most recent initiated in June 2022.  The compulsory mobilization is a tacit admission the formation of “volunteer battalions” has not been successful.  Still, it’s unlikely the Kremlin will resort to creating its own Volkssturm to try to plug the gaps.

Practical advice to newly mobilized Russian troops.