如果是在 1916 年，有人让你打破第一次世界大战的僵局，你会怎么做？

Former Combat and CONUS Combat Arms Company Commander at U.S. Army

吉姆·菲普斯
美国陆军前作战及本土作战兵种连长

The infiltration tactics developed by the Germans later in the war were highly effective. There is no reason why this couldn’t have been done in 1916 by all sides.
“Infiltration Tactics”
By mid-1917, many Allied commanders had realized that decisive penetration was no longer possible. Pétain, among others, advocated limited obxtive attacks, designed to reduce systematically an enemy’s position in small portions.

德军在战争后期发展的渗透战术极为有效。各方本无理由不在1916年就采用这种战术。
“渗透战术”
到1917年年中，许多协约国指挥官已意识到，决定性的突破已不再可能。贝当等人主张实施有限目标进攻，旨在分阶段逐步瓦解敌军阵地。

Some tacticians, however, were thinking along bolder lines. In May 1915, French Captain André Laffargue (1891-1994) argued in a pamphlet that specially trained teams of skirmishers armed with light machine guns and grenades should precede the main attack. The mission of these special groups was to infiltrate into the German lines ahead of the main attack, locate and neutralize the deadly German machine guns, and even probe deeply enough to disrupt the German artillery. Laffargue's pamphlet at first did not get much serious attention from the British and French armies. The Germans, however, translated and printed a captured copy during the summer of 1916.

然而，一些战术家的思路更为大胆。1915年5月，法国上尉安德烈·拉法格（1891-1994）在一本小册子中提出，应派遣配备轻机枪和手榴弹的受过专门训练的散兵小队，在主力进攻前发起行动。这些特种小队的任务是在主力进攻前渗入德军防线，定位并摧毁致命的德军机枪阵地，甚至深入敌后扰乱德军炮兵部署。起初，英法军队并未重视拉法格的小册子。但德军在1916年夏天缴获了一本，并将其翻译印刷。

Captain Wilhelm Rohr (1877-1930) was one of the major German pioneers in the development of new offensive tactics. In August 1915 on the Western Front Rohr was assigned command of the recently formed Assault Detachment (Sturmabteilung). Under Rohr’s training and leadership, the Assault Detachment developed and executed very successful counterattack tactics based on the traditional non-linear tactics of the earlier German Jäger units. The basic tactical element was the assault squad (Stoßtrupp), armed with grenades, automatic weapons, trench mortars, and flamethrowers. Rohr’s tactics and techniques were very similar to those advanced by Laffarague.

威廉·罗尔上尉（1877-1930）是德国新进攻战术发展的主要先驱之一。1915年8月，在西线战场，罗尔被任命为新组建的突击分队（风暴突击队）指挥官。在罗尔的训练和领导下，突击分队借鉴早期德国猎兵部队的传统非线性战术，制定并实施了极为成功的反击战术。其基本战术单位是突击小队，配备手榴弹、自动武器、战壕迫击炮和火焰喷射器。罗尔的战术与拉法格提出的战术极为相似。

By the end of 1917, each German field army had an assault battalion that functioned as a training cadre.
These special assault units became known as Storm Troops (Stoßtruppen). The storm battalions were one of the earliest forms of a true combined arms task force. Typically, their structure included three to four infantry companies; a trench mortar company; an accompanying artillery battery; a flamethrower section; a signal section; and a pioneer (combat engineer) section.

到1917年底，每个德国野战集团军都配备了一个突击营，承担训练骨干的职能。
这些特种突击部队被称为“风暴突击队”。风暴突击营是最早的真正意义上的诸兵种合成部队之一。其典型编制包括3至4个步兵连、1个战壕迫击炮连、1个伴随炮兵连、1个火焰喷射器排、1个通信排以及1个工兵排。

In March 1917, the German army also restructured their standard German infantry squads based on a seven-man team as a maneuver element, and a fire element based on a four-man team armed with the M-1908/15 light machine gun.
The German Wehrmacht of World War II retained that basic infantry squad structure.

