Book summary “Infanterie greift an”: summary

Introduction

You face tactical stalemates and brutal attritional combat when enemy forces outnumber you and traditional frontal assaults fail. You need a method to achieve swift victory through speed, surprise, and relentless initiative rather than sheer brute force.

Erwin Rommel wrote Infanterie greift an to document firsthand tactical lessons from World War I. You learn how small-unit leaders can master tactical mobility, aggressive flanking maneuvers, and disciplined entrenchment to defeat superior opponents.

The book details operations across varied terrains from the fluid movement in Belgium to the static trenches of the Argonne and the mountainous terrain of the Vosges and the Carpathians. You will find answers to the following questions:

• How do you conduct successful reconnaissance and nocturnal navigation during fluid phases of war?
• What methods allow you to maintain absolute morale and morale under heavy artillery bombardments?
• How do you execute silent night infiltration to achieve strategic breakthroughs?

1. War of Movement in Belgium and Northern France

Reconnaissance detachments facing the enemy must advance with extreme caution, utilizing cover, maintaining depth, and arranging fire support before crossing open terrain. Every mistake risks the lives of men.

Reconnaissance and Field Fortifications

You must execute reconnaissance missions with strict discipline and high alertness. During reconnaissance toward Cosnes, Rommel's detachment stayed off roads, used grain field ditches, seized bicycles for rapid reporting, and cautiously checked local inhabitants' statements before entering villages with fixed bayonets.

Follow these rules during advance reconnaissance:

• Keep off roads and make use of all available cover.
• Repeatedly examine the terrain with field glasses.
• Organize the detachment in considerable depth.
• Arrange for fire support before crossing open stretches.
• Advance in villages with units on both the left and right of houses with fingers on triggers.
• Report observations rapidly.

German infantry demonstrated tremendous combat powers even when facing superior numbers of men and equipment. Junior German commanders maintained tactical superiority over their enemy counterparts throughout the war.

Extensive digging and deep trenches are vital to protect troops from heavy modern artillery bombardments and drastically reduce casualties. At Bleid and Defuy Woods, the 2d Battalion utilized their spades extensively before enemy bombardments, building trenches up to seventy inches deep and suffering surprisingly low casualty rates of around three percent.

Enforce these shovel protocols:

• Begin digging-in before the first enemy bombardment.
• Enforce strict discipline to ensure tired and hungry men dig without regard to fatigue.
• Construct trenches up to five and a half feet deep.
• Dig individual fox-holes in the front wall of the trench for protection against impact fuses.

Forest fighting creates extreme command difficulties, unpredictable ricochets, and blind zones, necessitating unit dispersion and forward machine-gun placement. In Doulcon Woods and Defuy Woods, the 3d Battalion suffered severe casualties because they failed to dig in properly and were vulnerable to tree bursts, whereas dispersed formations fared better. The 124th Infantry Regiment lost twenty-five percent of officers and fifteen percent of men as casualties in its first fight at Bleid, alongside five officers and 240 men on the regimental casualty list at the end of the day on September 7.

Apply these forest combat practices:

• Increase dispersion and dig fox-holes to protect against tree bursts.
• Have a maximum number of machine guns well up forward.
• Be prepared to fire machine guns while on the move during chance encounters or assaults.

Command posts must be dispersed and hidden from enemy observation to prevent them from becoming magnets for hostile artillery fire. During the fighting near Pretz and Vaubencourt, the regimental and battalion command posts located close together in a highway cut were heavily plastered by French artillery because converged messengers betrayed their location.

Night attacks require precise compass navigation, strict discipline to prevent friendly fire incidents, and can achieve deep penetrations with minimal casualties if executed quietly. During the night attack of September 9-10, the 2d Battalion successfully stormed Hill 287 north of Rembercourt, advancing half a mile ahead of the division front with few casualties, though Rommel nearly fired on his own withdrawing recruits due to poor inter-unit coordination at 0300 hours 500 yards north of Rembercourt.

Execute these night movement steps:

• Train in time of peace to maintain direction at night using a luminous dial compass.
• Verify identities before opening fire during night movements to avoid engaging friendly troops.
• Fix bayonets and unlock rifles for surprise night assaults.

