Somewhere at the front in 1918, a German stosstrupp (assault troop) unit is shown on the march. The stosstruppen, by 1918, were elite soldiers with a strong esprit de corps whose tactics had a marked influence on post-World War One small unit employment methodology. First authorized on March 2, 1915, the stosstruppen were used to punch through enemy lines and they did so using a combination of weapons, including light field guns or mortars that the troops would drag through No Man's Land in order to engage enemy positions at short range. The structure of a stosstrupp was often in flux but a typical Sturmbataillone consisted of a Stab (headquarters), five Sturmkompagnien (with 255 men in total), one to two Maschinengewehrkompanie (machine-gun companies with up to twelve machine-guns), one Flammenwerfertrupp (flamethrower platoon with four to eight flamethrowers), and one Infanterie-Geschutz-Batterie (infantry gun battery with four guns) or one Minenwerferkompagnie (mortar company with four mortars).
The burden of the individual soldier is evident here. It isn't possible to tell what type of uniform he is wearing but it is likely the simplified M1915 bluse (tunic) and for hosen (trousers), he possibly has a pair of baggy M1917 hosen. Upon his head, he is wearing the stahlhelm (steel helmet) which was introduced in 1916. Without being able to see the chinstraps and liner inside the helmet, it isn't possible to tell what model of the stahlhelm (M1916, M1917, or M1918) he has. On his back, we can see his “Angriff Gepäck”, or “assault pack”. In this case, he has wrapped his mantel (greatcoat) inside his M1892 zeltbahn (tent half) and secured it with leather straps. Attached to the pack is his well used M1908 mess kit (eßgeschirr). Next to the pack is a M1822 shovel, secured in a carrier attached to his belt (koppel) while a loop can be seen holding the handle, the other end of the loop fitted through the shoulder board of the bluse. This type of shovel was used by assault troops to rapidly dig-in on the attack as it was better at such a task than the smaller M1887 entrenching tool (kleiner spaten) typically carried by German infantrymen. Underneath the shovel carrier is his M1915 canteen (feldflasche) which is likely attached to his M1887 bread bag (brotbeutel). To the left of the shovel's handle (as one looks at the photograph) is the bayonet for his rifle, secured in a scabbard. To the left of the bayonet is the round metal canister for his gasmask (bereitschaftsbüchsen) within which was most likely a M1917 lederschutzenmaske (leather protective mask) if judging by the size of the canister. Wrapped around his lower legs are puttees (gamaschen or wickelbander), his feet in leather ankle boots (schnürschuhe) with hobnailed soles.
For a weapon, he is equipped with a 7.92mm Karabiner 98AZ rifle. This can be told by the front sight and the turn-down bolt handle. The standard Gewehr 98 rifle as used by the vast majority of the German army was longer (4.1 feet) and used a straight bolt handle. The 98AZ, on the other hand, was shorter (3.6 feet) and the turn-down bolt handle lessened the chances of getting caught on the soldier's equipment. The 98AZ had a 5-round internal magazine, had a weight of 8 pounds, and used a tangent leaf rear sight adjustable up to 2,000 meters. The barrel featured a 4-groove, right-hand twist rifling. As a side note, after World War One, 98AZ rifles were re-designated as Model 98a rifles.
Hefted on his shoulder, the soldier looks to be carrying a wooden crate for stick hand grenades (stielhandgranaten). Each crate could hold 25 grenades and given the year, the contents were either M1916 or M1917 grenades.
Primary Sources
Bull, Stephen Stormtrooper (London: Publishing News Ltd., 1999)
Drury, Ian German Stormtrooper 1914-1918 (London: Osprey, 1995)
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