1917年3月，德军对标准步兵班进行了重组，以7人小组作为机动单元，同时组建配备M-1908/15型轻机枪的4人火力单元。
二战时期的德国国防军沿用了这一基本步兵班编制。

Rohr's infiltration tactics, developed largely in a counterattack role, were eventually adopted as official German attack doctrine on the Western Front. In September 1917, the Germans successfully used the new tactics for the first time on a large scale at the Battle of Riga, on the Eastern Front. Instead of the typical attack formations of rigid lines advancing at a fixed pace, the German Eighth Army of General Oskar von Hutier (1857-1934) attacked in fluid leaps and bounds. One element moved forward while a supporting element provided fire cover. Then the two elements reversed roles and leapfrogged each other. The leading elements completely bypassed and isolated the defender’s forward strong points, which were later eliminated by heavier follow-on forces. Rather that being thrown in where an attack was faltering, reserves were committed only to reinforce and exploit success.

罗尔的渗透战术最初主要为反击作战而研发，最终被采纳为德军在西线战场的官方进攻战术 doctrine。1917年9月，德军在东线的里加战役中首次大规模成功运用这一新战术。奥斯卡·冯·胡蒂尔将军（1857-1934）率领的德军第八集团军摒弃了传统的固定队形、匀速推进的进攻模式，采用灵活的跃进式进攻战术。一个单元向前推进时，另一个支援单元提供火力掩护，随后两者互换角色，交替跃进。先头部队完全绕过并孤立防御方的前沿据点，这些据点随后由后续的重型部队予以清除。预备队不再投入进攻受阻的区域，而是仅用于巩固战果并扩大优势。

The Germans used similar tactics during their successful attack at Caporetto the following month. The results of those two battles shocked the Western Allies, although for some time they failed to grasp the underlying tactical principles. The Germans used storm-troop tactics on a large scale for the first time on the Western Front during their counterattack at Cambrai on 30 November 1917. On 1 January 1918, the German High Command (Oberste Heeresleitung) formally issued the new offensive doctrine, The Attack in Position Warfare (Der Angriff im Stellungskrieg).

次月，德军在卡波雷托战役中成功运用了类似战术。这两场战役的结果震惊了西方协约国，尽管他们在一段时间内未能理解其背后的战术原则。1917年11月30日，德军在康布雷战役的反击中，首次在西线大规模运用风暴突击战术。1918年1月1日，德军最高统帅部正式颁布了新的进攻战术条令——《阵地战中的进攻》。

The new doctrine organized the attack into two principal phases. The initial methodical assault against the enemy’s organized positions was based on detailed preparation and centralized control. It was followed by an aggressive exploitation of the attack characterized by decentralized execution and initiative on the part of the subordinate commanders. The purpose of the second phase was to disrupt the defender’s ability to reorganize and respond. This phase began in the intermediate zone, beyond the range of the creeping barrage, substituting shock and audacity for fire support.

该条令将进攻划分为两个主要阶段。第一阶段是对敌军有组织阵地的系统性突击，依托周密准备和集中指挥；随后是极具攻击性的扩张战果阶段，其特点是分散执行，强调下级指挥官的主动性。第二阶段的目的是瓦解防御方的重组和反击能力，该阶段始于徐进弹幕射击范围之外的中间地带，以突击和果敢行动替代火力支援。

Depth and speed contributed to the flank security of the leading elements, whose immediate obxtive was to penetrate as deeply as possible into the defender’s positions, at a minimum reaching and overrunning the enemy’s artillery positions on the first day. The new doctrine was based on infantry-artillery coordination, with artillery neutralization fire emphasized over destruction. The intent was to disrupt the enemy's communications, and bypass and isolate his strong points. The new tactics represented key conceptual shift from destruction to large-scale disruption.

进攻的纵深和速度保障了先头部队的侧翼安全，其直接目标是尽可能深入渗透至防御方阵地，至少在首日就要抵达并攻占敌军炮兵阵地。新条令以步炮协同为基础，强调炮兵的压制射击而非摧毁射击，旨在破坏敌军通信，绕过并孤立其坚固据点。这种新战术标志着作战理念从“摧毁敌军”向“大规模瘫痪敌军”的关键转变。

October 15, 2016
Topic: Security
Region: Europe

2016年10月15日
主题：安全
地区：欧洲

How Germany's World War I Stormtroopers Became Human Tanks
Could this have won the war for the Kaiser?

