shock troop

It is the name of an assault unit operated by the Imperial German Army during World War I. It was organized to make a breakthrough by assaulting the weak points of the enemy's defense line before a full-scale offensive after suffering heavy damage to defensive positions reinforced with machine guns at the beginning of the war. Afterwards, they operated according to Houthi tactics.[2] , Instead of the existing bolt-action rifles, a significant amount of automatic weapons , led by the MP18, were used for hurricane artillery fire by heavy artillery.[3] Upon completion, the main mission was to bypass the enemy's trench line's strengths and infiltrate its weak points.

The first formation was in March 1915 as the Calsow Assault Battalion (Sturmabteilung Calsow) under the German 8th Army. Unusually, the Calzob Assault Battalion was a unit that wore bulletproof vests made of heavy steel plates and even carried bulletproof shields. However, Calzob, who founded them, could not even command this unit, and unlike their original mission, they were deployed on the French front like ordinary soldiers, and nearly half of the troops evaporated without much action in the onslaught of the negotiating force.

Later, a man named Billy Rohr took over as the new commander of the stormtroopers in August 1915. Rohr reorganized the assault battalions and added machine gunners and flamethrower squads for squad support. In addition, the above iron plate body armor is inefficient as a result of actual combat,[4][5] , Realizing that speed is life, all bulletproof vests except for Stahlhelm, which was a new helmet, were excluded from formal armament and entered into a massive weight reduction. For example, there were these points.

After such a major reorganization, they were put into the Verdun Offensive in 1916 and played a big role. Afterwards, the German Empire, having had fun with the assault troops, began to gradually increase the size of the assault troops.

In particular, General Oscar von Hutier, who commanded the 8th Army, used these assault troop tactics elaborately. This tactic was called the Houthi tactic in honor of his great proclamations , but since it was a word created by the press of the Entente countries, the Houthiers themselves did not know of the existence of the Houthi tactics, and the German military simply thought that the Houthiers had brilliantly applied the German military's manual. However, in any case, Houthi explained his method like this.

In 1917, the assault force tactic spread not only to the German Empire but also to the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires , and the size of the storm troopers increased throughout the Allies. Unlike in the West, this tactic often appeared on other fronts, where warfare was mobile rather than trench warfare. For example, the German Empire's shock troops were deployed throughout the Middle East, which is famous for the movie Lawrence of Arabia, and defeated the negotiating force's Egyptian expeditionary force, which was propagating against the Ottoman Empire at the time, and forced it to retreat south of the Jordan River .

It is easy to think of the shock trooper as a unique German military type, but other Allied and Entente powers also attempted to develop similar doctrines and deploy them in combat.

When the French army first established infiltration tactics in early 1915, rather than training a professional independent assault unit, they preferred to temporarily form a platoon or squad unit from the infantry regiment and establish it in the rear of the assault unit for the purpose of quickly annihilating the surrounded enemy. Otherwise, infiltrating units would be counter-surrounded from both front and back, and in fact, when the French army first developed infiltration tactics, units that ignored doctrine and did not form Netouilleur ended up being counter-surrounded in no-man's land.

In the French army, the type of soldier that is related to the assault corps is the Corfranc. Unlike the German assault corps, which aimed to expand the battlefield in offensive operations, the Corfranc was actively used for purposes other than occupation, such as reconnaissance, assassination of enemy officers, destruction of combat positions, and generation of information through capturing prisoners.

As trench warfare began, the French realized that the best way to obtain information was through aerial reconnaissance above and capture of prisoners on the ground. However, raiding deep into enemy trenches and capturing prisoners was usually not difficult. Corfranc commander Captain Jean Cali wrote a 150-page paper in 1919 to explain this 10-minute mission. At first, from 1915 to 1916, raiding was a scary mission because it involved a lot of trial and error. Therefore, the need to obtain information and the extreme difficulty led to the creation of an elite unit made up of volunteers, the Corps Franc .[8]

There were many difficulties in crossing the no-man's land without artillery support. First, the highly visible red pants had to be removed, and this was naturally solved because the French army changed its uniforms just before the war. Next, a way to remove the barbed wire had to be found, and cutters and tubular bombs were used. The cutter was stealthy but slow, and the tube bomb was fast but easy to detect. Next, a ladder was adopted that could not only pass over barbed wire, but also enter and exit enemy trenches.

