![]() ![]() History Prior to World War I Įver since the introduction of breechloaders, there had been a growing realization that the days of close-order infantry assault were coming to an end. ![]() With the use of well-trained soldiers, commanded by NCOs with autonomous decision-making capacity, an attempt was made to overcome the 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. ![]() 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. 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 Battle of Verdun, gave decisive support to the development of assault battalions as a solution to resume maneuver warfare. 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 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. Thus the German officers on the Western Front found themselves in need of resolving the static situation caused by trench warfare on the battlefield.Īnalyzing the events, two concepts can be identified with which an attempt was made to find a solution to the problem. 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 gave a direct contribution to operational victories of Germany in Russia, Romania, Serbia and Italy, but it resulted in failure in the West. 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. Between 22 February and 7 March the trucks carried 2,500 tonnes of supplies and 22,500 tonnes of ammunition into Verdun and 6,000 evacuated civilians out of the city.Stormtroopers ( German: Sturmtruppen or Stoßtruppen ) were specialist infantry soldiers of the German Army. At any given time half the available vehicles would be en route to Verdun loaded with supplies, while the other half headed away from the city loaded with wounded personnel or relieved units. The latter consisted of a wheel with bucket-like containers attached to the rim that rotated as the current filled the container the dirt road from Bar-le-Duc thus became a stylised noria with the water containers replaced with motor trucks running in a never ending stream around the clock. Richard also designed a system for deploying the vehicles dubbed noria, the French term for an industrial waterwheel. By February 1916 Major Richard had presciently assembled a fleet of 3,500 motor trucks by commandeering civilian vehicles across France – no mean feat considering that at the outbreak of war in 1914 the French Army could only muster a mere 170 vehicles. ![]()
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