Stormtroop Tactics

Describing the radical transformation in German Infantry tactics that took place during World War I, this book presents the first detailed account of the evolution of stormtroop tactics available in English. It covers areas previously left unexplored: the German Infantry's tactical heritage, the squad's evolution as a tactical unit, the use of new weapons for close combat, the role of the elite assault units in the development of new tactics, and detailed descriptions of offensive battles that provided the inspiration and testing ground for this new way of fighting. Both a historical investigation and a standard of excellence in infantry tactics, Stormtroop Tactics is required reading for professional military officers and historians as well as enthusiasts. Contrary to previous studies, Stormtroop Tactics proposes that the German Infantry adaption to modern warfare was not a straightforward process resulting from the top down intervention of reformers but instead a bottom up phenomenon. It was an accumulation of improvisations and ways of dealing with pressing situations that were later sewn together to form what we now call Blitzkrieg. Focusing on action at the company, platoon, and squad level, Stormtroop Tactics provides a detailed description of the evolution of German defensive tactics during World War I—tactics that were the direct forbears of those used in World War II.

Describing the radical transformation in German Infantry tactics that took place during World War I, this is the first detailed account of the evolution of stormtroop tactics available in English. It covers the German Infantry's tactical heritage, the squad's evolution as a tactical unit, the use of new weapons for close combat, the role of the elite assault units, and detailed descriptions of offensive battles. Stormtroop Tactics is required reading for professional military officers, military historians, and enthusiasts.

The Greek-Turkish War of 1919–1923—also known as the Western Front of the Turkish War of Liberation and the Asia Minor Campaign—was one of the key aftershocks of the First World War. Internationally better known for its aftermath, the Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, the Catastrophe of Ottoman Greeks, and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the war has never been given a holistic treatment in English, despite its long shadow over the Greek-Turkish relationship. The contributors in this volume address this gap by brining to the fore, on its centenary, aspects of the onset, conduct, and aftermath of this war. Combining insights from the study of international relations, political science, strategic studies, military history, migration studies, and social history the contributions tell the story of leaders and decisions, battles and campaigns, voluntary and involuntary migration, and the human stories of suffering and resilience. It is aspects of the story of the last gasp of the Great War in Europe, brought to its final end with Treaty of Lausanne of 1923.

Did Nazi war criminals deceive the United States military during the Cold War? A new book by a Canberra-based historian tells the story of how America’s most famous and influential military theorist was seduced by the lies of Hitler’s defeated generals. From the author of Panzer Commander Hermann Balck and False Flags comes The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War. Colonel John Boyd, a maverick fighter pilot, revolutionized the American art of war through his ideas on conflict and the human mind. Boyd claimed that victory is won by the side which transitions through 'decision cycles' faster than the enemy and his ideas gained influential converts in the Pentagon who were seeking a new way of waging war after defeat in Vietnam. Although Boyd’s theories became the basis of American military doctrine, he relied upon the fraudulent testimony of former Nazi generals who fabricated historical evidence to disassociate their reputations from their defeat and cover up their willing participation in war crimes. Boyd certainly changed the American art of war, but did he corrupt it in the process? The Blind Strategist separates fact from fantasy and exposes the myths of maneuver warfare through a detailed evidence-based investigation. Discover how maneuver warfare has resulted in catastrophic decisions in this must-read for anybody interested in American military history.

This thesis will use a comparative study of the German Storm trooper battalions and the Canadian trench raiders in order to examine the dynamics of the World War I battlefield, the role of military culture in adaptation in order to acknowledge and act on the requirements of battlefield innovation. The purpose is to determine what key factors contributed to the tactical effectiveness of specialized assault units on the Western Front. The military cultures of these armies comprised the logical and innovative principles that were fundamental in the tactical effectiveness of these elite assault units by making revolutionary developments in force structure, institutional support, personnel selection, decentralized leadership, and training on small-unit tactics and advanced weaponry. Did these tactics create similar or different effects for each army? What factors did these armies use to organize and employ these assault units? To answer these questions, several areas will be examined: (1) force structure, (2) institutional support, (3) personnel selection, and (4) training on decentralized leadership, small unit infiltration tactics, and advanced weaponry. Both armies had different backgrounds and situations. The German Army’s Sturm battalions represented an army-wide institutionalization of organization, selection and technique. The Canadian Corps’ trench raiders were based on the Canadian Corps’ homogeneous structure that separated itself from the BEF in developing its own doctrine, training schools, organization, and tactical innovations.

Essential background to the German blitzkrieg of World War II Complements the stories of panzer aces like Otto Carius and Michael Wittmann In the wake of World War I, the German army lay in ruins--defeated in the war, sundered by domestic upheaval, and punished by the Treaty of Versailles. A mere twenty years later, Germany possessed one of the finest military machines in the world, capable of launching a stunning blitzkrieg attack against Poland in 1939. Well-known military historian Robert M. Citino shows how Germany accomplished this astonishing reversal and developed the doctrine, tactics, and technologies that its military would use to devastating effect in World War II.

Since the earliest days of warfare, military operations have followed a predictable formula: after a decisive battle, an army must pursue the enemy and destroy its organization in order to achieve a victorious campaign. But by the mid-19th century, the emergence of massive armies and advanced weaponry - and the concomitant decline in the effectiveness of cavalry - had diminished the practicality of pursuit, producing campaigns that bogged down short of decisive victory. Great battles had become curiously indecisive, decisive campaigns virtually impossible.

To many it would later seem as if the rule book of war had been torn up and thrown away. The First World War is usually characterised as a static war of attrition, but by the end of the war a new doctrine of fire and movement emerged with the squad as the key tactical unit, marking a fundamental shift in methods of warfare in the twentieth century. As late as March 1918, assault detachments used these tactics to destroy the British 5th Army and take 50,000 prisoners. Stephen Bull traces the development of German storm tactics in the context of trench warfare waged with new technology: improved machine guns and machine-gun tactics, super-heavy artillery, flamethrowers and gas. The legend of German stormtroopers has proved powerful and enduring. They were central to Blitzkrieg, and Hitler styled them as elite soldiers – living examples of Nietzschean supermen. However, as Bull demonstrates, these tactics did not appear out of nowhere, they represented a general shift in tactical thought during the First World War. Drawing upon German, French and British tactical manuals, German Assault Troops of the First World War considers a watershed in the history of the infantry.