My understanding of child soldiers in the more blood soaked regions of central Africa is that they’re largely used as untrained, drug addled, and ineffective cannon fodder to catch bullets that would otherwise be whittling down more valuable troops.
Are there any known cases of units of child soldiers being skilled and competent fighters?
No one jump on me for this, pretty please?
"The two thousand stripling warriors, also known as The Army of Helaman, were an army of young men described in the Book of Mormon, first mentioned in the Book of Alma.They are portrayed as extremely valiant and loyal warriors who were all reportedly wounded at one time or another, but none ever died from their wounds.
The Book of Mormon. Alma 53:22. “Stripling” is an archaic word meaning adolescent youth."
This all comes from the Book of Mormon, so I do not assume any historical accuracy. It does point out however that it is within the realm of possibility.
Jump.
Now that I’m two decades removed from it, it seems that 18 year-old soldiers are really not much more than children.
Aaaaaaaah:eek:
The Cracked.com article linked below gives one example. The Htoo twins are 9 year old boys who founded a group called God’s Army (it isn’t as nice as it sounds) made up of other child soldiers and others that successfully held off the Burmese army.
I would also mention drummer boys and powder monkeys of years past.
The Children’s Crusade of 1212 didn’t fare too well.
Why is it “within the realm of possibility” just because it occurs in literature that is not assumed to be historically accurate? Lots of impossible things happen in literature.
Those Htoo kids and their God’s Army are bad ass. I remember a pre-9/11 article in Time about terrorism. There was a photo of those kids with soulless eyes smoking cigars. It was creepy.
Sadly, the answer is yes. The Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) fought in large numbers with at least a reasonable degree of military competence. They did so in two distinct groups, the first being the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend which was one of the ‘elite’ SS divisions. The average age of the recruits was around 16 when the division was formed, and about 17 when it first saw action in Normandy. The second was when the HJ was tapped as a source of ‘manpower’ when Germany was collapsing and the pool of manpower of military age had already been entirely used up; Germany resorted to throwing 14 and 60 year olds into the front lines. There are some famous stills of Hitler’s last public appearance from a film of him decorating members of the HJ before they were sent to the Eastern Front here and here.
The age of the soldiers really isn’t as important as how well equipped, trained and supported they are.
Child soldiers have such a poor reputation because they’re usually brought out only when one side is really desperate - they’re out of able-bodied adults, and that probably means they have no time for proper training, minimal equipment, and lousy field support and supply lines (if any).
If you took a random adult, slapped a gun in one hand and a day’s rations in the other, he’s not going to fare terribly well either. Give him and a kid equal amounts of training and equipment and they’ll probably do about equivalently well (though I’d expect the adult to be at least a little better).
It’s not clear that the Childrens’ Crusade actually happened, but in any event it was supposed to be peaceful. They were going to convert the Muslim denizens of the Holy Land, not kill them.
Indeed, the Hitler Youth were the most fanatical fighters at the end; the last public appearance of the Fuhrer himself was to present awards to young tank-hunters. Like the SS they were thoroughly indoctrinated, having spent their entire formative years under the Reich’s education system and of course in the Hitler Youth organisation itself.
Depending on your definition of ‘child’ the last-ditch Volksturm militia’s most enthusiastic recruits were the 16 year olds, while the ones on the other end of the scale the old men saw the writing on the wall. It was known as the ‘casserole division’; green vegetables and old meat. *Landsers * were horrified that their younger brothers, sons and fathers had been called up.
From the age of 7 Spartan youths partook in the Agoge.
ETA: The Master Speaks on the Children’s Crusade.
The first organized defense against Overlord was by Hitlerjugend?
And the first war crimes against allied soldiers in Overlord was committed by Hitlerjugend?
Correct me if my (quick) reading of your cite is wrong.
when romania still was a dictatorship, it seems Ceacescu recruited his secret police from orphanages. See UK series Utopia, character Arby.
not really child soldiers, but Idk at what age exactly these kids were recruited
the HitlerJugend was modelled after the boy scouts. The American Boy scouts is in fact a pretty well organised group, and while they’re formally unarmed, I imagine them being Cons, most of them know how to use a gun. With very little effort, they could be turned into an effective army.
Not so unarmed! But they are having a problem finding ammo.
No, Overlord was the first time the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend saw action. It and the 21st Panzer Division were the closest Panzer Divisions to the landing beaches and both launched unsuccessful attempts to counterattack the British and Canadian beachheads on June 6th.
Quite possibly, certainly the first mass war crimes in Normandy were committed by the 12th SS. 156 Canadian and 2 British POWs were executed on June 7th and 8th. After the discovery of the bodies of their murdered comrades, fighting between the Canadians and the HJ became quite brutal; both sides more or less stopped taking prisoners.
The HJ is often referred to as the Nazi Boy scouts, but they really were not similar at all. One of the prime functions of the HJ was political indoctrination to the ideals of Nazism and loyalty to their namesake, Adolf Hitler. Another function was that it was a paramilitary organization; among the activities of the HJ was firearms training and conducting assault course drills, you know, crawling through mud under barbed wire and advancing against ‘enemy’ positions. They were being trained to be soldiers, or at least pre-training to be soldiers before they were directly recruited.
The primary benefit of child soldiers is that they are easier to boss around - more receptive to being manipulated and led by authority figures. They are elss likely to be constricted by social conventions, and may be at times more vicious or sadistic than random adults might be.
The downside is they are less predictable and they soon grow up, to be uneducated young adults with all the attitude problems and a lot less of the common sense you find in kids raised in a normal environment. They never learn the discipline… and of course, where are you going to find the right sort of people to properly raise and train children? The sort of people who run a guerilla army and think child soldiers are a good idea (espcially when recruited by kidnap) likely aren’t the best authority figures or role models for discipline and self-control.
My point was that there is always truth in any fiction. The story came from somewhere, and it is possible it reflects or elaborates on real events, or in the least is a metaphor for reality.
The actual post is confusing, but the 12th SS Panzer Division (“Hitlerjugend”) fought in Normandy, in the Battle of the Bulge, and on the Eastern Front. It was made of volunteers from the Hitler Youth. They’re the war-crimes guys.
Later, the Hitler Youth was more or less drafted into the Volkssturm, and primarily fought the Russians on the Eastern Front in the closing months of the war.
