German Stormtrooper 1914–18

Osprey Warrior #12

by Ian Drury, Gerry Embleton (Illustrator)

The first official German stormtroop unit was authorized on 2 March 1915 when the Supreme Command of the field army ordered the VIII Corps to form a detachment for the testing of experimental weapons and the development of approximate tactics that could break the deadlock on the Western Front. By the summer of 1915, stormtroop units were springing up throughout the German armies in the west, and by the end of 1916 official stormtroop battalions were established throughout the western armies, providing a deadly new threat for the Allies. This book examines the uniform, equipment and tactics of Germany's feared elites of World War I (1914-1918).

Genres: History, Military History, World War I, Nonfiction, Germany, War

64 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1995

Reviews

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, as a historian and a reader, you want a deeper work that asks unanswerable questions about war. "Why does war happen?" "How did this or that specific country go to war?" It's an especially thankless task when trying to untie the Gordian knot of Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. It's hard to keep track of all the states now either incorporated into larger countries or totally dissolved (Silesia? Galicia? Isn't Pomerania where the little dog breed originated?).

Other times, though, the reader may just want the bare facts, about equipment used, about tactics employed, and the food soldiers ate. Drury's book is perfect for that. No time or space is wasted on any kind of digression from the task at hand, which is to let the reader know as much as possible about the "storm divisions" the Germans used in the First World War in an attempt to break the stalemate (and sometimes unofficial ceasefires) that existed along the trench-line and kept the war stationary. From flamethrowers to unit insignia, all questions one might ask about prosaic details regarding equipage are here. Paintings are rich and perhaps less nihilistic than most of the art we associate with the Great War (think Rockwell more than Grosz). Highest recommendation...

[Manolo González · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good way to know the history and evolution of these troopers and the development of new warfare tactics, brief and with some plates, as any Osprey publication