德国一战风暴突击队如何成为“人形坦克”
这是否能为德皇赢得战争？

by Michael Peck

作者：迈克尔·佩克

The word "stormtrooper" has a funny reputation. It conjures memories of brownshirted Nazi thugs terrorizing Jews, or images of Darth Vader's white-armored henchmen in Star Wars.
But in 1918, stormtroopers were Germany's human equivalent of the tank. A two-legged weapon that almost brought victory to Germany in World War I.

“风暴突击队”一词如今名声复杂。它会让人联想到身着褐衫的纳粹暴徒迫害犹太人的暴行，或是《星球大战》中达斯·维达麾下身着白色盔甲的爪牙形象。
但在1918年，风暴突击队是德国的“人形坦克”，这支依靠双腿作战的部队，几乎为德国赢得了第一次世界大战的胜利。

The origins of the stormtroopers, or stosstruppen (assault troops), began in the trench warfare of World War I. Within months after the war began in August 1914, the Western Front had fossilized into 450 miles of trenches stretching from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border.
No matter, said the generals. Our glorious infantry will smash through them with a bayonet charge. But the PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry) soon realized they were mere sheep for the slaughter against machine guns and barbed wire.

风暴突击队（德语：突击部队）的起源始于一战的堑壕战。1914年8月战争爆发后数月内，西线战场固化为绵延450英里的堑壕防线，从比利时海岸一直延伸至瑞士边境。
将军们却不以为然，宣称：我们英勇的步兵将用刺刀冲锋突破防线。但前线步兵很快意识到，在机枪和铁丝网面前，他们不过是待宰的羔羊。

No matter, said the generals. We shall simply annihilate the enemy with a massive artillery barrage -- as in the 1.5 million shells that preceded the British 1916 Somme offensive -- and then the infantry shall merely have to stroll forward to occupy the ground. Instead, the enemy waited in their underground dugouts until the barrage lifted before emerging to mow down the attacking infantry.

将军们依旧固执己见：我们将用大规模炮火覆盖歼灭敌军——就像1916年英军索姆河攻势前发射的150万发炮弹那样——之后步兵只需向前行进便可占领阵地。然而，敌军躲在地下掩体中，等炮火停止后再出来扫射进攻的步兵。

After a while, the Western Front had degenerated into a mere struggle for attrition, the most futile form of warfare. Strategy at bloodbaths like Verdun consisted of flinging enough firepower to kill more of the enemy than they killed of you. Mahatma Gandhi may have been a pacifist, but he understood the problem better than the military professionals when he said "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

不久后，西线战场沦为纯粹的消耗战，这是最徒劳无功的战争形式。在凡尔登这样的血腥战役中，战略核心就是投入足够火力，确保己方杀伤的敌军人数超过自身伤亡。圣雄甘地或许是一位和平主义者，但他比军事专家更洞悉其中的症结，他曾说：“以眼还眼，只会让全世界都失明。”

By 1917, with both sides running low on manpower and in national willingness to sacrifice their men, a better way was needed. Some method that would break the deadlock before the combatants attrited each other into national extinction.
Fortunately, while war is horrible, it is also dynamic. Stalemates are eventually broken, either because one side gives up, both sides make peace, or a military solution is found. In 1917-18, both the Allies and Germans found a way to break out of the stranglehold of trench warfare.

到1917年，双方人力都已枯竭，国内民众也不愿再做出牺牲，亟需一种更有效的作战方式，一种能在双方互相消耗至国家覆灭前打破僵局的方法。
幸运的是，战争虽残酷，却也充满变数。僵局终将被打破，或是一方投降，或是双方议和，抑或是找到军事突破的方法。1917至1918年间，协约国和德军都找到了打破堑壕战桎梏的出路。

For the Allies, the solution was technological. The tank was invented as a trench-buster, a mechanical fortress that could survive passage across No Man's Land between the opposing lines. Its armor allowed it to shrug off bullets and shrapnel, its weapons could knock out German machine gun nests before the machine guns knocked off the Allied infantry, while its internal combustion engine carried that firepower and armor to the enemy's door. Given Allied superiority in natural resources and industry, it was a logical solution.

