35089 WWI GERMAN SOLDIERS

At the start of World War I, in August 1914, the army of imperial Germany was considered the best and most efficient in the Old Continent. Such a conviction resulted mainly from the fame of the victories won in the course of the wars with Austria in 1866 and with France in the years 1870-1871. Also, many organizational solutions used at that time in the Prussian army, and later in the German army (e.g. strategic railway lines or mobilization techniques) were copied in other European countries. As in the French and Russian armies, the largest number of armed forces in the German army in 1914 was infantry. The German infantryman at that time was his main armament with the successful 7.92mm Mauser Gewehr 98 rifle, and on his head he wore the famous pickelhaub - so mercilessly used as a symbol of German militarism in the caricature of the Entente countries. It is worth adding that the German infantry uniform was much less colorful than its French counterpart. At the outbreak of the Great War, the German corps consisted of the headquarters, 2 infantry divisions, a heavy artillery squadron (16 150 mm caliber howitzers), a communications battalion, a searchlight company and an air company. The infantry division in turn consisted of two brigades, each of them two infantry regiments. On the other hand, a single infantry regiment consisted of 3 battalions and a machine gun company of 6 heavy machine guns. It is worth adding that the infantry division was supported by an artillery brigade of 72 guns. Of course, in the course of World War I, the German infantry underwent far-reaching changes. First of all, a steel helmet (German Stahlhelm) was introduced into the weaponry, which, with minor changes, survived in the German armed forces until the end of World War II! Hand grenades, gas masks and light machine guns (German: leichte Maschinengewehr - abbreviated as lMG) also began to be used on a large scale. Branches such as Stosstruppen also appeared.The officer corps of the Imperial German army on the eve of the outbreak of World War I was perceived in Europe as one of the best trained and characterized by a very high degree of professionalism. The great successes of the Prussian army in 1866 and in the years 1870-1871 were still remembered. It is worth adding that the memory of these victories had a negative impact on the thinking of the German officer corps, which was often overly conservative. Theoretically, the German army was headed by Emperor Wilhelm II Hohenzollern, but in fact the entire armed forces were commanded by the Grand General Staff (Ger. Großer Generalstab), whose head in August 1914 was Helmut von Moltke the younger. The role that the chiefs of the general staff played at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in German plitical life was significant and far exceeded their Russian or French counterparts. It is worth adding that at the beginning of the Great War, the German officer corps was imbued with offensive doctrine and strove to resolve the war in its favor as soon as possible. The plan that was implemented at the beginning of the war was the modified Schlieffen's plan, which required the concentration of forces on the Western Front and defeating the French army as soon as possible, and then (after about 40-50 days of operation) transferring them to the east, against Russia. However, the plan was completely unsuccessful, and the German officers had to adapt to the conditions of the position war on the Western Front.