Stormtrooper tactic in the Swedish army - Part 3
Demonstration of assault with stormtroopers. In the picture, the canvas bags with hand grenades and German-made steel helmets are clearly seen. The soldiers are from the Ottoman army, and the image was brought to Swedish General Staff by officers that participated in a study commission at the beginning of 1918.
Both individual officers and study commissions studied stormtroopers during shorter or longer periods from the spring of 1917 and until the end of the war. Among them was Lieutenant Colonel Gustaf Lilliehöök who also at the same time was chief of the War Academy. He wrote about the stormtroopers in a report called “Training Of Stormtroopers” that was written at the end of May 1917 and which was based on his visit to four “Stürmkurs” (courses), two within the German army and two within the Austro-Hungarian military. A large part of the report was about various types of hand grenades and hand grenade training.
As a rule, the exercise was organized as combat between two opponents placed in foxholes where the aim was partly to hit the opponent’s foxhole and partly to quickly throw back the grenades that had fallen in the own foxhole.
Also, the report mentioned exercises at squad level (storm patrol) and their cooperation with the infantry company:
The following could be said to be the main object in this important exercise for stormtroopers training: A surprising rush into the enemy position on a given time and carefully chosen spot.
….. These exercises were performed with cooperation with machine guns and artillery and also the mortars and grenade throwers. Required artillery fire was led by the commander (storm patrol) from traverse to traverse who was closely followed by the two grenade throwers and two grenade carriers while the last one took coverage for patrols flank and back. As a rule, the hand grenade was thrown only by the commander’s order who led the hand grenade fire at all times. The first grenade was thrown as late as possible.
. ….. If the patrol encountered any kind of obstacle, the principle was to bypass it and not to engage in removing the obstacles
.…. After the storm patrols had shaken up the defense, which was signaled with flare rounds, the company started advancing in three firing lines with around 50-75 steps distance between the lines. The assignment for the first line was to defend what storm patrols already had taken, the assignment for the second line was to reinforce the position with obstacles, tools, and etcetera, while the assignment for the third line was to act as a reserve.
Additional information regarding the stormtroopers was gathered during the beginning of 1918 via a study commission led by Colonel Joachim Åkerman. The commission visited German, Bulgarian, and Ottoman armies. Among the study subjects for the commission was which “support weapons as grenade throwers, mortars and flamethrowers should be provided to and used by infantry, artillery, and engineers for the trench warfare”. Regarding the assault combat for the stormtroopers, the commission wrote that:
.
When it comes to assault combat the strangest news for the infantry in the area of tactics should be the usage of special trained elite troops, stormtroopers (patrols). Regardless of the issue is about an attack on a bigger scale, where breakthrough or a long way pricing through enemy’s positions are intended, the assignments for the stormtroopers is to break the first resistance on certain points and with other words make a break-in and pave the way for other troops advancing into enemy’s positions.
The commission also recorded the information of how a stormbatallion was organized in each of the visited armies. The following text is related to the German army organization:
The battalion consisted of:
4 Infantry companies
1 Machine gun company
1 Mortar company
1 Flamethrower detachment
Every infantry company was equipped with 6 light machine guns and four grenade throwers. The purpose of the battalion was to provide organized and equipped storm units to be disposed of for a certain part of the front area for which the battalions were intended for when some storm action was ordered. With consideration, the subordinated units of the battalion were trained and equipped for storm assault all the time.
Also, the battalion was supposed to dispense the officers to the front for the planning of the storm actions. Finally, it was also supposed to function as a school for officers and NCOs that war ordered from the front for training. Battalion also had the aim to keep itself at the highest training level, to develop and improve storm assault methods, implement the experiences from the front, and to develop new methods and auxiliary means.
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