History of the Regiment - 1915-1918

 

The Sturmbataillon Nr.5 was nicknamed 'Rohr' after it's commander, Hauptmann Willy Rohr. He and his men made the major breakthrough in assault tactics, literally. They would break through enemy lines and pour into trenches after throwing countless amounts of grenades in to clear them beforehand. These men were the 'creme de la creme' of the Kaisers fighting force.

 

The men of Sturm Bataillon Rohr could make fair claim to being the 'Elite' of the Germany front-line soldiers in WWI. They were used in an Assault and Training role and were the seeds out of which the assault units which followed were created, their actions would pave the way for assault tactics used even to this day. At Verdun the men of SB Rohr were always in the thick of the action, usually attached to other units they acted as examples, advisors, observers and mentors taking their experiences back to SB Rohr where developing new tactics were the first order of the day. They had no need for Generals stuck with Napoleonic mindsets, their tactics were modern and worked.