Call of Duty: Vanguard presents a twisted reality regarding assault rifles. One of the worst weapons is touted as a top-tier weapon. Learn here on MeinMMO about the tragic story behind the ‘Volkssturmgewehr’.
In the multiplayer mode of CoD Vanguard, there are seven assault rifles. The last one unlocked at the maximum level of the regular ranks is the “Volkssturmgewehr”. It is the very last weapon you unlock in the release version of the game.
Indeed, the weapon affectionately referred to as “Volk” by players is quite solid. It plays a bit like a hybrid between an assault rifle and a submachine gun, is very mobile, and only struggles with a powerful recoil.
However, the developers took a lot of artistic liberties with this top-tier weapon. In reality, the weapon was entirely different from how it is portrayed in the game. It also relates to one of the many tragic chapters of World War II. (The basis of the title image comes from Wikipedia)
The top gun in Vanguard was actually a cheap weapon for the tragic last stand
What did the weapon look like in reality? The deviations from the real version of the weapon start with the fact that there was no specific “Volkssturmgewehr”.
Rather, several variants were produced under that name, including simplified versions of the Kar98 carbine (the “Volkskarabiner”) and even cheap copies of the British submachine gun Sten (MP 3008).
What is known in the game as the “Volkssturmgewehr” was actually the so-called “Volkssturmgewehr-Spezial”, also known as the Volksgewehr, “VG 1-5” or “VG-45”, where VG can stand for both “Volksgewehr” and “Versuchsgerät”. It was manufactured starting in late 1944 by the NS weapon smithy of Willhelm-Gustloff-Werke in Berlin.
Absurd: In CoD Vanguard, Wehrmacht soldiers are running around with the rifle in Stalingrad and the African campaign, which should definitely be impossible without a time machine.
The weapon was also – contrary to what is depicted in the game – not a real assault rifle, but more of a “Sturmkarabiner”. So a semi-automatic weapon that was supposed to allow several rapid single shots without manual reloading.
Full-auto fire, as with the MP40 or the STG44 (the first real assault rifle), was already not a great idea due to the high recoil of this weapon. Therefore, the name “Volkssturmgewehr” should be read more as “Volkssturm-Gewehr” rather than “Volks-Sturmgewehr”.
The Volkssturmgewehr was also not intended to be a new wonder weapon but was part of the so-called “Primitiv-Waffen-Programm”. This aimed to ensure that, in case of extreme resource shortages, simple but functional weapons could still be mass-produced.
Therefore, various “Volkssturmgewehre” were built, consisting mostly of parts of existing weapons to be produced in large numbers with minimal manufacturing effort.
The recipients of these weapons were the so-called Volkssturm, one of the last tragic chapters of World War II.
The sad story behind the Volkssturmgewehr
What was the Volkssturm? The so-called “Volkssturm” was one of the last desperate attempts by the Nazis to somehow turn the impending defeat into a kind of “draw”.
By a Reich law, all capable male persons of the Reich aged 16 (!) to 60 were gradually conscripted to join a kind of national militia.
The Volkssturm was intended, according to Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, to showcase the “fanatical will to victory of the German people” in a final heroic uprising against the advancing Allies on all fronts.
The aim was to inflict such heavy losses on the enemies that they would ultimately agree to peace negotiations that would still be profitable for the Reich.
To achieve this absurd goal, the Volkssturm units were armed with everything the armaments industry of the Third Reich still had to offer.
However, the Wehrmacht refused to waste its already scarce, high-quality weapons on poorly trained and militarily useless militias made up of youths and old men.
Thus, the aforementioned “Volkssturmgewehre” had to serve as armament for this doomed last undertaking of a dying regime.
Of course, the Nazis’ plan did not work out in any way. The poorly trained and equipped Volkssturm units could achieve almost no military successes. Many militias discarded their Volkssturmgewehre after the first exchanges of fire with the advancing Allies and surrendered.
The aim of creating a “heroic last stand” that would seize the turning point of the war at the moment of downfall was not achieved in any way. Instead, thousands lost their lives in a time of war when everything had already been lost.
Over 170,000 Volkssturmmänner are believed to have fallen, and since many refused to senselessly waste their lives for a lost cause, there were many executions shortly before the war ended.
In this context, the “honor” of the Volkssturmgewehr as a supposed top weapon in CoD Vanguard is actually rather macabre.