When fighting in enemy trenches, rifles with bayonets attached were too cumbersome. Therefore, cavalry carbines and pistols were used. But the true close-quarters combat weapon of the trench fighters, as well as the Korfrang, was the grenade. With grenades, you can attack inside trenches in no-man's land, and you can also attack enemies hiding behind obstacles or corners. According to statistics, grenades cause four times more casualties than bullets. Therefore, Corfranc carried 10 grenades per person. Daggers and trench clubs were useless. Jean Cali did not mention white weapons, including those two, at all in his thesis, nor did he include them in the equipment list in the appendix. For Corfranc, the true value of the trench knife was in satisfying hunger by stabbing canned food. The Chauchat automatic rifle was adopted as soon as it became available. Although there is ample evidence that various Corfrancs used shotguns, Kali, the best of the Corfranc commanders, did not even use a shotgun.

Another item to be prepared was people. It is usually not difficult to surprise an unfamiliar enemy trench in the dark and capture prisoners. The commander who would prepare the raid plan had to be excellent, and the soldiers and non-commissioned officers who would carry out this short but dangerous mission had to be in perfect physical condition, proficient with weapons, and experts in maintaining calm judgment in any situation. Moreover, once entering the enemy trenches, many small units had to operate independently in the absence of radios. Therefore, only the best soldiers were naturally deployed in the raid. Corfran numbered 20,000 in 1917, and they honed their skills every day in training centers that mimicked the terrain they would attack from the rear.

As Cor Franc was a spontaneous organization, its names were very diverse at first. Each unit had a different name, such as Group Fran, Free Platoon, Special Team, Reconnaissance Detachment, Elite Grenadier Company, Extra Company, 2nd Commando Company, and Grenadier Group, but for the sake of organization in later generations, the names were grouped together as Cor Fran. As it was self-sustaining, the initial development process was carried out in a haphazard manner for each unit. Some regiments operated corfrancs on a regular basis, while others were repeatedly formed and disbanded whenever necessary. For example, depending on the commander's inclination, when there was an offensive operation, the already mentioned Netuayeur was used. Still, there were more cases where Cor Franc was always in operation. Close combat in a trench usually resulted in the defenders surrendering once they arrived inside the trench and opened fire on their weapons, so although Netouilleur received specialized close combat training, he was not necessarily as elite as Cor Franc. Cor Franc was deployed to prepare for large-scale offensive operations involving Netouilleur or to exhaust the enemy in inactive zones without combat. Once the offensive operation began, this time, depending on the commander's inclination, it was operated like a German assault force, but again, this was not the norm. However, from 1917, as the number of commanders using Corfrancs as assault troops increased, a major controversy arose.

After a unit with the necessary equipment and manpower was created, the question of how to attack became a problem. It was the Canadian army that inspired the French army. The raid carried out by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade in the Messine area on November 16, 1915 was in fact an example not only for the French Army but also for the entire Allied Forces, and the hand grenade manual issued by the French Army on April 7, 1916 clearly shows the influence of the Canadian Army.

The reason why the French and German armies began to use their elite units differently, called corfrancs and assault troops, is in fact the difference in the amount of modern heavy artillery they possess. The French army entered the war with only 100 modern heavy artillery pieces, and as the second industrial zone was occupied by the Schlieffen Plan, it lost the ability to quickly expand modern heavy artillery. On the other hand, the German army was equipped with 700 modern heavy artillery pieces and benefited greatly from its occupation of Belgium and French industrial areas. While the French army, which had to rely on outdated heavy artillery, could fire shells of the same weight over several days, the German army could fire them in a matter of hours. This difference in rate of fire allowed the Germans an operational surprise capability, but not the French. As a result, the German infantry was able to fight flexibly and boldly, but for the French infantry, such a fighting style was suicidal. Therefore, elite human resources were concentrated on raids, which were infantry battles that did not require artillery support.

Accordingly, almost all divisions had company-sized corfrancs in each regiment. This Corfranc company consisted of three to four Corfranc platoons of 30 men, and each Corfranc platoon was assigned to an infantry battalion.

The raid was a small unit surprise attack without artillery support and a short operation that ended in about 10 minutes. The raid was carried out by an assault column of 30 men. The 30 Corfrancs that made up each assault column were organized into blockade, defense, and clearing teams. The commander commanded three to four assault columns at a time. To identify enemies, each Corfranc wore a white armband and was armed with a pistol and grenades. Additionally, the leader was equipped with electric lights.