协约国的解决方案是技术创新。坦克被发明出来作为“堑壕突破者”，这座移动的机械堡垒能够安全穿越双方战线间的无人区。它的装甲可以抵御子弹和弹片，搭载的武器能在德军机枪消灭协约国步兵前摧毁机枪阵地，而内燃机则将这份火力与装甲直接送至敌军阵地。鉴于协约国在自然资源和工业产能上的优势，坦克成为了顺理成章的解决方案。

Imperial Germany had no such luxury. Outnumbered in manpower and industrial potential, worn down by years of war against a numerically superior opponent, the Kaiser's army couldn't hope to beat the Allies in what the Germans dreaded as a materialschlacht (a war of material).
The solution was the stormtrooper.

而德意志帝国却没有这样的条件。人力和工业潜力均处于劣势，在与数量占优的对手连年作战后疲惫不堪，德皇的军队根本无法在德国人所忌惮的“物资战”中击败协约国。
于是，风暴突击队应运而生。

Instead of brute force or technology, German storm tactics relied on brainpower. Rather than hitting the enemy trenches head-on as in previous First World War battles, the idea was to find weak points in his line and penetrate those soft spots. Don't expend blood and time assaulting enemy strong points, said German doctrine. Bypass them and cut them off from their headquarters and supply depots. Seep into the enemy's rear and overrun his artillery batteries and command posts. By the time the defender realizes what is happening on, his front-line troops will be surrounded and isolated, to be mopped up later by follow-up waves of regular German troops.

德军的风暴战术并非依赖蛮力或技术，而是依靠战术智慧。与一战前期正面强攻敌军战壕的方式不同，其核心理念是寻找敌军防线的薄弱点，从这些“软肋”处渗透突破。德军条令明确指出，不要耗费兵力和时间强攻敌军坚固据点，而是绕过它们，切断其与指挥部和补给站的联系，渗入敌军后方，攻占其炮兵阵地和指挥中枢。等到防御方察觉局势时，其前线部队已被包围孤立，后续的德军常规部队会前来将其肃清。

If this sounds familiar, it's because this is exactly how blitzkrieg operated in World War II. Rommel, Patton and Zhukov would have understood the German approach very well.

这种战术听起来或许似曾相识，因为这正是二战中闪电战的核心逻辑。隆美尔、巴顿和朱可夫都能深刻理解德军的这一战术思路。

Storm tactics were championed by General Oskar von Hutier, an army commander battling Tsarist Russia on the Eastern Front. Hutier envisioned an offensive beginning with an artillery barrage intensive enough to paralyze the defenders, but short enough to avoid giving them too much warning to bring up reserves. The barrage would comprise poison gas as well as high-explosive shells to stun the enemy as well as force them to don cumbersome gas masks.

风暴战术的主要倡导者是奥斯卡·冯·胡蒂尔将军，他曾在东线战场指挥部队与沙皇俄国作战。胡蒂尔设想的进攻模式，是以高强度的炮火打击拉开序幕，火力强度足以瘫痪防御方，但持续时间要短，避免给敌军留出调动预备队的预警时间。炮火打击不仅使用高爆炮弹，还会搭配毒气弹，既能震慑敌军，又能迫使他们佩戴笨重的防毒面具，削弱其作战能力。

Advancing behind a creeping artillery barrage that would keep landing just ahead of the German troops, the stosstruppen would cross No Man's Land in dispersed small units rather than massed targets. Heavily armed with light machine guns, mortars and the newly invented flamethrower, they would penetrate between strong points and continue into the rear areas.

风暴突击队会在徐进弹幕的掩护下推进，炮弹始终落在部队前方不远处。他们以分散的小单位穿越无人区，而非集结成密集的目标。这些部队装备了大量轻机枪、迫击炮和新发明的火焰喷射器，能够从敌军据点之间渗透，直插后方区域。

A trial run came in October 1917 on the Italian front, where Austria-Hungary and Italy were mired in a bloody campaign of mountain warfare in the Alps. But at the Battle of Caparetto, German stormtroopers and infiltration tactics enabled a German-Austrian offensive to capture 265,000 Italians and nearly knock Italy out of the war.

