German Assault Troops Of The First World War Stosstrupptaktik The First Stormtroopers

German Assault Troops Of The First World War Stosstrupptaktik The First Stormtroopers

 

The German ‘Stosstrupp’ - or stormtrooper - was an important development in infantry tactics of the Great War that went on to have a profound influence on warfare for the rest of the 20th century. Seeking to overcome mounting infantry losses in the war of attrition in the trenches, German military leaders developed the concept of the Stormtrooper : small groups of elite soldiers, equipped with grenades and pistols rather than cumbersome rifles, and trained to move swiftly across the battlefield, storming enemy positions and leaving the ordinary infantry to mop up in their wake. Stephen Bull’s history traces the development of the stormtrooper, and their finest hour in March 1918, when spear-heading Ludendorff’s ‘Michael’ offensive, they helped smash the British 5th army and take 50,000 prisoners. Although too few in number and coming on stream too late to avert Germany’s defeat in the war, the concept of the Stormtrooper was taken up by the Nazis as their ideal warrior. The idea was copied by other nations seeking to re-model the best of their infantry units as self-starting, innovative small groups.

 

Stephen Bull

Hardcover 180pp

Book Code:  AW0496

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