Stormtroopers (Imperial Germany)

Sturmtruppen
A stormtrooper poses with his MP 18 and a Luger pistol (France, 1918). Note the characteristic Stahlhelm, modified uniform with reinforcement patches on the elbows and knees and puttees to replace the boots of 1914.
Active	1916–1918
Country	German Empire
Branch	Imperial German Army
Type	Special forces, shock troops
Role	Intervene when regular infantry fails, clear the way for infantry on the battlefield, special operations
Size	17 battalions (as of 1917)[1]
Colors	Green, Grey
Equipment	MP 18, Karabiner 98a, Luger pistol, Stahlhelm, Stielhandgranate
Engagements	Western Front of World War I
Commanders
Notable commanders	Ernst Jünger, Willy Rohr

Stormtroopers (German: Sturmtruppen^[2] or Stoßtruppen^[3]) were specialist infantrymen of the Imperial German Army. In the last years of World War I, Stoßtruppen ("shock troopers" or "shove troopers") were trained to use infiltration tactics – part of the Germans' improved method of attack on enemy trenches.^[1] The German Empire entered the war certain that the conflict would be won in the course of great military campaigns, thus relegating results obtained during individual clashes to the background; consequently the best officers, concentrated in the German General Staff, placed their attention on maneuver warfare and the rational exploitation of railways, rather than concentrating on the conduct of battles. This attitude made a direct contribution to operational victories of Germany in Russia, Romania, Serbia and Italy, but it resulted in failure in the West. Thus the German officers on the Western Front found themselves in need of resolving the static situation caused by trench warfare on the battlefield.

Two concepts can be identified with the attempt to find a solution to the problem. The first was the belief, mainly held by Erich von Falkenhayn, that tactical action alone, the mere killing of enemy soldiers, was a sufficient means to achieve the strategic goal. The second was the idea, emerging from experience of countless "limited target attacks" and forays into the trenches, that combat had become such a difficult task that operational considerations had to be subordinated to tactical ones. The promoter for this last thesis was General der Infanterie Erich Ludendorff who, having become de facto commander of the Imperial German Army after the German defeat at the Battle of Verdun, gave decisive support to the development of assault battalions as a solution to resume maneuver warfare.^[1]

The creation of these units was the first, and perhaps most innovative, attempt by the German army to break out of the impasse of trench warfare. With the use of well-trained soldiers, commanded by NCOs with autonomous decision-making capacity, an attempt was made to traverse no man's land and to break through enemy lines in predefined points in order to allow subsequent waves to liquidate the now confused and isolated opponent, opening large gaps in its defensive systems and then resuming maneuver warfare, which would have allowed Germany to win the conflict.