The operational area for each assault column usually did not exceed 100m in front and 200m in depth. This means that operations are conducted in two rows of trenches and the traffic trench that connects them. If possible, the assault column departed from the attack start trench. A final inspection was conducted inside the trench before it became completely dark, and the raid began at dusk to take advantage of the darkness. First, the pioneering team approached the barbed wire fence by crawling or running, depending on the commander's choice of whether stealth or speed should be prioritized, and opened a passage using one or a combination of the three: cutters, tubular bombs, and ladders. They remained here to cover the return of the assault column.

The assault column secretly descended into the enemy trench using a ladder. The key here is to trap the enemy. The defense team, armed with at least two automatic rifles, stood by outside the trench and prevented the enemy from moving outside the trench. The blockade team, consisting of 4 to 6 people, went down into the trench and formed a siege network by blocking intersections and traffic bridges where the enemy could appear. Meanwhile, clearing teams searched trenches and shelters, taking prisoners and capturing useful documents. Fierce fighting rarely broke out during this process, as the Germans surrendered just by showing a grenade that suddenly appeared out of the darkness. If there was time, the sweep team destroyed enemy equipment with high-explosive grenades or incendiary grenades.

When the commander gave a signal with a whistle, trumpet, or flare, the clearing team first escaped using the ladder, dragging the prisoner. At this time, the withdrawal began from the clearing tank furthest from the ladder. The assault column then received cover from the pioneering team waiting in the cleared passage, evacuated the wounded, and returned to the friendly trenches. After 10 minutes, the enemy came to his senses and we were in a very dangerous situation. Therefore, if Corfranc did not return after 30 minutes, a rescue operation began with artillery fire. After the raid was over, reward leave was given.

The end date of Corfranc's doctrinal growth was early 1917. At the same time as the growth was completed and modern heavy artillery was fully equipped, new methods of raiding became possible. Robert Nivel period GQG[9] On February 28, 1917, he classified attacks not aimed at seizing trenches as Baévian, which included Search, Red, and Coudeman. Red and Coudeman both have the same meaning in the dictionary as raids, but the French army defined Red as a conventional raid relying on a sneak attack by small-scale Corfrancs, and Coudeman as an attack carried out with the fire support of artillery.

At the time when Coudeman was established, artillery had developed sufficiently, making accurate strikes possible without long-term modifications to specifications that had made surprise raids impossible, and thanks to the expansion of modern heavy artillery, the rate of fire had also become very fast. At Coudeman, the artillery first laid barrage on three sides of the operational area, trapping the enemy in the barrage box. At this time, artillery fire was also carried out at the same time. On the remaining side, mobile barrages moving faster than those used in normal offensive operations came up, destroying guard posts and barbed wire, forcing the enemy to hide in shelters, and assault columns poured in behind the mobile barrages. Indirect machine gun fire was also used to create this barrage, blocking the enemy's movement. With artillery fire support, Coudeman could be carried out longer and on a larger scale, and not only Corfranc but also regular units could be deployed.

Pétain, who became Commander-in-Chief, ordered that all divisions must perform Red or Couture once a week. Pétain promised more vacation days, medals and prize money. Thanks to this, the number of Corfranc volunteers increased, and General Elie Doiselle, commander of the 8th Corps, conducted 100 raids with his corps from June 1917 to March 1918. Of course, as Coudeman consumed a lot of resources, he only did it when he had to obtain a decisive result by acquiring large-scale prisoners, and he usually conducted small-scale raids on the existing Corfran.

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1917, several corps commanders reorganized the Corfrancs into battalions and began using them for the same purposes as German assault corps. As the reason the French army did not organize assault troops was due to the lack of modern heavy artillery, this movement seems to have occurred automatically once this problem was resolved. The stormtroopers thus caused great controversy within the French army. Chief of Staff Eugène Debeny summarized the results of the discussion and delivered them to Pétain. Dubne's conclusion was very critical of the operation of the assault corps. According to Debnay, reorganizing Corfranc into an assault force would have immediate but limited results. Therefore, Dubne concluded that all infantry should be upgraded to higher levels through more thorough training. Pétain agreed with Debeny's point of view and criticized the assault corps very harshly, calling it a gladiatorial unit, an act of dividing the army into strong and weak armies and then wasting away only the former, leaving only the latter, as a result of the German general headquarters losing trust in its own infantry, and giving up long-term operational capabilities for immediate tactical results.

