Customer Reviews

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

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Origin of the modern Infantry

This is the finest history of German tactical innovation during the First World War I've come across. Bruce Gudmundsson has served as a Marine Corps officer, as did I, and his study provides the answers to those many questions that were floating around in our heads during those cold nights in the woods around Quantico. The German Stosstruppen were the originators of the infantry tactics still used to this day. Even modern special operations forces can trace their linage to these small units that formed after the failure of the great Schlieffen Plan. It was the decentralized character of the German Army, as the author points out, that was the true secret of German combat efficiency and innovation. Company grade officers were given responsibly for their units' training following only broad guidelines dictated from above. Gudmundsson traces the evolution of the German infantry company and battalion, the development of new weapon systems and the coordination of infantry and artillery to maximize offensive operations. He provides and explains the original German terms for the various tactical concepts and organizations. Quotes from the Stosstrupp commander Ernst Jünger and others add an additional perspective. The only flaw I see in this otherwise superior book is the poor quality of the map illustrations, which provide little in the way of supporting information. The line and block charts on the other hand are useful. It's interesting to note that the reputation of the Stosstruppen or Sturmabteilungen was so great in Germany after the war, that the Nazis appropriated the latter term to describe their bands of uniformed thugs; an irony when considering that the original Stosstruppen included young German Jews and Poles who were more than ready to die for their Kaiser. I think a good companion to this book is the Osprey Warrior Series, German Stormtrooper 1914-1918 by Ian Drury and Gerry Embleton. This second volume provides photographs and color drawings of the weapons, troops and equipment discussed along with a bit of supplementary information.

I have read this book three or four times since I first purchased it in 1989, and it never fails to impress me with the attention to detail and meticulously researched origins of modern infantry combat. The book covers events leading up to WWI that cause turmoil in the German High Command regarding the use of infantry, and how scrutiny of specific tactical employments in various battles in the early to mid stages of the war led to the first experimental stormtroop unit. The book goes on to document the unit's successes and the eventual adoption of special stormtroop units to spearhead attacks at the division level, and finally how complete divisions were organized in the stormtroop fashion. All the major personalities, weaponry, and tactics involved are described in detail, and while dramatic descriptions of the gory and macabre business of trench warfare are omitted, one can easily infer from the descriptions of sharpened entrenching tools and flame throwers how violent and terrible it was to be on the receiving end of one of those attacks. Author Gudmundsson's work interjects some objective scholarship on this subject in an age where it is not politically correct to acknowledge the German military's pioneering efforts in both world wars in establishing modern combined arms tactics.

This is and excellent text on German Infantry tactics of WWI (1914-1918). The Germans were always innovators when it applied to warfare, in WWI with the trench war at a stale mate the Germans formed these elite infantry "Stormtroop" units to infiltrate and breakthrough the lines to make way for their follow on troops. In this highly detailed account of the tactics employed by these Stormtrooper you will read how they were employed in mountain and fortress warfare, how they were organized and their special assault units. It is amazing to see a lot of these types of tactics are still employed today.

An outstanding dissection of the tactics and organization that the German Army used in order to overcome the stalemate caused by trench warfare. The author clearly shows how the Sturmtruppen, utilizing surface and gap style tactics were able to achieve tactical success. The best book I have read so far this year.

Gudmundsson walks you behind the stage of history to show you the INDIVIDUALS that changed the way war is fought. A handful of company grade German officers created the infantry tactics that are now taught to ever US soldier and marine. Stormtroop Tactics formed a profound influence on my military thinking. It showed me the roots of modern military thought. It also showed me that young individual minds can and do shape our world.

The German Army of World War I created some of the most basic principles of what we call today 3rd Generation Warfare, which many armies worldwide are still unable to implement or even understand its essence. The book is a great contribution to the history of the innovative stormtroop tactics, how they came to prominence, what kind of problems they solved and why the Germans were the first among the belligerents to find such revolutionary solutions. The focus of the book is not so much on «assault battalions» but on their tactics, although the various personalities are well covered. Gudmundsson presents also some examples of battles on the Western and Eastern Front (First Ypres, Cambrai, Kaiserschlacht, Riga, Caporetto etc.) in a clear and fascinating way and gives ample evidence of the good results that the German Army reaped from its new doctrine. I found most interesting the part about the nature of German delegation of authority and the culture of personal iniative cultivated among the NCOs and the junior officers. It is one of the best «force multipliers» ever conceived! There are no photographs in the book, only a few diagrams and also a few primitive and rather crude maps, but the text is worth the money.

Honestly, Marines are some of the best infantry the U.S. has produced and Bruce Gudmundsson has served as a Marine Corps and has done some of the best analysis of any historian on the origin of modern infantry.

Author Gudmundsson has broken down the book into several very readable parts. The first part deals with the German inability to have their infantry attacks break through the Allied western front. Now, this problem does not exist so much in the East because the Russians are not very good at their craft and the Armies are just as spread out as in the days of the American civil war. But in the west the Armies are jammed packed together. Indeed, Author Gudmundsson makes the point of one place in the western front had nearly eight divisions jammed into the area of hardly two miles.

