Re: [Epic] Re: [EPIC] Epic 40k stats/pre-sale

From: <duckrvr_at_...>
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 09:35:35 -0600

At 08:41 AM 3/4/97 +0800, you wrote:
>> The German shocktroops in WWI
>>were one of the few effective troops in trench warfare, they were just too
>>little, too late. A year earlier in their development, and they might have
>>turned the tide.
>>
>>Temp
>>
>
>OK, I would like to find out more of these shocktroops. What did they do ?
>And how did they do it ?
>
>Regards
>Oki

Roughly speaking (very roughly - it's been years since I took Western Civ),
Trench warfare went something like this:
Charge across no man's land in the face of automatic firepower, taking
massive casualties. Then, when you got close, the enemy fell back to the
trench they had behind their current position. The next day they did the
same in return. Eventually, trench systems were many layers deep.

The German Shock troops simply kept going. They concentrated on a small
area, attacking as a column instead of as a broad front. Instead of taking
the first trench and allowing the enemy to fall back, they would press
through. They would capture gun emplacements in the rear trenches that the
enemy thought were relatively safe, and turn them down the
as-yet-un-evacuated trenches, or if the more advanced units started falling
back, catch them in a cross fire. They took much more territory (several
trench rows instead of one), and caused considerably more casualties. If I
remember correctly, they were the original German Storm Troopers (as opposed
to the SS). An amazingly simple tactic, but extremely effective because of
1) the stagnant thinking of military minds at the time, and 2) the extreme
violence with which it was carried out.

Anyway, I'm sure one or more of the amateur historians on this list will
correct some portion of this, but that's the basic idea.

Temp
Received on Tue Mar 04 1997 - 15:35:35 UTC