[Jack the collector]

Jim,

These units were HJ boys and BDM girls.They were conscripted into service as young as the age of twelve.This was done to free up older service men to fight in the east.
After the defeat at Stalingrad,the transition to "total war" began.In November of 1942 a regulation called Kriegshilfseinsatz der Deutschen Jugend bei der Luftwaffe( Auxiliary War Action of German Youth within the Luftwaffe) was put in place.Reichsminister Frick basically activated his regulation Emergency Service of Students for the War time Employment in the Luftwaffe in January 1943.Both decreed that all German males that had reached the age of 15,would be required to serve as members of the Luftwaffe auxillaries.This meant in real terms tha these boys( and later older girls) would work at the following wartime activities:

Search and sound locators.
Communications.
Transportation.
Fire defense.
smoke crew and barrage balloon
Flak guns(Flakhelfer)

In the begining,the plan was for the boys to do this on a partime basis until the age of 18,when they could then go into full military service.By the end of the war they were doing everything.Round about Feb. 1945,this was the group from which members of operation werewolf were pulled from.The only other famous flakhefer I can name id Manfred Rommel,son of GFM Erwin Rommel.