Infiltration Tactics - Development During World War I

Development During World War I

These tactics emerged gradually during the later years of World War I, used in various forms by the Russian general Aleksei Brusilov in Brusilov Offensive of 1916, by the British Third Army at the Battle of Arras in April 1917, following the reorganisation of British infantry platoons according to the new Manual SS 143, in the new year and by the Germany military in the Siege of Riga in September 1917 and the Battle of Caporetto in October 1917.

The tactics became especially associated with the stormtroopers of the German Army, and were also called Hutier tactics, after General Oskar von Hutier, who used these tactics to great effect during Operation Michael in March 1918.

Infiltration tactics were first proposed in the Allied armies by French Army captain Andre Laffargue. Laffargue published a pamphlet "The attack in trench warfare" in 1915, based upon his experiences in combat that same year. He advocated that the first wave of an attack identify hard-to-defeat defenses but not attack them; subsequent waves would do this.

The French published his pamphlet "for information", but did not implement it. The British did not even translate it, but did gradually adopt the techniques, beginning with the Canadian Corps. Germany captured copies of the pamphlet in 1916, translating and issuing it to units, but already had more sophisticated infiltration tactics: an experimental Pioneer unit commanded by Hauptmann Willie Rohr had been formed in the spring of 1915, over two months before Laffargue's pamphlet was published.