1917年10月，这种战术在意大利战场首次得到实战检验。当时，奥匈帝国与意大利在阿尔卑斯山区陷入血腥的山地战僵局。但在卡波雷托战役中，德军风暴突击队和渗透战术助力德奥联军发动攻势，俘获26.5万名意大利士兵，几乎将意大利彻底逐出战争。

More was to come. Since the beginning of the war, Germany had been forced to split its forces between East and West. But the fall of the Tsar, which led to the Bolsheviks pulling Russia out of the war, enabled Germany to transfer nearly 50 divisions from the East to the West in 1918. For the first time in a while, the Germans outnumbered the Anglo-French armies, but not for long: America had entered the war, and soon 2 million fresh, healthy men would arrive in France.

更大规模的行动还在后面。自战争爆发以来，德国一直被迫在东西两线分兵作战。但沙皇倒台后，布尔什维克政权退出战争，这使得德国在1918年得以从东线向西线调遣近50个师的兵力。一时间，德军在兵力上首次超过英法联军，但这种优势转瞬即逝——美国已加入战争，很快就有200万身强力壮的美军士兵抵达法国。

But even with numerical superiority, what could Germany do? Another "big push," with infantry and artillery, would only gain a couple of miles of territory at a ferocious price. But the stosstruppen offered a chance for that rarest of World War I outcomes: a breakthrough.

即便拥有兵力优势，德国又能如何？再一次依靠步兵和炮兵发动“大规模攻势”，也不过是以惨重代价推进几英里的战线。而风暴突击队却为德军带来了一战中最为稀缺的可能性：战线的决定性突破。

Fortunately for the Germans, the Allies made their task easier. The way to defend against infiltration, as against blitzkrieg mechanized offensives in the next war, was defense in depth. Multiple defensive lines could wear down and blunt an enemy attack. The way to survive massive bombardment, as Hitler's troops learned at the hands of Soviet artillery, was to leave just a few troops in the front lines and keep the bulk further to the rear to escape the barrage and then counterattack.

对德军而言幸运的是，协约国的防御部署为他们创造了有利条件。事实上，抵御渗透战术的有效方式，就如同二战中抵御闪电战机械化进攻一样，是实施纵深防御。多层防线能够消耗并削弱敌军的进攻势头。而要在大规模炮火打击中幸存，正如希特勒的部队在苏军炮火下学到的那样，只需在前线留守少量兵力，主力部署在后方，避开炮火打击后再发动反击。

But unaware -- or disregarding warning of -- German infiltration tactics, the British Fifth Army packed its forward trenches with troops while their strong points were placed so far apart that they couldn't cover the gaps in between.

英军第五集团军并未察觉——或是无视了德军渗透战术的预警——他们将大量兵力部署在前沿战壕中，同时据点之间距离过远，无法相互掩护防御间隙。

Sure enough, the Kaiserschlacht (Kaiser's battle), Germany's spring 1918 offensive, began with a hurricane barrage of high-explosive and gas shells that devastated the crowded British forward trenches. Cloaked by smoke, gas and fog, Stosstruppen infiltrated between the British strong points and cut off the dazed defenders.

果不其然，1918年德军春季攻势“皇帝会战”，以高爆弹和毒气弹组成的暴风骤雨般的炮火打击拉开序幕，密集的英军前沿阵地遭到毁灭性打击。在硝烟、毒气和浓雾的掩护下，风暴突击队从英军据点之间渗透穿插，切断了陷入混乱的防御部队的退路。

The Kaiserschlacht began with Operation Michael on March 21, 1918. Whereas the British and French had spent hundreds of thousands of men and several months to advance a mile or two, the Germans penetrated 40 miles in two weeks. The Allies, long accustomed to static combat, now found themselves in mobile warfare for the first time since the opening battles of 1914.