Executing flank and rear attacks against entrenched positions in close terrain can shatter enemy morale, cause panic, and capture strongpoints with low casualties. On September 22, the 2d Battalion evacuated exposed forward positions, moved unobserved through a draw into a small woods, and fell upon the flank and rear of French forces defending an abatis on the Montblainville-Servon road, capturing fifty prisoners and causing the entire French brigade to retreat before the enemy opened fire at a range of 150 yards.

Use these tactical maneuvering rules:

• Evacuate exposed frontal positions under cover or smoke when a flanking maneuver is viable.
• Move in column of files through unobserved draws or woods.
• Deploy with left or right echelons to strike the enemy's flank and rear.

War makes extremely heavy physical and psychological demands on soldiers, so peacetime exercises must replicate these hardships to prepare troops adequately. Rommel and his men endured severe stomach disturbances from greasy food and fresh bread, forced marches through bottomless mud, sleepless nights in freezing rain, and extreme physical exhaustion during the pursuit through the Argonne across a grueling operational state of 18 hours and a planned 27-mile march.

Prepare your troops with these hardening measures:

• Make heavy demands on men in peacetime exercises to build resilience.
• Train extensively in difficult, trackless, wooded terrain.
• Practice maintaining direction at night with compasses under adverse conditions.

2. Positional Warfare in the Argonne

Share the hardships of your men to build absolute confidence, utilize silent assault tactics, and rely on the entrenchment tool to survive heavy bombardments.

As a 23-year-old officer, you will find that commanding a company requires enduring identical privations and demonstrating personal discipline so that men will follow through any hardship. In the Argonne in January 1915, Rommel shared a primitive 4.5-foot-high dugout with leaking roofs and freezing conditions while commanding the 9th Company in a 440-yard sector of the front line among two hundred bearded warriors.

Leadership and Fortifications

The entrenchment tool or spade is just as important as the rifle in modern combat, and failure to dig deep enough immediately leads to heavy casualties from artillery fire.

You must immediately begin digging when a position is occupied, because troops must deepen shallow trenches and construct shellproof shelters to survive retaliatory enemy artillery and mortar fire. During the night of January 29-30, 1915, Rommel's men suffered twelve killed from American-design steel-cased shells because their trenches were only twenty inches deep and the ground was frozen.

Apply these field fortification methods:

• Immediately begin digging when a position is occupied.
• Deepen trenches to six feet to avoid artillery blast effects.
• Construct small wood-lined dugouts and emplace armored shields.

Breaking off combat against a superior force is most easily and successfully accomplished immediately after a successful offensive maneuver that has disorganized the enemy. On January 29, 1915, Rommel's 9th Company was surrounded in the Labordaire position with only ten minutes of remaining ammunition supply before a critical decision had to be made, leaving five severely wounded men behind during the withdrawal. By attacking the enemy right to throw them into confusion, the company successfully withdrew through the wire entanglement.

Conducting thorough rehearsals prior to an attack and executing the advance in total silence without firing or throwing hand grenades achieves complete surprise and minimizes casualties. In the attack of September 8, 1915, across a 280-yard front width, Rommel rehearsed the 4th Company in the valley. The assault squads advanced in complete silence through the smoke toward objectives 225 yards beyond the enemy line, capturing 140 enlisted men and sixteen trench mortars without casualties during the charge itself.

Follow these offensive rules:

• Perform personal reconnaissance of the assembly area and terrain.
• Hold rehearsals in old valley positions prior to the attack.
• Advance silently without shooting during the charge.
• Prohibit throwing hand grenades during the advance to avoid hitting friendly troops.

Constructing communication trenches under fire across open terrain can be achieved rapidly at night by utilizing human chains to pass sandbags and deploying steel shields for immediate cover. On the night of September 8, 1915, Rommel directed a reserve force of eighty men to build a one-hundred-yard communication trench fifty yards from the French using an initial sixteenth-inch sandbag wall, steel shields to close a 200-foot gap, and an endless human chain lying flat on their backs to complete a six-foot-deep trench by dawn.

