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Date Posted: 23:03:00 12/30/10 Thu
Author: Wikipedia
Subject: Stormtroopers

Stormtroopers (in German Sto�truppen, "shock troops") were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. In the last years of the war, Sto�truppen were trained to fight with "infiltration tactics", part of the Germans' new method of attack on enemy trenches. Men trained in these methods were known in Germany as Sturmmann (literally "assault man" but usually translated as Stormtrooper), formed into companies of Sturmtruppen ("assault troops", more often and less exactly Storm Troops). The infiltration tactics of the stormtroopers are still in use today, in one form or another. Other armies have also used the term "assault troops", "shock troops" or fireteams for specialist soldiers who perform the infiltration tasks of stormtroopers.
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 British developments
1.2 Calsow Assault Detachment
1.3 Rohr Assault Battalion
1.4 Allied tactics at the end of World War I
1.5 Hutier and the last German offensive
1.5.1 Methods
1.5.2 Equipment
1.5.3 Storm troopers in 1918
2 See also
3 References and notes
4 External links
[edit]History

[edit]British developments
The British Army relied on superior accuracy and speed of rifle fire from all men in its units; their men were expected to outshoot the enemy. Major N. R. McMahon, Chief Instructor at Hythe's Rifle School from 1905 to 1909, suggested the advent of machine guns (MGs) and automatic rifles, with vastly greater volume of fire, making these tactics obsolete. He argued this would be all the more apparent when armies were formed largely of partially trained troops, who would be unable to carry out complicated tactics or maintain high standards of marksmanship. His solution was to abandon the fire fight as a distinct phase of battle.
McMahon recommended quick attack tactics by means of infiltration and rapid movement. In the existing British system, movement waited on fire. Thus, preliminary fire was usually a give-away. The enemy would recognize heavy fire as a prelude to movement, and thus be alerted.
Instead, soldiers should be trained to consider fire as a means to facilitate movement in progress. Movement would be a call for fire. 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 Strosstrupptaktik used by the Germans six years later.[1]
[edit]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.[2]
[edit]Rohr Assault Battalion

Soldier of a German assault group with his Bergmann MP 18 and a Parabellum P08, Northern France, Spring 1918.
The new commander of the Assault Detachment from 8 September 1915 was Hauptmann (Captain) Rohr, previously commander of the Guard Rifle Battalion. The Assault Detachment was reinforced with a machine gun platoon and flamethrower platoon. The old infantry support guns had been shown to be too difficult to move across the battlefield, and a new model was developed based on captured Russian 76.2mm fortress guns and issued to the Assault Detachment.[2][3][4]
Captain Rohr at first experimented with the Assault Detachment's body armor and shields, but realized that speed was better protection than armor. The only item of armor kept was the Stahlhelm, a new model of steel helmet. It later became the standard in all German units by the end of the war, and was used throughout World War II.[2]
The new tactics developed by Captain Rohr, building much on his own previous experiences from the front, was based on the use of squad sized stormtroops ("Sturmtruppen" or "Sto�truppen"), supported by a number of heavy support weapons and field artillery that was to be coordinated at the lowest level possible and rolling up enemy trenches using troops armed with hand grenades. These tactics were tested the first time in October 1915 in a successful assault on a French position in the Vosges Mountains.[2]
In December 1915, the Assault Detachment started training men of other German units in the new assault tactics. Around this time the Assault Detachment also changed some of its equipment to better fit its new requirements. Lighter footwear was issued, and uniforms were reinforced with leather patches on knees and elbows to protect them when crawling. Special bags designed to carry grenades replaced the old belts and ammunition pouches, and the standard Gewehr 98 rifle was replaced with the lighter Karabiner 98a previously used by cavalrymen. While continuing to train other units, the Assault Detachment also participated in many small trench raids and attacks with limited objectives.[2]
The first major offensive led by the new Assault Detachment was the initial German attack at Verdun in February 1916. Stormtroops from the SA were in the first wave, leading some units into the French trenches, attacking seconds after the barrage had lifted. This generally worked very well, even though it worked much better against the first trenchline than against the less well-known enemy rear-area.[2]
On 1 April 1916, the Assault Detachment was redesignated "Assault Battalion Rohr". Around this time it was exapanded from two to four pioneer companies. At the same time, several J�ger battalions began retraining as new Assault Battalions.[2][5]
[edit]Allied tactics at the end of World War I
The Russian army first used storm tactics at a larger scale in June 1916 during the Brusilov Offensive with great success. But, due to the February Revolution in Russia, no further development of the tactics was carried out on the Russian side.
The British Army also developed new methods. In February 1917, the Army issued Manual SS 143, which prescribed infiltration tactics. Using them throughout 1917 the British perfected all-arms battle. The British used rifles rather than grenades, as they were more effective. They were also supported by sophisticated sound-ranging, something the German Army never perfected. Some historians consider the British infiltration tactics more sophisticated than the German system.[6]
[edit]Hutier and the last German offensive
General Oskar von Hutier, now commanding Eighth Army, became a champion of the new tactics, which became known as Hutier tactics.
[edit]Methods
In the first part of the war, the standard assault on a trench line consisted of a lengthy artillery barrage all along the line, attempting to smash the enemy positions, followed by a rush forward of infantry in massed lines to overwhelm any remaining defenders. This process either failed, or at most gained only a short distance, while incurring enormous casualties.
Hutier suggested an alternate approach, combining some previous and some new attacks in a complex strategy:[citation needed]
A short artillery bombardment, featuring heavy shells mixed with numerous poison gas projectiles, to neutralize the enemy front lines, and not try to destroy them.
Under a creeping barrage, Sto�truppen 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.
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 emplace to fire as needed to accelerate the breakthrough.
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 over-run by stormtroopers could be attacked by the second echelon troops following the stormtroopers.
[edit]Equipment
Sto�truppen wore the standard German army tunic, with puttees and the Stahlhelm; there was no special uniform for them. They carried rifles, clubs, knives, many grenades.[citation needed]
[edit]Storm troopers in 1918
With the defeat 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 storm troopers.
On 21 March 1918, Germany launched Operation Michael, a major offensive, using the new tactics. Four successive German offensives followed. For the first time in four years the stalemate of trench warfare was broken. However, the attacking troops suffered heavy casualties. The German advance stalled by July and the Allies began their Hundred Days Offensive

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