“皇帝会战”始于1918年3月21日的“米夏埃尔行动”。英法联军曾耗费数十万兵力、历时数月才推进一两英里，而德军却在两周内深入40英里。长期习惯于静态堑壕战的协约国军队，自1914年战争初期以来，首次陷入了机动作战的被动局面。

Between March and June 1918, Germany launched four offensives. At first they succeeded so well that the British commander, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, warned his troops that their "backs are to the wall." Yet by the end, it was the Germans who had lost.

1918年3月至6月间，德军发起了四次大规模攻势。起初攻势进展极为顺利，英军总司令道格拉斯·黑格元帅甚至警告部队，他们已“背水一战”。然而最终落败的却是德军。

One reason was poor German strategy; instead of aiming for key British supply ports on the coast, it attacked further inland. Worse yet, the Germans discovered that no matter how deeply they punched through Allied defenses, supplies and reinforcements trudging through a moonscape of shell craters could never keep up with the assault spearheads.

原因之一是德军战略失误：他们没有直指英军沿海的关键补给港口，而是向内陆纵深进攻。更糟糕的是，德军发现，无论突破协约国防线多深，在弹坑密布、如同月球表面的战场上艰难跋涉的补给和增援部队，永远无法跟上突击先锋的推进速度。

But most of all, after four years of attrition, Germany only had a limited supply of fit young men with the stamina and energy for infiltration tactics. Once that supply of energetic manpower was consumed, the tired, older men who made up the regular German army were no substitute. The Allies, on the other hand, had thousands of tanks. By November 1918, the German army could not resist Allied combined arms offensives of tanks, infantry and artillery.

但最关键的原因是，经过四年的消耗战，德国具备渗透战术所需耐力和精力的适龄青年兵力已所剩无几。一旦这支精锐力量消耗殆尽，由疲惫年长士兵组成的德军常规部队根本无法替代。反观协约国，却拥有数千辆坦克。到1918年11月，德军已无力抵挡协约国坦克、步兵与炮兵协同的诸兵种合成攻势。

How Germany's World War I Stormtroopers Became Human Tanks
In a nutshell rather than the foolish and stupid human wave attacks that slaughtered thousands of soldiers with each attack, I would have adopted and applied the German Infiltration Tactics.
The changes would have required a different TOE with more automatic weapons and flamethrowers. The biggest challenge would have been adjusting the mentality of the high command.

德国一战风暴突击队如何成为“人形坦克”
简而言之，我不会采用每次进攻都导致数千士兵阵亡的愚蠢人海战术，而是会采纳并运用德军的渗透战术。
这一变革需要调整编制装备表（TOE），配备更多自动武器和火焰喷射器，而最大的挑战在于改变高级指挥官的思维定式。

Henrey Bradley
Purveyor of an eclectic kaleidoscope of history

亨利·布拉德利
历史领域的多元内容创作者

I have a cunning plan: I would do exactly what the British Empire did to overcome the stalemate, I would introduce Tanks to the battlefield and terrorise the Germans in their fancy trenches. After all, it worked so well in 1916.
“A plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it, and call it a fox… A fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University.” - Blackadder

我有一个妙计：我会完全效仿大英帝国打破僵局的做法——将坦克投入战场，让躲在坚固战壕里的德军陷入恐慌。毕竟，这种战术在1916年效果显著。
“这计划狡猾得，你给它安条尾巴就能当狐狸使唤……还是一只刚被牛津大学聘为‘狡猾学教授’的狐狸。”——《黑爵士》台词

The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, September 1916, marked the first ever use of Tanks and led to extremely heavy losses for Germany. September was by far the costliest month of WWI in terms of German losses: over 130,000 casualties in a single month at the Battle of the Somme.
The revolutionary British tanks and combined arms were responsible for a series of successful allied offensives, with British, French, New Zealanders and Canadians operating together and breaking the stalemate, repeatedly.