Execute these engineering steps:

• Start work at night after an attack.
• Form an endless human chain with each man flat on his back to pass sandbags.
• Build a sixteen-inch sandbag wall extending from existing positions.
• Use individual steel shields as a skirmish line to dig in under cover.

Under intense and destructive enemy artillery and mortar fire, temporarily evacuating forward trench sections reduces casualties until the bombardment shifts or lifts. During July operations in the Central sector, Rommel routinely evacuated trench sections during heavy bombardment because French mortars and artillery followed a rigid plan of traversing the line with 100 pound weight of projectiles during three and a half hour preparations.

Implement these defensive measures:

• Evacuate dangerous trench localities when heavy bombardment begins.
• Wait until artillery fire shifts laterally or moves to the rear area.
• Prepare to launch an immediate counter-attack if enemy infantry follows the bombardment.

3. Positional Warfare in the High Vosges and Rumania

Elite mountain operations require rigorous physical conditioning, detailed nighttime raid reconnaissance, and clever exploitation of fog and winter survival methods.

You must activate elite mountain units by drawing seasoned veterans from varied branches. Major Sproesser formed the Württemberg Mountain Battalion with six rifle companies and six mountain machine-gun platoons. Rommel trained his 2d Company through intensive skiing, marching, and off-duty music sessions led by Father Hügel. The 2d Company of two hundred young veterans was quartered in the St. Christopher Hospice near the Aarlberg Pass, practicing skiing from early morning until dark and enjoying Austrian rations.

Follow these rules for training:

• Draw young veterans from all branches of service to form the core of the unit.
• Institute a rigorous physical training regimen including intensive skiing and marching.
• Encourage off-duty contact through shared activities and music to improve acquaintance with men and tighten ties.

Conduct thorough nighttime reconnaissance to map enemy wire belts and locate sentry posts. During the raid on Pinetree Knob in the Vosges, Rommel deployed wire-cutting detachments under Staff Sergeant Kollmar and Lance Corporal Stetter to wait quietly while assault teams entered the enemy trench using shell craters and captured prisoners. Eleven prisoners were captured during the Pinetree Knob raid with no real casualties from the twenty men required for the raiding force, despite three separate belts of wire forming the barrier.

Use these tactics for trench raids:

• Conduct thorough nighttime reconnaissance to map enemy wire belts and locate sentry posts.
• Assign wire-cutting parties to creep up to the obstacle and wait silently until the assault begins or signal is given.
• Split raiding forces upon entering the enemy trench to strike from the flank or rear.
• Wrap wire strands in rags and slowly cut the lower strands while taking off tension to avoid noise.

High mountain weather and lack of suitable winter equipment, pack animals, or warm food caused severe casualties from cold and frostbite during the occupation of Hill 1794 in the Carpathians. On Hill 1794, ninety percent of the men suffered from frostbite and cold symptoms during a blinding blizzard, forcing the doctor to evacuate forty men to the hospital during the climb from 3960 feet to 4950 feet altitude.

Apply these winter survival steps:

• Provide pack animals and proper winter mountain equipment for high-altitude operations.
• Supply dry wood or charcoal to troops living above six thousand feet.
• Use small charcoal fires built in suspended tin cans to heat tents in freezing conditions.

Combat in dense fog creates extreme vulnerability to surprise and friendly fire. In Kurpenul village, Rommel's reinforced 2d Company was suddenly attacked by an enemy force outnumbering them ten to one in visibility ranging from sixty to three hundred feet. By deploying a reserve platoon and utilizing heavy machine guns, they stabilized the defense and later gathered three hundred and sixty prisoners in Gagesti village.

Execute these fog combat actions:

• Maintain advance, flank, and rear guards during marches in obscure or foggy situations.
• Establish immediate contact with neighboring units to prevent gaps in the line.
• Deploy heavy machine guns well forward and use rapid fire to halt superior forces when visibility is restricted.
• Form a hedgehog defensive position when surrounded or when facing unknown enemy strength in low visibility.

Utilize telescopes for visual reconnaissance combined with nighttime flank marches to discover enemy dispositions. During the attack on Magura Odobesti, Schropp discovered a route across a deep ravine behind the enemy position during a winter night reconnaissance, enabling a successful envelopment on January 6, 1917, four miles ahead of friendly lines where Rommel's detachment operated independently.

