1916. The stalemate in the trenches of the Western Front continues, both sides desperate
to come up with new strategies and tactics to break sophisticated enemy defenses. As
the year came to a close, neither side could any longer afford to send wave after wave
of men out against machine guns and artillery, but what would they do instead? The British
and French would secretly develop tanks, but the German High Command would improve the
quality and effectiveness of its infantry. They created stormtroops.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about trench warfare and German
stormtroops.
Now, we did one special about trench warfare already where I talked about various close-combat
raiding groups and assault patrols engaged in trench combat, but you could really see
that the mass slaughter at Verdun began to change overall infantry tactics, to a certain
extent for the French, but on a large scale for the Germans.
French army captain André Laffargue was one of the first who wrote about the realities
of trench warfare and how small concentrated troop formations would need to operate independently,
as opposed to under rigid directives from high command. While the Allies mostly ignored
his writing, German high command used captured texts of his pamphlets and combined his ideas
with their own experiences of infiltration tactics.
The Calsow Assault Detachment was the first experimental Sturm Battalion, deployed on
the Western Front in March 1916, and it consisted of a headquarter element, two pioneer companies
equipped with body armor, specialized shields, and steel helmets, and a rifle company as
support, equipped with a 37mm gun. It was really too soon to see any success or to even
use the new weapon as intended, but the general idea was beginning to form.
The real birthplace of the Stormtroops was in the east.
The terrifying new tactics used by the Russians in the breakthrough of the Brusilov Offensive
- sudden but massive and accurate artillery strikes, quickly followed by concentrated
shock troop detachments - were soon to be adapted and improved by the German captains
Willy Rohr and Bernhard Reddemann.
Now, the Sturmabteilung Rohr was already known for their shock troop tactics in the retaking
of the Hartmannsweilerkopf in 1915 and as part of the 5th Army at the battle of Verdun.
Together with Reddemann they developed new doctrines of small unit tactics. They saw
insufficient weapons training and the lack of cooperation between the units as the major
problems. The new shock troops would be quick and mobile, while being flexible in their
approach of a situation. Precise operational timing was the key for maximum effectiveness.
They chose two specific types of German infantry to build the core of the Stormtroops: first,
the Jäger Corps. The Jäger were light infantry, traditionally specializing in woodland or
wilderness combat and operating in smaller units. Their skill in light infantry tactics
like sharpshooting, and their decentralized leadership made them an ideal choice for stormtroop
detachments. Second, the Pioneer Corps. Like the Jäger, the Pioneers were experts in small
unit operations under low-level command structures. Their expertise lay in erecting or breaching
obstacles and in the art of grenade throwing. This made them very good for storming enemy
defensive positions.
In addition to their weapon and attack training, they studied how the enemy reacted to their
assaults and moved through the trenches, and how to prevent resistance from forming. The
new stormtroop tactics of Rohr and Reddemann maximized their training to deadly effectiveness.
The new battalions had very strict requirements.
Soldiers could not be over 25 years old, had to be mentally and physically tough, single,
athletic, and also had to have one other characteristic – they had to be aggressive. This was the
key factor in the new doctrine; it was vital that the storm would always take the initiative
from the enemy.
The new tactics also changed something else, which is often overlooked. They brought about
a revolution within German military culture against the old style of Prussian leadership,
which held to strict rules of the chain of command. Orders came from high up and junior
officers coordinated with their superiors, but for storm troops to be effective this
had to change, and junior leaders had to be allowed to make their own decisions. Storm
troops went hand in hand with decentralized leadership, Führen nach Direktive – leading
through direct command, and Auftragstaktik – Mission tactics. All without coordinating
with high command. All revolutionary thoughts.
Storm troops became the elite in the German army. Hand picked soldiers who lived and trained
in exclusive companies, and enjoyed better rations and more time away from the front
lines than regular troops. On the other hand, their missions were extremely dangerous and
the casualty rate was extremely high.
General Erich Ludendorff encouraged their deployment in all German divisions and they
continued to evolve. Soon they would have flamethrower, trench mortar, and grenadier
detachments and General Oscar von Hutier would give his name to Hutier infiltration tactics,
which combined surprise artillery bombardments with lightning encircling movements.
Like regular trench raiders, Storm troops were not tasked with capturing and holding
trench lines.
They were lightly equipped but armed to the teeth, with loads of ammunition and hand grenades.
In general, they preferred the shortened Mauser M98 carbine the 98k, rapid-fire pistols like
the Mauser C-96, Danish Madsen Light machine guns and the MP-18 submachine gun. Special
Grenadier squads would carry bags full of hand grenades while others operated the flamethrower,
the rifle grenade and small mortars. They were trained to use all arms in combination
with each other. They also studied the enemy’s weaponry to be able to take it and use it
against him.
A standard attack was to approach the enemy unseen, perhaps at night or in fog, cut the
barbed wire, and wait for a sudden, violent, and accurate artillery barrage. In the confusion
of the barrage, they emerged from cover and assaulted key points of the enemy defenses,
but rather than occupy the trench lines or engage the enemy en masse, they pushed through
the trench system, circling and confusing the enemy, and decimating the enemy flanks
and the moving, exposed reinforcements. The regular German infantry would then head into
the trenches and destroy the defense lines.
By the end of 1916 over 30 divisions had experimented with, trained, and finally integrated special
battalions of assault troops into their forces. From the Vosges to the Romanian Front, at
Cambrai and Caporetto, the efficiency of the new German elite forces was astonishing.
The final hours of the offensive German war machine were perhaps the storm troops finest.
The Kaiserschlacht, the German Spring Offensive of 1918 had great initial success because
the storm troops broke through the Allied defenses along the entire line, but that we’ll
cover in our regular episodes when we get there.
The Storm troop doctrine, of course, survived the war. The paramilitary Freikorps used the
martial imagery of the storm troops, and Adolf Hitler created the SA, the Sturmabteilung,
but really, many of the small until tactics pioneered in the Great War are still taught
today all over the world. Erwin Rommel’s “Infantry Attacks” is even taught at officers’
academies in the United States.
And what did it mean to the enemy on the ground? Well, here’s what Rommel himself had to
say:
“The fire unit up above blazed away, followed a few seconds later by Friedel's assault squad
running through the entanglement path and into the hostile position. Then the forward
units of my Detachment began to move. The sharp crack
of hand grenades in our immediate vicinity drowned out the noise of firing up on the
right. A few strides through smoke and haze and we were in the hostile trench... I reached
the trench at the head of my detachment. Up on the right, the trench garrison was still
resisting the attack supposedly coming from that direction. The configuration of the terrain
and the dense undergrowth prevented these people from seeing that we had already smashed
into their position; they did not see company after company moving at the double into the
gap in their defensive system.“
I’ve said it before, but it’s really fitting here: this was Modern War.
This was just a brief look at the beginning of the storm troops. Other countries had their
own changes in infantry doctrine and we will talk about them later in our show.
If you are curious about to learn more about the Trench Raid tactics and close quarters
combat of World War 1, click here for our special episode which was the first part of
this mini series.
For some detailed pictures of Storm Troopers like us on Facebook or follow us on Instagram.
See you next time.