In the closing months of World War II, the Volkssturm forces were most prominent along the defenses at the Rhine River and during the Battle of Berlin. Even though the use of the Volkssturm was a clear indication of a defeated nation, Nazi propaganda glorified the "people's storm" as a force that would turn the tide in the war effort. Hitler would proclaim that although the once vast Nazi empire had diminished the fatherland could never be penetrated.