The French troops have developed the Groupe de Combat tactics shared by all infantry, aiming to level up infantry instead of the assault. Groof de Kongba, which consisted of 15 to 20 people in 1917 and 13 in 1918, had a lack of firepower and flexibility than the assault, but proved to be excellent than all infantry, not the assault, and achieved the purpose of leveling up. At the same time, the role of Groop de Kongba was the same as the assault, so the French army is said to have made all infantry assaults. The groove de Kongba's identity is the modern section ( # ).

However, the French army also had the concept of assault divisions: the 11th, 37th, 38th, 39th, 43rd, and 48th infantry divisions. They received priority allocation of resources and colonial troops and priority for training. Thanks to this, because of its high level of proficiency, it was put into operation twice as much as other divisions.

Cor Franc has produced several famous people. Second Lieutenant Punerot, commander of the 23rd Infantry Regiment Corfranc, served as the flag bearer representing the École Polytechnique in the 1919 victory parade. This man was wounded 11 times and was awarded the Legion of Honor at the age of only 20. The flag bearer of Saint-Cyr was also Captain Goubello, commander of Corfranc. Jules Bosque, commander of the 418th Infantry Regiment Corfranc, was nicknamed the Guinemer of the Infantry. Bosque began the war as a private, was promoted to captain, and died in June 1918. Captain Jeunet, commander of the 287th Infantry Regiment Corfranc, was praised as an infantry ace, like Bosque, compared to a fighter ace. Among the enlisted men, Albert Servin Roche, who alone captured 1,180 prisoners, is the most famous, followed by Joseph Lamage, who received commendations 10 times.

Of course, the most outstanding of the Corfrancs was Captain Jean Cali, already mentioned at the beginning. Cali was from Saint-Cyr and began serving at the front as a platoon leader in the 113th Infantry Regiment in January 1915. For several months, Cali, who had proven his excellent command skills and gained a reputation, was put in charge of organizing and commanding the Regiment Corfran. In Corfranc, commanded by Kali, there was only one casualty until the end of the war.

By 1918, it was clear that the Germans would bring in large numbers of divisions from the Eastern Front, and where the Germans would concentrate these large forces was a very important concern for the Allies. Above all, the French army predicted very accurately that trench warfare was over. Therefore, the French GQG declared on January 18, 1918, that the operation of Cor Franc should be integrated as part of the overall maneuver operation.

On January 16, 1918, the 123rd Infantry Division conducted an assault on Besange in Lorraine. In Coudeman, Corfranc was disbanded, returned to its original units, mixed with regular infantry, and then 3 infantry battalions, 3 flamethrower platoons, 2 engineer companies, 320 artillery pieces, 200 machine guns, and 6 aviation companies were deployed. The operational area was 1800m in front and 2000m in depth. Preparation began at 7:30 and took place at 2:30 pm. The method of capturing prisoners was the same as Red. The Coudeman achieved all its objectives by 4 p.m. and began its retreat 45 minutes later. This seven-hour Baévian was a complete success, with the division taking 357 prisoners, inflicting a similar number of casualties, collapsing the defenses, and obtaining information that the spring offensive would not begin in Lorraine. This became an important consideration in the deployment of the French army's reserves. On February 10, 1918, a raid was planned east of Reims to locate the division redeployed from the Eastern Front, and three infantry battalions and Corfranc were deployed. The French army broke deep into the area where the regimental command post was located, captured 197 prisoners, and succeeded in finding out the locations of 11 divisions from the Eastern Front.

Even at the height of the Spring Offensive, Coudeman contributed to the discovery of the Matz attack in early June and made a decisive contribution to the 4th Field Army's complete defense against German attacks at Reims on July 14. On that day, the 132nd Infantry Division planned a coup d'état to supplement the information gained through aerial reconnaissance and six reds. Although we already knew that there would be an offensive by the German army, we did not know the exact date and time. The operational area of ​​this Coudeman was a square area of ​​500mx500m containing four trenches. The 336th Infantry Regiment organized a detachment consisting of two infantry platoons, 16 engineers, three flamethrower teams, and eight stretcher soldiers . At 7:55 PM the divisional artillery opened the passage, boxed the enemy, destroyed the machine gun emplacement, and obscured the view of the observation post with smoke. Once the passage was cleared, five assault columns were formed and some remained at the entry point to provide cover. Blockade teams of five or six men were stationed at each intersection as the column swept trenches along the route and cleared shelters. This detachment invaded the furthest shelter, captured all of them, and then retreated in an orderly manner along the same route. There were only two casualties. Through interrogation of prisoners, it was revealed that the German attack would begin at dawn that day. Additionally, the captured document contained detailed information about the preparatory fire for the attack that was to begin at 1 a.m., and one map showed the locations of all German trench mortars. Based on this information, the 4th Field Army began preparatory and destructive fire for the attack 30 minutes before the German army's attack. The German army's assault, under fire, poured into the empty trenches. The German army's final offensive operation failed in a single coup that the 4th Army commander, Henri Gourot, described as historic. Each member of this detachment received a reward of 10,000 francs.

