The beginning of world war one started out as a mobile war and soldiers on each side were trained for mobile warfare. In 1916 after the battle of Marne, German forces began to try to outflank the enemy. Then the French and British armies came upon well dug trenches from Lorraine to the Belgium coast. For the next two years trench warfare was waged between the Allies and the central powers, it became a stalemate. On the eastern side the Russian were falling back and a german general was coming up with an idea that would end the stalemate in the western front. Oskar von Hutier had been commanding troops in the eastern front for three years and he began to imply his knowledge of commanding troops with other tactics used by other armies. Hutier had noticed while in command how normal battles would be fought. It first would start with a massive artillery barrage all along the trenches.
At the beginning of world war one started out as a mobile war and the soldiers were trained for mobile war. Then in 1916 after the battle of Marne German forces began to try to outflank the enemy. Then the French and the British found themselves against German trenches from Lorraine to the Belgium coast that Germany had made to defend there new territory. Germany had better trenches while the allies built what they taught were to be only temporary trenches. Now for the next two years it would be a stalemate between the Allies and the central powers in the west. While everything in the west was a stalemate Russia was falling back. In the three years Oskar von Hutier was in command he began implying his knowledge of commanding troops with others tactics used by other armies. Hutier had noticed that the normal battles would have a massage artillery barrage all along the trenches, and then there was an assault by the infantry on the trenches which resulted in heavy losses.
Hutier saw this was not working and it was wasting lives. He then came up with the idea of first there would be a short barrage along the trenches with many poison gas shells that would neutralize the enemy front line trenches but not destroy them. While this was going German shock troopers (“Strunbatallione”) would infiltrate previously identified weak points. They would also have to avoid combat and attempt to capture or destroy enemy strongholds or headquarters. After the shock troopers had done their job German army units, heavy equipped with machine guns, mortars, and flamethrowers would make a heavy attack against where the shock troopers missed. Then when the artillery was in place they could call upon the artillery to direct there shots to make the breakthrough faster. The final job was for regular troops to destroy the remaining Allied soldiers. Also his attack plan involved small groups of men running forwards in small groups using whatever cover they could find. Also it was to obtain tactical surprise to attack the weakest points of the enemy line. He also gave up the grand idea of an all out strike which was commanded from far away, but let junior leaders come up with their own ideas right on the spot.
Hutier was not the first to use this tactic for during the civil war of the United States the same concept was used. Hutier was the first though to imply the idea on a wide ongoing scale. September 3, 1917 Hutier used the tactic to break a long siege of the city of Riga in Russia. He then followed this with an amphibious assault to capture the Russian islands in the Baltic Sea. Hutier was not present but other German forces used this tactic to beat allied forces. One was the amazing battle of Caporetto in which the Italians were defeated. Hutier for this tactic was awarded the Pour le Merite by Kaiser William II. He was then transferred to the western front in 1918 where he would use his tactic against the British and France. Hutier in March then used his infiltration tactics and created a huge gap between the France and British armies. German armies then advanced over 40 miles along the Somme River. The Germans captured 50.000 prisoners and Hutier was awarded the Oak Leaves. Another major victory was scored against the French in July, but the allies were becoming responsive to the tactic. When the Germans moved forward again during the second battle of the Marne the American and French armies had created a deep defensive to stop the shock troopers. The storm troopers were decimated by the American and French defenders and failed to break enemy lines. After the war Hutier returned to post war Germany a hero. Hutier tactics are still in use today but have been changed for today’s times. Instead of breaching enemy trenches, today’s infiltration troopers are trained to capture ships and other points of interest.
Bibliography ~ Wikipedia.org online encyclopedia page Stormtrooper ~ fastload.org/ww/WW1.htlm page World war one