Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914-1918

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, Nov 6, 1989 - Education - 227 pages

Describing the radical transformation in German Infantry tactics that took place during World War I, this book presents the first detailed account of the evolution of stormtroop tactics available in English. It covers areas previously left unexplored: the German Infantry's tactical heritage, the squad's evolution as a tactical unit, the use of new weapons for close combat, the role of the elite assault units in the development of new tactics, and detailed descriptions of offensive battles that provided the inspiration and testing ground for this new way of fighting. Both a historical investigation and a standard of excellence in infantry tactics, Stormtroop Tactics is required reading for professional military officers and historians as well as enthusiasts.

Contrary to previous studies, Stormtroop Tactics proposes that the German Infantry adaption to modern warfare was not a straightforward process resulting from the top down intervention of reformers but instead a bottom up phenomenon. It was an accumulation of improvisations and ways of dealing with pressing situations that were later sewn together to form what we now call Blitzkrieg. Focusing on action at the company, platoon, and squad level, Stormtroop Tactics provides a detailed description of the evolution of German defensive tactics during World War I--tactics that were the direct forbears of those used in World War II.

From inside the book

 

Contents

The Massacre of the Innocents
1
The Peace Offensive
155
Conclusion
171
Copyright

4 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914-1918
Bruce I. Gudmundsson
No preview available - 1995

Common terms and phrases

artillery fire Assault Detachment attacks with limited Balck barrage Bastion batteries battle battlefield Bavarian bayonet Berlin bombardment box barrage British Bruchmüller Cambrai Caporetto Captain Rohr captured casualties chine gun combat counterattack creeping barrage Crown Prince defensive Drill Regulations Eighteenth Army elite assault units enemy position fighting flamethrowers flanks forces formation Fourteenth Army French position front line Gerhard Stalling German Army German artillery German officers Group hand grenades High Command howitzers infantry gun Infantry Regiment Isonzo Italian Jäger Battalions Laffargue Landwehr large number Lieutenant light field guns light machine gun light trench mortars limited objectives Ludendorff man's land maneuver March meters military mountain NCOs offensive officers and NCOs pioneers platoon pushed raiding party Regulations of 1906 Reserve Corps riflemen Riga Russian shells skirmish lines soldiers squad staff stormtroop tactics stormtroopers Stosstrupps tion trench raids trench system trench warfare troops Verdun Verlag weapons Weltkrieg western front Ypres

References to this book

About the author (1989)

BRUCE I. GUDMUNDSSON is a military historian on the faculty of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Quantico, Virginia. Mr. Gudmundsson is a frequent contributor to the Marine Corps Gazzette.

Bibliographic information

TitleStormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914-1918
AuthorBruce I. Gudmundsson
Editionillustrated
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 1989
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedJun 10, 2008
ISBN0275933288, 9780275933289
Length227 pages
Subjects › 

Education / General
Political Science / General
  
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