Storm troops

The first German assault detachment was formed in March 1915. From September 1915 Captain Willy Rohr worked out new tactics in the Vosges: small groups (Stoßtrupps) followed close behind the artillery fire, struck at weak points and bypassed centres of resistance, leaving them to later waves, while junior commanders acted on their own initiative. His detachment grew into an assault battalion, and by 1917 more than a dozen such battalions were training the infantry of the whole army.

These tactics were used on a large scale at Riga in 1917 and in the spring offensive of 1918, where they produced deep breakthroughs but no decision. Austria-Hungary, Italy (the arditi), Russia and the Ottoman Empire also formed assault units of their own, and the British and French developed similar methods of attack.