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    Specialized Assault Units Of The World War I Western Front:: A Comparative Study Of The German Stormtrooper Battalions, And Canadian Trench Raiders
    Specialized Assault Units Of The World War I Western Front:: A Comparative Study Of The German Stormtrooper Battalions, And Canadian Trench Raiders
    Specialized Assault Units Of The World War I Western Front:: A Comparative Study Of The German Stormtrooper Battalions, And Canadian Trench Raiders
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Specialized Assault Units Of The World War I Western Front:: A Comparative Study Of The German Stormtrooper Battalions, And Canadian Trench Raiders

    By Major Christopher J. Ghiz

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    This thesis will use a comparative study of the German Storm trooper battalions and the Canadian trench raiders in order to examine the dynamics of the World War I battlefield, the role of military culture in adaptation in order to acknowledge and act on the requirements of battlefield innovation. The purpose is to determine what key factors contributed to the tactical effectiveness of specialized assault units on the Western Front. The military cultures of these armies comprised the logical and innovative principles that were fundamental in the tactical effectiveness of these elite assault units by making revolutionary developments in force structure, institutional support, personnel selection, decentralized leadership, and training on small-unit tactics and advanced weaponry. Did these tactics create similar or different effects for each army? What factors did these armies use to organize and employ these assault units? To answer these questions, several areas will be examined: (1) force structure, (2) institutional support, (3) personnel selection, and (4) training on decentralized leadership, small unit infiltration tactics, and advanced weaponry. Both armies had different backgrounds and situations. The German Army’s Sturm battalions represented an army-wide institutionalization of organization, selection and technique. The Canadian Corps’ trench raiders were based on the Canadian Corps’ homogeneous structure that separated itself from the BEF in developing its own doctrine, training schools, organization, and tactical innovations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVerdun Press
    Release dateAug 15, 2014
    ISBN9781782897842
    Specialized Assault Units Of The World War I Western Front:: A Comparative Study Of The German Stormtrooper Battalions, And Canadian Trench Raiders

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      Book preview

      Specialized Assault Units Of The World War I Western Front: - Major Christopher J. Ghiz

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

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      Text originally published in 2010 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      SPECIALIZED ASSAULT UNITS OF THE WORLD WAR I WESTERN FRONT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE GERMAN STORMTROOPER BATTALIONS, AND CANADIAN TRENCH RAIDERS

      by

      CHRISTOPHER J. GHIZ, MAJOR, U.S. ARMY

      B.A., The Citadel Military College, Charleston, South Carolina, 1995

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      ABSTRACT

      This thesis will use a comparative study of the German Storm trooper battalions and the Canadian trench raiders in order to examine the dynamics of the World War I battlefield, the role of military culture in adaptation in order to acknowledge and act on the requirements of battlefield innovation. The purpose is to determine what key factors contributed to the tactical effectiveness of specialized assault units on the Western Front. The military cultures of these armies comprised the logical and innovative principles that were fundamental in the tactical effectiveness of these elite assault units by making revolutionary developments in force structure, institutional support, personnel selection, decentralized leadership, and training on small-unit tactics and advanced weaponry. Did these tactics create similar or different effects for each army? What factors did these armies use to organize and employ these assault units? To answer these questions, several areas will be examined: (1) force structure, (2) institutional support, (3) personnel selection, and (4) training on decentralized leadership, small unit infiltration tactics, and advanced weaponry. Both armies had different backgrounds and situations. The German Army’s Sturm battalions represented an army-wide institutionalization of organization, selection and technique. The Canadian Corps’ trench raiders were based on the Canadian Corps’ homogeneous structure that separated itself from the BEF in developing its own doctrine, training schools, organization, and tactical innovations.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I would like to express my sincere thanks to the members of my thesis committee, Dr. D. Scott Stephenson, Dr. Mark T. Gerges, and Mr. Scott Porter for their many hours of work and guidance towards the completion of this thesis. Had it not been for their efforts completion of this work would not have been possible. I would like to express my thanks to the Command and General Staff College faculty of staff group 20A, class 2010-01, their mentoring, support, and understanding was extremely beneficial in the completion of this thesis. I would also like to thank the members of my staff group for their support and friendship during this year. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Dr. Robert and Vivian Ghiz for their support and encouragement during this year.

      CHAPTER 1 — INTRODUCTION

      Charles Carrington, a World War I combat veteran, accurately summed up the beginning of trench warfare:

      Back in the heroic age of 1914, during the race to the sea, French and German infantry had confronted one another here and had dug themselves in where they happened to beat the end of the skirmish. The first front line followed the string of rifle pits … which men had scabbed for themselves with their entrenching tools, under fire. Step by step, as labour and expert assistance from the corps of engineers was available, this line of pits was joined into a continuous trench and covered by an apron fence of barbed wire.{1}

      This was the beginning of static trench warfare beginning in 1914. Throughout the remainder of the war, armies innovated ways to break the stalemate of trench warfare to gain ground and reduce casualties on the Western Front.

      This thesis concerns the specialized assault units of the German and Canadian armies in a comparative study to examine the dynamics of the World War I battlefield, the requirements of battlefield innovation, and the role of military culture in adaptation. The primary research question is how did military culture contribute to the key factors essential to the tactical effectiveness of the specialized assault units on the Western Front? The military cultures of these armies structured the logical and innovative principles that were fundamental in the tactical effectiveness of these elite assault units by making attainable revolutionary developments in force structure, institutional support, personnel selection, decentralized leadership, and training on small-unit tactics and advanced weaponry seen in the German storm troops and Canadian trench raiders.

      Did these factors create similar or different effects for each army? These factors create similar or different effects for each army? The factors created a larger, more unique effect on the German army. These factors that led to the development of storm troop tactics, had a profound effect on the German army later during the interwar period. The German general staff used combined arms warfare concepts from the second half of World War I to innovate blitzkrieg tactics during World War II. Another example is that these factors set the frame for creating entire storm troop divisions in preparation for the Spring Offensive of 1918. As the effects for the German army lasted well into World War II, this was not the case for the Canadian army.

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