Lessons from the Great War - Trench warfare developments in Swedish army during the WWI . Part II - Early developments

New regulation for infantry 

The development of warfare in the period of 1914-1915 led to conclusions that the regulation for infantry from 1904 was needed to be updated. A new rule was published in 1915, and one of its leading developers was Lieutenant general Lars Tingsten who during WWI was chief of Infantry inspection created in 1915 and had a close relation to SGS.[1] The new regulation had more writing about trench warfare by four pages about attack on fortified position, and it had similarities to the draft proposal published in 1914.[2]

Information from Major Nils Adlercreutz – military attaché in Germany during WWI 

Major Nils Adlercreutz was the military attache in Berlin during the war.[3] In order to follow the war, he had access to different types of sources. Except written sources such as newspapers and military manuals he also visited different parts of  Western and Eastern fronts and he also had close contacts and relation to officers in the German General Staff and high command. During the war, he sent around 400 reports to SGS , many of them related to trench warfare, and expect reports he also sent military equipment that later was tested in Swedish army, such as gas mask and steel helmets.

An example of a military attache report, this one informing about nature and creation of fortified potions. 

His first reports to SGS about trench warfare are from beginning of 1915 and about fortified positions from the summer of the same year. One of his early writings was about that filed howitzers in trench warfare were proved more effective than field cannons and that heavy howitzers were used together within the field artillery during attack on fortified positions. [4] Adlercreutz also noted that there was a difference between trenches on the Western and Eastern front. Fortified positions on the Western front were far much more developed than on the Eastern. According to him it was because of the effect of heavy artillery which was stronger and in bigger numbers on the Western front among French and British armies and weaker and in smaller numbers within the Russian army. Also on the Eastern front, it was possible to develop fortified positions from where offensive operations were to be mounted which was often not the case on the Western front.[5]

Officers on study tours

Also during the early period of the war, several officers were sent on study tours. Aspect that they were studying were varying from study to study. Regarding trench warfare aspects such as infantry, artillery and engineer troops in attack and defence and also technical aspects of military equipment and development of tactics were among the study subjects. One example is from Captain Låftman who visited the German army on the western and Eastern front during the end of 1914 and the beginning of 1915. He wrote in his report that attack, in general, was hard to perform since defence was strong in combat in positional war even if the attacker was attacking in dense formations and on the flanks.[6] He also witnessed the developments of the early trenches and fortified positions that were created by German troops.

Photo from Låftmans report showing the early trenches created on the Western front. 

 Photos from two fortification officers that were on a study tour in area of Prezmysl fortress which in the fight between Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies was destroyed by heavy artillery. 

Reports from military attaches and officers from study tours usually after being sent to the Foreign section of SGS (Utrikesavdelningen) circulated within the organization, being read by General Staff officers from different parts of the organization. One of the main procedures to analyse the incoming information were the so-called winter and aspirant essays. It meant that cadets and potential candidates for new General Staff officers were assigned to write essays with a certain topic. During the period of WWI, a great number of essays that were written were about trench warfare in one way or another.

Field exercise of 1915

Every year SGS were organizing filed exercises with troops from two or several army divisions. There was a plan in SGS for the summer of 1914 to organize an exercise under the name Befästningsövning which meant ”Fortification exercise”. The meaning of the exercise was performing attack on and defence of a fortified position. But because of the outbreak of WWI, the exercise was postponed and performed instead during august of 1915.[7] The scenario of the exercise was that an “Eastern  power” had landed from the sea on (fictive) coast near city of Karlsborg and established a  bridgehead, entrenched itself while the troops form the Swedish army was ordered to attack and drive out the enemy before more reinforcements arrived.[8] Exercise was also probably an opportunity to try the draft proposal for attack on fortifications from 1914. There are also signs about that experiences from WWI were taken in consideration since a fortified position consisted of two main trench lines and attack on them were also performed during the night by using searchlights and during daylight by reconnaissance via aeroplane and balloons.

 

 Example of order for attack during the exercise. The word stormställning means the position from where the attacker will perform the final assault by storming the defenders' position. 

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[1]  Lars Tingsten, Hågkomster (Stockholm: Bonniers, 1938), s. 329 f

[2] Exercisreglemente för infanteriet (Stockholm: Lantförsvarets kommandoexpedition, 1915), s. 195 – 200.

[3] Adlercreutz was educated in War Academy but was not a General Staff officer.  

[4]  KrA, Generalstaben, utrikesavdelningen f.d. hemliga arkiv, serie E I as, vol 1, 1915. De fortsatta operationerna av tyska armén intill slutet av februari 1915, inkommen till utrikesavdelningen februari 1915.

[5] KrA, Generalstaben, utrikesavdelningen f.d. hemliga arkiv, serie E I as, vol 1, 1915. Fältbefästningar, inkommen till utrikesavdelningen juli 1915. 

[6]  KrA. Generalstaben, utrikesavdelningen f.d. hemliga arkiv, serie E I g, volym 48, 1913-1915. H.R. Låftman: Vistelse vid tyska armén under kriget 1914-1915, s. 29-46

[7] Lantförsvarets kommandoexpedition, serie B I, vol 76, generalorder 26 juni 1915 nr 887. 

[8] KrA, generalstaben, chefsexpeditionen, f.d. hemliga, serie III, vol 96. Einar Bratt ”Befästningsövningen 1915”, s. 3.