Comparing Corfranc and the assault corps, from an operational perspective, the assault division based on the assault corps was consumed on the front line as Pétain predicted, leaving only a defensive division vulnerable to the German army. Kali assessed that from a tactical perspective, the assault force had two drawbacks. First, the assault troops do not know the terrain of the front line where they are deployed, so their ability to adapt to danger is weak. Second, the assault troops are strangers to the regular infantry they fight with. Kali evaluated that because of this, although the assault troops fought well, their cooperation with the general infantry was not smooth.[10] Corfranc lived with regular infantrymen while training in the rear, Corfranc received active support from the regiment's infantry, and had the effect of increasing the regiment's morale every time Corfranc succeeded in a raid. Additionally, when there were no raids, Corfranc traveled to infantry companies and passed on know-how and techniques to ordinary infantrymen, improving their overall proficiency. Additionally, Corfranc volunteers were recruited along with training, but unlike the assault corps, their numbers were not large enough to weaken the division. In addition, the light tank battalion, which had been deployed since June 1918, performed the shock battalion role much better than humans.

In the case of the Russian imperial troops , they were independent of the assault and their expressions, and they had achieved great results at the time of the Brusil rope offensive . These are the ancestors of the present Spetsnatsu . Even at the time of the Kerenski offensive , the endless infantry units, who had been successful in the breakthrough, refused to support and entered, and were sacrificed only the shocked troops .

The Soviet Army also organized shock troops and used them in the civil war during the Red-White Civil War, so the shock troops later became the Soviet Shock Army during World War II . The shock force was the vanguard of the defeating strategy according to the Soviet Army's doctrine of the time, the Deep Penetration Theory , and was a field army echelon armed with a large number of infantry and heavy artillery, responsible for inflicting a powerful blow on the enemy front line as the first wave of the offensive and creating a hole in the defense line . The strategy was for mechanized troops to enter through the hole they made and break through the defense line. At the same time, it was active in urban warfare by taking advantage of its high proportion of infantry and heavy firepower .

Trench Raiders (trench raiders) were created, armed with trench clubs, and later entered the war by American trench raiders, armed with trench clubs, field shovels, shotguns and trench knives, and engaged in close combat with the Germans.

The Ottoman Empire imported shock troop tactics through German military advisors and deployed them to the Middle East front.

After being severely damaged by Russia's shock tactics, Austria also acquired Germany's know-how, formed an assault force, and deployed it to the Eastern Front. What is unique compared to other countries is that they organized and operated shock troops at the individual division and brigade level rather than organizing them properly independently.

The Kingdom of Italy , having received information that Austria was introducing assault troops, also organized and operated mountain units familiar with the geography of the Alps region, which was the main battlefield, as assault troops. They were simply called 'Reparti d'assalto' (assault troopers), but they were usually called 'Arditi' (daring ones). The name Arditi is still established as a proper noun referring to the Italian assault corps during World War I.


Insignia of the Arditi unit.

The overall concept of Arditi was similar to that of an assault corps, but its tactical purpose was not to attack the weak part of the enemy's defense line like an assault corps and break through the advance path of the ally's main force, but rather to attack and collapse the entire enemy defense line. Of course, this does not mean that the Arditi were completely superior to the assault corps, and the German assault corps had to fight on the Western Front, which had a long and complicated trench line stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea, and was filled with British and French troops with deep roots in the colonial war. On the other hand, the Alpine front where Arditi was deployed had a relatively short front and rugged mountainous terrain, making it difficult to expand trenches long, and the opposing Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army's skill level was relatively low, allowing Arditi to carry out a bolder offensive. .


An Arditi soldier wearing a breastplate and armed with a grenade. He has a unique pose with a dagger in his mouth.

