From Destruction to Large-Scale Disruption: The Birth of Infiltration Tactics

German Stormtroopers Waiting to Attack

By Major General David T. Zabecki, US Army (Ret.)

By mid-1917, many Allied commanders had realized that decisive penetration was no longer possible. Pétain, among others, advocated limited objective attacks, designed to reduce systematically an enemy’s position in small portions. Some tacticians, however, were thinking along bolder lines. In May 1915, French captain André Laffargue (1891–1994) argued in a pamphlet that specially trained teams of skirmishers armed with light machine guns and grenades should precede the main attack. The mission of these special groups was to infiltrate into the German lines ahead of the main attack, locate and neutralize the deadly German machine guns, and even probe deeply enough to disrupt the German artillery. Laffargue's pamphlet at first did not get much serious attention from the British and French armies. The Germans, however, translated and printed a captured copy during the summer of 1916.

Captain Wilhelm Rohr (1877–1930) was one of the major German pioneers in the development of new offensive tactics. In August 1915 on the Western Front Rohr was assigned command of the recently formed Assault Detachment (Sturmabteilung). Under Rohr’s training and leadership, the Assault Detachment developed and executed very successful counterattack tactics based on the traditional non-linear tactics of the earlier German Jäger units. The basic tactical element was the assault squad (Stoßtrupp), armed with grenades, automatic weapons, trench mortars, and flamethrowers. Rohr’s tactics and techniques were very similar to those advanced by Laffargue.

By the end of 1917, each German field army had an assault battalion that functioned as a training cadre. These special assault units became known as Storm Troops (Stoßtruppen). The storm battalions were one of the earliest forms of a true combined arms task force. Typically, their structure included three to four infantry companies; a trench mortar company; an accompanying artillery battery; a flamethrower section; a signal section; and a pioneer (combat engineer) section.  In March 1917, the German army also restructured their standard German infantry squads based on a seven-man team as a maneuver element, and a fire element based on a four-man team armed with the M-1908/15 light machine gun. The German Wehrmacht of World War II retained that basic infantry squad structure.

American Raiders Carrying Grenades and M1911 Pistols

Rohr's infiltration tactics, developed largely in a counterattack role, were eventually adopted as official German attack doctrine on the Western Front. In September 1917, the Germans successfully used the new tactics for the first time on a large scale at the Battle of Riga, on the Eastern Front. Instead of the typical attack formations of rigid lines advancing at a fixed pace, the German Eighth Army of General Oskar von Hutier (1857–1934) attacked in fluid leaps and bounds. One element moved forward while a supporting element provided fire cover. Then the two elements reversed roles and leapfrogged each other. The leading elements completely bypassed and isolated the defender’s forward strong points, which were later eliminated by heavier follow-on forces. Rather that being thrown in where an attack was faltering, reserves were committed only to reinforce and exploit success.

The Germans used similar tactics during their successful attack at Caporetto the following month. The results of those two battles shocked the Western Allies, although for some time they failed to grasp the underlying tactical principles. The Germans used storm-troop tactics on a large scale for the first time on the Western Front during their counterattack at Cambrai on 30 November 1917. On 1 January 1918, the German High Command (Oberste Heeresleitung) formally issued the new offensive doctrine, the Attack in Position Warfare (Der Angriff im Stellungskrieg).

The new doctrine organized the attack into two principal phases. The initial methodical assault against the enemy’s organized positions was based on detailed preparation and centralized control. It was followed by an aggressive exploitation of the attack characterized by decentralized execution and initiative on the part of the subordinate commanders. The purpose of the second phase was to disrupt the defender’s ability to reorganize and respond. This phase began in the intermediate zone, beyond the range of the creeping barrage, substituting shock and audacity for fire support.

Italy's Arditi Loved Their Daggers

Depth and speed contributed to the flank security of the leading elements, whose immediate objective was to penetrate as deeply as possible into the defender’s positions, at a minimum reaching and overrunning the enemy’s artillery positions on the first day. The new doctrine was based on infantry-artillery coordination, with artillery neutralization fire emphasized over destruction. The intent was to disrupt the enemy's communications, and bypass and isolate his strong points. The new tactics represented avkey conceptual shift from destruction to large-scale disruption.

Source: Encyclopedia 1914-1918