page_title: Stormtroopers (Imperial Germany)
section_title: Development of tactics
hierarchical_section_title: Stormtroopers (Imperial Germany) / History / Development of tactics
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Hauptmann Willy Rohr, Kommandeur des Sturm-Bataillons Nr. 5 (Rohr).
context_page_description: Stormtroopers were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. In the last years of the war, Stoßtruppen were trained to use infiltration tactics – part of the Germans' improved method of attack on enemy trenches. Men trained in these methods were known in Germany as Sturmmann, formed into companies of Sturmtruppen.
  In later times, the term "Storm Troops" became associated with Nazi Germany, due to its use for the Nazi Sturmabteilung militia. However, in the original context of World War I, the term was purely military and carried no political connotations.
context_section_description: The first experimental pioneer assault unit of the German army formed in the spring of 1915, founded by Major Calsow and later commanded and refined by Hauptmann Willy Rohr. These methods further evolved war tactics originally developed by the Prussians, to form the basis of German infiltration tactics. The troops involved were identified as Stoßtruppen, and the term was translated as "storm troops" in English.
  Allied versions of infiltration tactics were first formally proposed by French Army captain André Laffargue. 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, first by the Canadian Corps. 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.
  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.
caption: Willy Rohr
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