Arditi carries a submachine gun or pistol, a dagger, grenades, and a barbed wire removal tool for quick maneuvering.[11] He enjoyed using dangerous tactics, such as risking being mistakenly attacked by friendly forces' close-range artillery fire, charging in the midst of artillery fire, and then throwing a grenade into the enemy trench to instill fear in the enemy, then jumping into close combat with a pistol and dagger. At this time, since he was holding a grenade in each hand, he charged with the dagger in his mouth in advance so that he could quickly use the dagger after throwing it. This tactic resulted in a bloody symbol like the skull wearing a laurel wreath with a dagger in its mouth, as shown above. Even though they received thorough support from artillery, they basically had a tactic of sneaking in between the enemy's machine guns and rifles with only a pistol, a bomb, and a knife, to put it in a bad way , so the human loss rate was always high regardless of the success or failure of the operation. So, their motto was "O la vittoria, o tutti accoppati!" (Victory or annihilation!), in line with their all-or-nothing strategy.

They had a high proportion of passionate Italian nationalists and were proud of being an elite unit, so they also had a strong will to fight, making them infamous to the Austro-Hungarian army. Initially, it was composed of volunteers, but later personnel were recruited separately to form the Arditi. Elite light infantry that has existed since the Kingdom of Sardinia There were Bersalieri , a mountain regiment (Alpini) made up of people from high mountain areas, and Arditi made up of regular infantry units. The Bersalieri Arditi wore red, the Alpini Arditi wore green, and the regular Arditi wore black color tabs to distinguish their origins. However, because the name 'Fiamme nere' ( black flame ) , another nickname for Arditi, was famous, a perception arose that "Arditi = black" regardless of previous unit, which later led to Mussolini 's decision to adopt the Arditi's aggressive and elite image and decide on the uniform of the Black Shirts .



A unique case within Arditi is Caimani del Piave ( Caiman of Piave ).[12] There was a separate unit specializing in underwater infiltration under the nickname, but it was not a permanent unit and was closer to a sort of task force . It was a unit used to scout or sabotage enemy positions across the river in a situation where the front line was fixed along the Piave River after the Battle of Caporetto . He performed an extreme special attack mission: swimming through a river bare-handed in the middle of the night and infiltrating enemy territory. He is said to have been skilled in swimming, dagger skills, and hand-to-hand combat, and depending on the mission, he sometimes received temporary volunteers from other units, so his troops were flexible.

They are sometimes included in the Arditi and sometimes classified as the Navy, because they were originally amphibious troops organized by the Navy to defend Venice . However, when it participated in the Piave Front, a significant number of its personnel were made up of Arditi, so it can be viewed as a mixed unit of Arditi and Navy. Because it was a temporary, unofficial unit, it was not well known even in Italy before it was made into a movie in the 1950s. However, historically, it was officially organized with the unit name 'San Marco' of the 1st Navy Regiment immediately after the end of World War I, and continues to be the main marine unit of the Italian army to this day. It is a historic unit that continues to exist as a unit.

In the early days , the Italian shock unit did not maintain the Arditi shock unit, but the Italian shock unit was not followed, but the military and symbols of the shock unit were widely used.

Later, in the case of Nazi Germany, Waffen-SS units were used as shock troops, similar to assault troops. However, after losing a large number of elite soldiers and weapons at Kursk in 1943, it became difficult for the Waffen SS to use existing tactics.

After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian War, the Ukrainian army organized brigade-to-battalion-sized assault troops, such as the 3rd Assault Brigade , 5th Assault Brigade, and 33rd Assault Regiment. Each brigade consists of 2 to 5 assault battalions, 1 tank battalion, and multiple mechanized battalions, motorized battalions, and rifle battalions.

The assault battalion uses mechanized equipment such as M113 or YPR-765 . Unlike the assault team during World War I, it is mechanized and is excellent in maneuverability.

However, the problem with assault troop tactics was that they were fundamentally infantry tactics. Mobility is the key to this tactic, but humans have limitations in physical strength and are not creatures that can move that quickly, so even elite soldiers get tired and quickly reach the end point of the offensive, making it difficult to expand the battle after breaking through. In addition, it takes a lot of time and resources for a human being to be born, grow up, and be trained as an elite soldier, but if he is hit by a single gunshot, he is immediately incapable of fighting, and since he is the first to charge into the enemy camp, he is bound to receive concentrated fire, so the assault troop tactic itself is very expendable. It was difficult to continue for a long time as many of those human resources died. At some point, when manpower was depleted, it was difficult to even defend, let alone attempt.

