Recruitment and conscription based on "numerical over qualitative expansion" took place, with many of the "foreign" units being good for only rear-guard duty.[17] In addition by 1944, the German military began conscripting Estonians and Latvians in an effort to replenish their losses.[18][19] The foreigners who served in the Waffen-SS numbered "some 500,000", including those who were pressured into service or conscripted.[1] A lower estimate for foreigners in the entire German armed forces (both Wehrmacht and Waffen SS) is 350,000.[20] Both numbers include large numbers of ethnic Germans from outside Germany.