Perform these reconnaissance methods:

• Use telescopes during advances to study hostile positions, strengths, and dispositions from a distance.
• Conduct active reconnaissance during troop rest periods, especially at night, to find unguarded mountain paths.
• Execute flanking envelopments by moving small forces through difficult terrain to the enemy's rear.

Night attacks executed silently over snow can shatter enemy morale. During the night attack on Gagesti, Rommel's troops crept close along black hedgerows, overran the hill sentries without firing a shot, and captured over three hundred and sixty prisoners as enemy soldiers emerged confused from warm quarters.

Execute these surprise night tactics:

• Creep close to enemy positions along dark hedgerows or natural cover during night operations.
• Seize commanding heights or outposts by surprise without firing warning shots.
• Use indirect machine-gun fire sprayed over the roofs of extended villages to create overwhelming psychological shock on resting enemy troops.

4. Combat in the Southeast Carpathians

Synchronize telephone wire laying with scout advances, execute feints to mask flank envelopments, and deploy pre-planned heavy machine-gun fire concentrations.

In August 1917, you face the dense forests and steep ridges of the Southeast Carpathians. Rommel leads a total force of sixteen and a half companies through hostile territory. You must master infiltration, stealth, and detailed fire plans to overcome well-entrenched opponents.

Infiltration and Fire Support

Reconnaissance squads laying telephone wire behind them during an advance eliminate the time-consuming runner system and allow immediate exploitation of weak spots. Sending out small scout squads with a telephone detail enables you to receive instant reports, adjust orders on the fly, and rapidly move the main body along the laid wire directly to an abandoned or weak enemy position.

Technical Sergeant Pfeiffer and ten men surprised seventy-five Rumanians taking a break in a ravine without a watch posted, leading to an immediate breakthrough proposal on the southern slope of Ungureana 600 yards southeast of the camp site.

Execute these tactical methods:

• Send out scout squads equipped with telephone details ahead of the main column.
• Maintain constant telephonic communication to receive situation reports within minutes.
• Move the main body directly along the telephone line of the successful scout squad to rapidly occupy discovered weak spots.

Combining a feint attack with shouting and hand grenades on one flank while quietly enveloping the other flank neutralizes enemy resistance in dense forest terrain. By deceiving the enemy with a noisy feint and drawing their reserves and defensive fire in a false direction, you can successfully flank and drive the enemy from successive fortified positions without heavy casualties.

During the attack against the ridge road bend, the 2d Company made a feint astride the footpath with firing and shouting, while the 3d Company climbed 300 feet to the east and reached the enemy flank without opposition across 5 successive positions.

Execute these actions:

• Deploy the advance guard to take cover upon enemy contact without opening fire to deceive the enemy into thinking it is merely a reconnaissance detachment.
• Assign one unit to make a feint with rifle fire and hand grenades to pin the enemy down.
• Simultaneously envelop the enemy's flank and rear with another unit through thick underbrush.

Carefully pre-planned heavy machine-gun fire concentrations synchronized with close-in assault teams enable successful attacks against fortified positions without artillery support. Concealing heavy machine guns and assigning specific targets for before, during, and after the assault allows the guns to pin down the enemy, shift fire laterally just as the storming party enters the breach, and prevent enemy counterattacks.

On August 10, Rommel personally concealed 10 heavy machine guns and used them to hammer the oak copse before shifting fire to the sides to allow the 3d Company to storm the position after traversing 100 yards in 2 minutes from behind the ridge road.

Apply these fire support rules:

• Conceal heavy machine guns by taking wide detours to avoid hostile observation.
• Assign specific targets to each gun and plan fire schedules for before, during, and after the attack.
• Designate a base platoon and use prearranged signals to open fire.
• Shift machine-gun fire to the left and right flanks upon the assault, leaving a fire-free zone for the storming party.

Moving a large column through hostile combat outposts in daylight requires absolute silence, strict march discipline, and precise spacing. By utilizing dense underbrush, maintaining wide intervals between men so the column can continue moving when the advance guard halts, and exploiting enemy inattention, you can slip through enemy picket lines undetected.

