For success Ludendorff counted on numerical superiority (4 to 1), surprise, and the first mass application of new tactics developed originally in the east by Lt. Gen. Oscar von Hutier. The so-called "Hutier tactics" involved a relatively short (several hours) but intensive artillery preparation, heavy on gas and smoke, followed by a rolling barrage creeping ahead of the infantry at a predetermined rate. Organized in small battle groups built around a light machine gun, the infantry infiltrated to cut off strongpoints rather than assault them, leaving that task to others who came behind. The enemy's forward positions ruptured, the infantry advanced swiftly to overrun the enemy artillery and break into the clear. In both these phases, light artillery was attached to assault battalions, a tactical u

The reasons that the German pioneers, rather than line infantry, were able to innovate so quickly are many. In 1914, the pioneers were already used to working, with very little supervision, in squad sized teams. Pioneers were trained for fortress warfare before the outbreak of hostilities. This gave them a head start in thinking about the problem of crossing "no man's land," which, after all, is an easier proposition than crossing the glacis of the masonry fortress, as well as providing them with the tools, particularly hand grenades, of trench warfare. Pioneers were, moreover, free of romantic notions of battle. War to them was a dangerous job, like the digging of a mine or the building of a bridge over a fast-moving river. Martial virtue consisted of finding the most efficient way of doing the job, not in the beau geste of a bayonet charge. Finally, pioneers, whose training in prewar infantry tactical forms was not as thorough as that of the infantry, had fewer bad habits to!

The stunning German blitzkrieg campaigns of early World War II were in part the product of their experiences in World War I and of a Prusso-German military culture stretching back through Moltke the Elder (1800-1881) to the great military reformers of the Napoleonic era (Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Clausewitz). This t

Some topics in this essay:
Gneisenau Clausewitz, Gen Oscar, Peace Offensives, French Map, Allies Germans, Pioneer Battalion, Battalion Rohr, Western Front, Somme British, , trench warfare, western front, storm troopers, german army, world war, german pioneers, storm-trooper tactics, grenades trench, innovations combined, storm-trooper units,