The Great War - WW1
New Tactics to Break Deadlock
To overall military doctrine in the middle of an all-out war is a daunting task, but the German Army rose to the challenge.
In the winter of 1916-17 the German high command adopted the concept of 'elastic defence' on the Western Front. Manpower was reduced in the front line, whose defensive positions were simultaneously strengthened and deepened. This enabled a more mobile defence and offered the possibility of the tactical surrender of territory. Special counter-attack divisions were held behind these new defensive positions, the so-called Hindenburg Line, to which the Germans retired in February-March 1917.
New infantry tactics were deployed. Realising that frontal attacks in extended lines were horribly wasteful of human lives, the Germans trained storm troopers to infiltrate enemy lines behind a rolling barrage, bypassing strongpoints. The advance was co-ordinated by an elaborate series of light signals. The storm troopers were also equipped with the new Bergmann light machine-gun which had been introduced in 1917. These tactics, combined with the abandonment of a prolonged preliminary bombardment, proved successful on the Easten Front in September 1917 during the capture of Riga by General Oskar Von Hutier. They were employed in the German counter-offensive at Cambrai in the following November, and were to play a major role in the German spring offensive of 1918.