Rommel led 4 companies through the dense zone of woods on the northwest slope of the Piciorul, passing between hostile sentries who were talking, coughing, and whistling without noticing them across a 0.5-mile marching column.

Enforce these infiltration steps:

• Organize security in greater depth with a skilled scout leading the advance guard.
• Maintain a distance of 10 paces between advance guard men and 160 yards between the advance guard and the following companies.
• Enforce absolute quiet throughout the column, utilizing arm signals and low calls.
• Listen to enemy sentries and slip through gaps in their line when they are distracted.

Creating and distributing a gridded sketch-map of the terrain significantly simplifies artillery fire adjustment and combat communication in mountainous or wooded regions. Because visible aiming points or targets are hard to select by standard map study alone in mountain terrain, having draftsmen reproduce and grid a detailed sketch-map allows observers to request and correct emergency barrages by grid squares instantly.

Rommel had two draftsmen reproduce and grid a sketch-map of the Mount Cosna terrain to a scale of 1:5,000, distributing copies to artillery observers to facilitate fire adjustment.

Use these mapping procedures:

• Have draftsmen reproduce a detailed sketch-map of the terrain to a scale of 1:5,000 with a grid.
• Distribute copies of the gridded map to the artillery commander and all batteries.
• Designate targets and request emergency barrages by grid square designations.

Effective mountain defense requires a deep echelonment of forces, light front-line garrisons, and strong counterattack reserves rather than packing every man into the forward line. Putting all troops in the front line leads to heavy casualties from enemy fire, so you must shift main defense positions to forward-slope woods to avoid enemy artillery registration while holding reserves back.

During the defense of Mount Cosna on August 20, Rommel deployed light front-line garrisons, kept strong counterattack groups under cover, and utilized reserve companies to dig concealed communication trenches, limiting total losses to 20 casualties.

Execute these defensive doctrine steps:

• Shift the main line of resistance to densely wooded forward slopes to nullify enemy artillery observation.
• Employ light front-line garrisons and maintain strong counterattack groups assembled under cover in the rear.
• Use reserve companies to dig well-concealed communication trenches to the focal points of combat.
• Do not put everything in the front line of nests to minimize casualties.

Extreme soldierly fidelity is demonstrated when troops risk perilous journeys in pitch darkness and difficult terrain to evacuate seriously wounded comrades to a doctor. When an officer or soldier is severely wounded in an isolated mountain position, dedicated comrades carry them across vast elevation differences and long distances at night to ensure immediate surgical intervention saves their life.

Lance Corporal Schummacher and a comrade carried the seriously wounded Technical Sergeant Büttler down an 1,100-foot elevation drop and 8 miles as the crow flies through the dark night to Sosmezo, enabling a doctor to save his life.

5. The Isonzo Offensive and Pursuit to the Piave

Achieve breakthroughs through silent night infiltration, block valley roads to induce mass surrenders, and maintain relentless pursuit momentum despite higher-level halt orders.

Achieving surprise through night movement and silent infiltration allows small forces to breach heavily fortified mountain positions without heavy losses. You move along concealed paths, utilizing small scouting parties under strict orders to avoid unnecessary shooting, and strike the enemy flank and rear. Lance Corporal Kiefner and a small scout squad silently penetrated the second Italian position near Foni, capturing a dugout, seventeen Italians, and a machine gun without firing a shot.

• Move silently along covered paths and hollows during night approaches.
• Use small patrol squads to penetrate enemy lines and capture garrisons before they can raise the alarm.
• Employ heavy machine guns and flanking attacks only when surprise fails or resistance is met.

Combining heavy artillery preparation with concealed machine-gun fire pins down the enemy and creates psychological shock that neutralizes modern fortified positions. Heavy shells falling on rocky terrain generate stone avalanches and splinter effects that shatter enemy morale. Against the Kuk position, heavy batteries fired on the east slope while light and heavy machine guns on Hill 1114 pinned down the garrison.