In addition, after being subjected to shock troop tactics several times, the negotiation forces not only learned the tactics, but also devised counter doctrine and advanced tactics. At the end of 1917, the French military judged that both the Negotiation Army and the Allied Forces had developed means and methods to return to mobile warfare, and circulated guidelines for deep defense developed to counter the German army's means. With the operational and strategic mobility gained through motorized artillery regiments, infantry that had become motorized and no longer dependent on railways, aviation divisions , and mechanized cavalry corps, they not only successfully responded to the assault corps during the spring offensive, but also saved the British army, which failed to respond, from crisis. I saved it. The French army not only developed tanks in an attempt to solve human limitations through industry, but also expanded the motorized artillery that had been in experimental use since the end of 1916 to 40 regiments, opening a new stage in the development of artillery. #About stormtroopers

After Russia withdrew from the war due to the revolution in 1918, the German army gathered troops deployed on the Eastern Front and launched the Michael Offensive on the Western Front. At the time, the weather was good, so it was successful at the beginning through the surprise attack of the assault force and tanks, but eventually failed to achieve the goal .

At the end of the war, such as the Ludendorff Offensive, quite serious limitations were exposed. As it was an elite vanguard unit at the forefront of artillery bombardment and assault, the intensity of combat and the casualty rate were very high. Given the situation where the human resources of the Allies were severely exhausted during the four years of war, the loss of the assault unit, which was drawn from the infantry units that received professional training and had the best and highest combat performance, led to a decline in the combat power of the entire army. The absence of elite shock troops who had already died during the period around the 100-day offensive following the Spring Offensive in 1918 triggered a serious decline in offensive capabilities.

Since the assault force tactics themselves were an attempt to solve the lack of artillery , armored and mechanized technology during the First World War by focusing on infantry tactics, there are cases that occurred spontaneously even when similar battlefield environments were created .

For example, during the Korean War , the Korean Army and the Chinese Army , which lacked armor and artillery , used tactics similar to those of World War I, called assault units, shock infantry units, and rangers , when high altitude warfare broke out and the war situation reached a stalemate. #Korean War, and the convergent evolution of the Korean military shock infantry concept #2

After advances in mobility with the development of tanks, mechanized equipment, and aircraft, a change occurred in the direction of injecting these forces instead of replacing infantry to break this stalemate. Different countries use various terms such as breakthrough units, shock troops , and assault units, and have different perspectives on goals, but the methods are much the same.

As it was successfully operated in Germany, similar tactics and units were created in negotiating countries, and they were usually organized in battalions and called Sturmabteilung (SA), but later this name was inherited by a strange organization and became famous. Because of that, the expression SA died out, and other synonyms were mainly used, or the expression Sturmbataillon was used to refer to a large-scale unit.

However, in the Anglo-American culture, this document was formed due to those who inherited it. The reason the Nazis gave it the name shock troop was to give it the image of a special forces unit and to tie together the symbol of elite soldiers, and it was not originally intended for a negative purpose. Similarly, the Totenkopf was a symbol of elite cavalry, its successors, tank/air corps, and elite infantry such as assault troops, but due to the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf of Nazi Germany and their war crimes, it was considered a military symbol in Germany. As a result, this symbol with a long history could no longer be used.

In conclusion, it became so famous that it was included in the English dictionary as 'Nazi shock brigade' along with SA, so its original meaning was buried. The original meaning is close to the elite assault troops, but during World War I, Canadian and American units were highly praised for their overwhelming combat capabilities, and they were given the name Assault Troops in Germany.

On the other hand, thanks to the impressive performance of these shock troops, it spread to various groups in society and became a military leader . The term began to be used with other meanings as well. In this case, it usually means "do well!", "elite", as well as "let's lead!" or "lead!" The nuance of the back is attached, too. However, it has a bit of a military feel to it.

For example fan club or sports It is used in some ways to do something among the clubs . It is also used in professional sports teams like both radars .

In North Korea , the personnel responsible for construction work are called youth shock troops . It is said that they join the assault troops when their physical conditions are not suitable for serving in the regular army . For the reality of these people, refer to the cartoon < Southern Guest > by Oh Young-jin, who participated in the construction of North Korea's light-water reactor.