Demonstration of assault with stormtroopers. On the picture, the canvas bags with hand grenades and German-made steel helmets are clearly seen. The soldiers are from the Ottoman army, and the image was brought to Swedish General Staff by officers that participated in a study commission at the beginning of 1918.
Both individual officers and study commissions studied stormtroopers during
shorter or longer periods from the spring of 1917 and until the end of war. Among
them was Lieutenant Colonel Gustaf Lilliehöök who also at the same time was
chief of the War Academy. He wrote about the stormtroopers in a report called “Training
Of Stormtroopers” that was written in the end of May 1917 and which was based
on his visit to four “Stürmkurs” (courses), two within the German army and two
within the Austro-Hungarian military. Large part of the report was about various types
of hand grenades and hand grenade training.
As a rule, the exercise was organized as a combat
between two opponents placed in foxholes where the aim was partly to hit the opponents
foxhole and partly to quickly throw back the grenades that had fallen in the
own foxhole.
Also, the report mentioned exercises at squad level (storm patrol) and their
cooperation with the infantry company:
The following could be said to be the main object in
this important exercise for stormtroopers training: A surprising rush into the
enemy position on given time and carefully chosen spot. ….. These exercises were performed with
cooperation with machine guns and artillery and also the mortars and grenade throwers.
Required artillery fire was led by the commander (storm patrol) from traverse
to traverse who was closely followed by the two grenade throwers and two grenade
carriers while the last one took coverage for patrols flank and back. As a rule, the hand grenade was thrown only by the commander’s order who led the hand grenade
fire at all time. The first grenade was thrown as late as possible. ….. If the patrol encountered any kind of obstacle
the principle was to bypass it and not to engage in removing the obstacles.…. After the storm patrols had shaken up the defence which was signalled with
flare rounds, the company started advancing in three firing lines with around
50-75 steps distance between the lines. Assignment for the first line was to defend
what storm patrols already had taken, assignment for the second line was to
reinforce the position with obstacles, tools and etcetera while the assignment
for the third line was to act as reserve.
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A photograph from Bundesarchive showing the stormtroopers while training.
Additional information regarding the stormtroopers was gathered during the beginning
of 1918 via study commission led by Colonel Joachim Åkerman. The commission visited
German, Bulgarian and Ottoman armies. Among the study subjects for the commission
was which “support weapons as grenade throwers, mortars and flamethrowers
should be provided to and used by infantry, artillery and engineers for the
trench warfare”. Regarding the assault combat for the stormtroopers the commission
wrote that:
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When it comes to assault combat the strangest news for
the infantry in area of tactics should be the usage of special trained elite
troops, stormtroopers (patrols). Regardless if the issue is about attack in
bigger scale, where breakthrough or a long way pricing through enemy’s positions
are intended, the assignments for the stormtroopers is to break the first resistance
on certain points and with other words make a break-in and pave the way for
other troops advancing into enemy’s positions.
The commission also recorded the information of how a stormbatallion was
organized in each of the visited armies. The following text is related to the
German army organisation:
Battalion consisted of:
4 Infantry companies
1 Machine gun company
1 Mortar company
1 Flamethrower detachment
Every infantry company was equipped with 6 light
machine guns and four grenade throwers. The purpose of the battalion was to provide
organized and equipped storm units to be disposed for certain part of the front
area for which the battalions was intended for when some storm action was
ordered. With consideration, the subordinated units of the battalion were trained
and equipped for storm assault all the time. Also the battalion was supposed
to dispense the officers to the front for the planning of the storm actions.
Finally, it was also supposed to function as a school for officers and NCO:s
that war ordered from the front for training. Battalion also had the aim to
keep itself at the highest training level, to develop and improve storm assault
methods, implement the experiences
from the front and to develop new methods and auxiliary means.
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