German Assault Troops of the First World War: Stosstrupptaktik - The First Stormtroopers - Tapa blanda

To many it would seem as if the rule book of war had been torn up and thrown away. The static war of attrition that was World War I suddenly saw squads of men moving fast and independently and employing to maximum effect the new weapons: improved machine guns and machine-gun tactics, super-heavy artillery, gas and flamethrowers. The Sturmbataillon, the Storm battalion, had arrived. Stosstruppen - the shock troops - had startling success, fortunately for the allies, too late in the War. Stephen Bull explains how and by whom German infantry tactics were revolutionised and considers in detail the weaponry employed to do so. How much of Stosstrupptaktik was remembered by the German generals of the Second World War as Blitzkrieg swamped Europe - and how much had been forgotten by the victors of 1918?

The new German doctrine of fire and movement destroyed the British 5th Army as late as March 1918, leading to the capture of 50,000 prisoners. Dr Stephen Bull describes how this new military doctrine proved to be a watershed in the history of infantry and laid the foundations of Blitzkrieg in the Second World War.