Stormtroopers ( or Stoßtruppen) were the only elite shock troops of the Imperial German Army () that specialized in commando-style raids, infiltrating the trenches and wiping out the enemy quickly, maneuver warfare, reconnaissance, and shock tactics. In the last years of World War I, Stoßtruppen ('shock troopers' or 'shove troopers') were trained to use infiltration tactics part of the Germans' improved method of attack on enemy trench warfare. further evolved war tactics originally developed by the Prussians, to form the basis of German infiltration tactics. The troops involved were identified as (literally: "thrust-troops"), and the term was translated as "storm troops" in English.

Allied versions of infiltration tactics were first formally proposed by French Army captain . In 1915, Laffargue published a pamphlet, "The attack in trench warfare", based upon his experiences in combat that same year. He advocated that the first wave of an attack identify hard-to-defeat defenses but not attack them; subsequent waves would do this. The French published his pamphlet "for information", but did not implement it. The British Empire armies did not translate the pamphlet, and the British Army continued to emphasise fire power, although Laffargue's proposals were gradually adopted informally. The U.S. Infantry Journal published a translation in 1916.

The Germans captured copies of Laffargue's pamphlet in 1916, translating and issuing it to units, but by this point they already had their own, more sophisticated infiltration tactics, over two months before Laffargue's pamphlet was published. The distinction between the German and French tactics was that Laffargue recommended using waves of infantry to attack despite the high casualties that would ensue.

thumb|German stormtroopers training in [[Arrondissement of Sedan|Sedan, France (1917).]]

Soldiers were trained to consider fire as a means to facilitate movement in progress. Movement would be a call for fire. N. R. McMahon advocated using combined arms in the attack, particularly light machine guns (some six light and two heavy MGs per battalion) using a decentralised fire control and tactical command system (known as Auftragstaktik in German). These methods, suggested in 1909, bore a strong resemblance to the Stoßtrupptaktik used by the Germans six years later.

In February 1917, the British Army issued "Manual SS 143" on the subject. The British made the platoon the basic tactical unit rather than the company as in 1916. The platoon was made up of four sections, Lewis Gun, rifle grenade, grenade, and rifle. The new organisation allowed the platoon to make best use of the trench-fighting equipment that had arrived in adequate quantities since the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. They were also supported by sophisticated artillery flash spotting and sound-ranging, something the German Army never perfected, instead relying on the aural method with ever more accurate measuring devices.

German stormtroopers

Calsow Assault Detachment

The concept of "stormtroopers" first appeared in March 1915, when the Ministry of War directed the Eighth Army to form Sturmabteilung Calsow ("Calsow's Assault Detachment" or SA Calsow). SA Calsow consisted of a headquarters, two pioneer companies and a 37mm gun (Sturmkanone) battery. The unit was to use heavy shields and body armor as protection in attacks.

However, SA Calsow was never employed in its intended role. Instead it was sent into the line in France as emergency reinforcements during heavy Allied attacks. By June, the unit had already lost half its men. Major Calsow was relieved for this, against his protests that it was not his fault that the unit was not used as intended.

Captain Rohr (later promoted to Major

Hutier and the last German offensive

thumb|right|German stormtrooper on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front wearing the Stahlhelm (1916)]]

General Oskar von Hutier, now commanding Eighth Army, became a champion of the new tactics, which became known as Hutier tactics in Britain and by the allies.

Hutier suggested an alternative approach, combining some previous and some new attacks in a complex strategy:

  1. A short artillery bombardment, employing heavy shells mixed with numerous poison gas projectiles, to neutralize the enemy front lines, and not try to destroy them.
  2. Under a creeping barrage, Stoßtruppen would then move forward, in dispersed order. They would avoid combat whenever possible, infiltrate the Allied defenses at previously identified weak points, and destroy or capture enemy headquarters and artillery strongpoints.
  3. Next, infantry battalions with extra light machine guns, mortars and flamethrowers, would attack on narrow fronts against any Allied strongpoints the shock troops missed. Mortars and field guns would be in place to fire as needed to accelerate the breakthrough.
  4. In the last stage of the assault, regular infantry would mop up any remaining Allied resistance.

The new assault method had men rushing forward in small groups using whatever cover was available and laying down suppressive fire for other groups in the same unit as they moved forward. The new tactics, which were intended to achieve tactical surprise, were to attack the weakest parts of an enemy's line, bypass his strongpoints and to abandon the futile attempt to have a grand and detailed plan of operations controlled from afar. Instead, junior leaders could exercise initiative on the spot. Any enemy strong points which had not been overrun by stormtroopers could be attacked by the second echelon troops following the stormtroopers.

Stormtroopers in 1918

With the withdrawal of Russia, Germany moved troops from the Eastern Front to reinforce the Western Front. This allowed them to take units out of the line for retraining as stormtroopers.

On 21 March 1918, Germany launched Operation Michael, a major offensive, using the new tactics. Four successive German offensives followed and for the first time in four years the stalemate of trench warfare was broken. However, the German advance failed to achieve the complete breakthrough necessary for a decisive result and in July the Allies began their Hundred Days Offensive.

  1. The leading units were not relieved or rotated out of action and became exhausted.
  2. The capture of British stores which contained large quantities of alcohol—"not for lack of German fighting spirit, but on account of the abundance of Scottish drinking spirit!"

3rd and 46th Assault Company

With three infantry battalions, the German 703rd Infantry Battalion, some machine-gun, cavalry, and artillery units, the 3rd Assault Company, and the 46th Assault Company counterattacked the Egyptian Expeditionary Force during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. At the First Battle of Amman, during the First Transjordan attack on Amman at the end of March 1918, the attackers were forced back to the Jordan River.

23rd Assault Detachment

24th Assault Company

With the 3rd Battalion 145th Infantry Regiment (24th Infantry Division) and the 8th and 9th Cavalry Regiments (3rd Cavalry Division), the 24th Assault Company (24th Infantry Division) pushed the Egyptian Expeditionary Force back from Es Salt at the end of April 1918 during the Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt.

During the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, especially in Sinai and Palestine Campaign, Ottomans utilized this storm battalion which formed part of the Yıldırım Army Group using the latest Western Front infiltration tactics and close combat gear with concentrated fire of artillery and machine guns. A notable action by this unit was at the Battle of El Burj on 1 December 1917, when they dislodged two squadrons of the 3rd Australian Light Horse from their defensive positions on a ridge, but were halted and isolated when British reinforcements arrived.

See also

  • Arditi

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Lupfer, Timothy T. "The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Change in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War"
  • Jones, Simon. Infiltration by Close Order: André Laffargue and the Attack of 9 May 1915.