• Emplace machine guns in concealed positions on flanking slopes to pin down the enemy.
• Coordinate heavy artillery fire to target enemy lines and induce stone avalanches in rocky terrain.
• Send small assault teams to feel out enemy positions while supporting fire occupies the defender.

Blocking key valley roads and mountain passes behind the enemy cuts off retreat and leads to the surrender of entire brigades. You bypass strong points and rapidly descend to valley chokepoints to intercept enemy columns and capture supply lines. The author detachment blocked the Luico-Savogna road near Polava and subsequently engaged and captured the 4th Bersaglieri Brigade.

• Move rapidly along hidden routes to reach valley roads behind the enemy front.
• Position machine guns on slopes on both sides of the valley to command the road.
• Withhold fire until the enemy column approaches within decisive range, then demand surrender or unleash concentrated fire.

When enemy units become paralyzed by surprise flank attacks and lose faith in their leadership, direct demands for surrender yield massive surrenders. Mass formations lacking active reconnaissance experience a collapse of command authority when surprised from unexpected directions. On Mrzli peak and Mount Matajur, entire regiments stood irresolute, allowing the author to walk up and demand their surrender.

A night surprise attack fails if the supporting base-of-fire and advancing assault troops are not strictly synchronized.

At Klautana Pass, Rommel plans a night attack, but delays cause assault companies to miss the two-minute window of the machine-gun barrage, leading to a failed assault. Light machine guns deployed at extreme ranges create devastating psychological panic and dislodge entrenched defenders. At Cimolais, six light machine guns placed fifteen hundred yards away rake the Mount Cornetto slopes and drive the Italian garrison into a panic-stricken stampede.

Decisive intervention by a single daring soldier can neutralize demolition charges on captured bridges. In the Vajont ravine, Sergeant Bruckner takes an axe, runs across a 130-foot bridge 500 feet above the stream, and chops through electric cables and wires just before detonation.

• Take an axe and run across the bridge.
• Chop through all wires leading to the bridge from the far side.
• Follow in close formation and rip out the fuses on the way.

In pitch-dark night combat against superior numbers, starting controlled fires along the front provides necessary illumination. During the night defense at Fae against a thousand-strong Italian force, Rommel orders his men to burn a sawmill, a haystack, and various houses and barns.

• Order a squad of mountain troopers to light fires along the entire front.
• Burn sawmills, haystacks, houses, and barns to maintain visibility.

When ammunition runs low, forces sustain combat by utilizing captured enemy weapons and supply dumps. Major Sproesser refuses to halt at Erto as ordered, pushing forward instead to capture Longarone and an entire Italian division. High-altitude winter mountain warfare exposes troops to severe elements, continuous artillery, and lack of cover, demanding extreme endurance.

• Lie well concealed in tents by day to avoid enemy observation.
• Prohibit building fires.
• Bring up provisions only at night.
• Carefully sweep away tracks in the snow.

10 Key Ideas

1. Reconnaissance detachments must advance with extreme caution off roads, utilizing cover, maintaining depth, and arranging fire support before crossing open terrain.
2. The entrenchment tool is just as important as the rifle in modern combat, and failure to dig deep enough immediately leads to heavy casualties from artillery fire.
3. Night attacks require precise compass navigation and strict discipline to prevent friendly fire incidents, achieving deep penetrations with minimal casualties.
4. Commanding a company requires enduring identical privations and demonstrating personal discipline so that men will follow through any hardship.
5. Rehearsing prior to an attack and executing the advance in total silence without firing or throwing hand grenades achieves complete surprise and minimizes casualties.
6. High mountain weather and lack of suitable winter equipment, pack animals, or warm food cause severe casualties from cold and frostbite during high-altitude operations.
7. Sending out small scout squads with a telephone detail eliminates the runner system and enables you to receive instant reports and rapidly move the main body directly to weak spots.
8. Concealing heavy machine guns and assigning specific targets for before, during, and after the assault allows the guns to pin down the enemy and prevent counterattacks.
9. Blocking key valley roads and mountain passes behind the enemy cuts off retreat and leads to the surrender of entire brigades.
10. Major Sproesser refused to halt at Erto as ordered, pushing forward instead to capture Longarone and an entire Italian division by maintaining relentless pursuit momentum.