I was very impressed by the break down of the book. The reader is given a "before" snap shot of the typical rifle company. Of note is the part where the lieutenant's command platoons with the staffing levels of companies and the company is nearly a battalion in strength. The results are the officers spend most of their time attending to the mundane tasks of managing the company's men and not on commanding them in battle. Author Gudmundsson gives the reader a break down in a command diagram.

The catalyst for company level change is the German Army officer Captain Rohr. Author Grudmundsson gives a complete break down of this excellent Army officer. While Captain Rohr is not the age of a typical British or American captain, his age is in his early 30s, the reason is the German Army had a very slow promotion system. This works out to Germany's advantage because Captain Rohr has years of command experience. He knows how the company should work in battle. After the engagements in the Western front Captain Rohr's suggestions for change are taken under consideration by the German command. The results are spectacular. In nearly every innovation the allies introduce in the western front the end result is they are all checked by advances in German infantry attacks.

Of particular note to the readers are the advances in a company's firepower. Beginning in the war there were only a few machine guns assigned to a company. By 1917 the typical companies have nearly one light machinegun per squad and a machinegun platoon assigned to every company. The firepower does not stop with machineguns. The typical company will have up to a full mortar platoon assigned to them. Indeed, the German army takes captured and modified Russian 76mm (3") guns and assigns them to the company. The company commandeers then assigned the direct support artillery directly to the maneuver platoons. The firepower of the Storm trooper companies is unmatched in WWI and many nations still had not caught up with the Germans by the end of WWII in basic infantry command structure reforms.

Author Grudmondsson gives many examples of the proper combat use of the Storm troopers. Of note is a raid by the Germans on a redoubt that is manned by American soldiers. The raid is highly successful and the newly captured American soldiers are paraded in front of the Kaiser. The success of this raid was telling because it was done to regular US Army soldiers and combat veterans of the Mexican campaign of just a year earlier. The Americans were caught completely off guard by the violence and great execution of the German Storm trooper tactics.

Strangely, the most serious impediment to the advancing Storm troopers in combat was their looting of captured allied stocks. By 1916 the Germans were under serious stress from the allied blockade. This reaches critical mass in the "Peace Offensive" in May of 1918. The half starved German soldiers would find massive amounts of food and alcohol in the allied trenches and engage in an orgy of eating and drinking. German commanders noted this did more to slow the Storm troopers in the attack then a division of riflemen.

Author Grudmondsson starts his book by showing the success of the German Army in 1940 was entirely to their new way of thinking about the soldiers in the squad, platoon, company, and battalion. When those four elements are mastered, proper machineguns are supplied, and artillery is given as direct support (mortars and grenade launchers can be viewed as light artillery) then the typical infantry battalion is a fearsome weapon in war.

All professional Army and Marine line officers will learn a great deal from reading this book. Furthermore, I highly encourage all World War One and World War Two historians to read this highly informative book. This book will give the typical reader the needed knowledge into the modern infantry unit.

For the typical reader who wants to "see" the solders and equipment break down then reference this book: http://www.amazon.com/German-Stormtrooper-1914-18-Warrior-Drury/dp/1855323729/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259082794&sr=1-6

The German Army's prewar focus was on operational matters, and tactics were neglected. This changed with trench warfare and the resultant lack of vulnerable flanks to attack. Because Germany was a new nation, formerly composed of a myriad of small states, the army was decentralized. So in small units, commanders tried different things; they were told the objective - but not how to accomplish it. The prewar lack of officers, and a belief that men had to be controlled - influenced perhaps by the rise of socialism - reinforced the early use of company columns which, upon contact with the enemy, deployed into closed order lines. This system lead to high casualties, poor results, and a search for a better way. From the beginning, however, some units used open order lines and suffered much less under fire. Without a centralized command telling low level officers how to do their jobs, new ideas were tried, and successful ones were spread. Because of shortages of artillery ammunition, short bombardments which kept the enemy's heads down were developed - essentially shock action. Trench mortars, developed from observation of the Russo Japanese War, served the same purpose, and poison gas was developed. More importantly, through the influence of limited objective attacks and special raiding units, the traditional infantry companies were no longer composed solely of riflemen. Flame throwers, grenades, and light machine guns were added, and units were allowed to advance as far as possible into the enemy position, with squad leaders given much more freedom to act on their own. Gudmundsson focuses attention on these sorts of developments up to 1917 but relatively little on the great 1918 attacks, which brought the new methods into use on a massive scale.

Surprisingly well written.
Informative.
I especially liked the comparisons between the belligerents and the role of tactics in the different armies. It takes into account the "intangibles" of combat which makes this more interesting than mere technical descriptions of what, where, when and who.

Provides a great reference on the development of German Stormtrooper tactics during World War One. This is the best reference book on the subject. I gave this book only a 3 star rating because it is sparse on illustrations, does not provide as much detail as I would like on equipment, and provided almost no insight into the allied response to these tactics. This is still a great book as far as it goes, I just would have liked the scope to have been a bit broader.