1916年9月的弗勒斯-库尔塞勒战役，标志着坦克首次登上战争舞台，德军在此战中遭受惨重损失。就德军伤亡而言，9月是一战中代价最为高昂的一个月：仅索姆河战役中，德军单月伤亡就超过13万人。
具有革命性意义的英国坦克及诸兵种协同战术，助力协约国取得了一系列进攻胜利。英军、法军、新西兰军和加拿大军联合作战，多次打破战场僵局。

“My blood froze in my veins. Crawling along the cratered battlefield were two mysterious monsters. The monsters approached slowly – limping, staggering, swaying – but no obstacle could stop them. They moved ever forward with a supernatural force. Our machine-gun fire and hand grenades simply bounced off them. They were thus able to easily destroy our crews in the forward shell-holes, then run straight through the German front line and off into the village of Flers, where they stayed for some time. The British infantry which had followed them took possession of the village, and the machines drove off down the Ligny-Tilloy road.” - German war correspondent.

“我瞬间浑身冰冷。在弹坑密布的战场上，两个神秘的怪物正在缓缓爬行。它们步履蹒跚、摇摇晃晃地靠近，但任何障碍都无法阻挡它们前进的脚步。它们仿佛拥有超自然的力量，一往无前。我们的机枪子弹和手榴弹打在它们身上，都只是弹开而已。就这样，它们轻易消灭了我们在前沿弹坑里的作战人员，然后径直冲破德军前线，驶入弗勒斯村，在那里停留了一段时间。紧随其后的英军步兵占领了村庄，而那些钢铁巨兽则沿着利尼-蒂卢瓦公路扬长而去。”——德国战地记者报道

The Tank was the weapon that broke the German lines, shattering the stalemate in the Great War and utterly revolutionising modern warfare.

坦克正是那个突破德军防线、打破一战僵局，并彻底革新现代战争模式的武器。

“It was a complete and utter surprise to the Germans that we ever had devised such a thing as a tank. They were so shattered when they first appeared on the Somme. But it took us by surprise, the success of the tanks, and we were so ill-prepared that nobody followed them up.” - British officer Monty Cleeves, Battle of Somme.

“我们能造出坦克这种武器，对德国人来说完全是猝不及防。它们首次出现在索姆河战场时，德军彻底慌了神。但坦克的成功也出乎我们的意料，我们完全没有准备，以至于没有部队及时跟进扩大战果。”——英军军官蒙蒂·克利夫斯（索姆河战役亲历者）

The British and French manufactured thousands of tanks of various designs and experimented extensively with armoured warfare in WWI… The Germans only built 20 tanks throughout WWI, massive 18 man behemoths prone to getting stuck in the mud.
Ultimately, the heavy losses Germany sustained battling tanks at the Somme included many of the finest German troops and these decimated formations were compounded by the crippling success of the Royal Navy blockade. Germany simply didn't stand a chance.

一战期间，英法两国制造了数千辆不同型号的坦克，并广泛试验装甲作战战术……而德军在整个一战中仅制造了20辆坦克，这些重达数吨的庞然大物需要18人操作，还极易陷入泥泞。
最终，德军在索姆河战役中与坦克作战时损失惨重，大量精锐部队折损，而英国皇家海军的封锁又进一步加剧了德军的困境。德国根本没有胜算。

Baz Barović
British Army Staff Sergeant (Ret) interests Mil history

巴兹·巴罗维奇
英国陆军退役上士，军事历史爱好者

Napoleon Bonaparte said: “The best generals are those who have served in the artillery.” - David Lloyd George was Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1916. He had many arguments with General Douglas Haig, (later Field Marshal) and the other commanders in military tactics. Lloyd George, in his War Memoirs, was critical in the way the war had been conducted. However, General Douglas Haig commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces since the previous December had a huge scale of problems to face. However, as the war continued, Haig and other commanders learnt their lessons for the impressive victories in 1918.

拿破仑·波拿巴曾说：“最优秀的将军都曾服役于炮兵部队。”1916年，大卫·劳合·乔治担任英国首相，他与道格拉斯·黑格将军（后来晋升为陆军元帅）及其他指挥官在战术上多次发生争执。劳合·乔治在其战争回忆录中，对当时的战争指挥方式提出了尖锐批评。不过，自前一年12月起担任英国远征军总司令的黑格将军，当时面临着诸多棘手问题。随着战争推进，黑格和其他指挥官吸取教训，为1918年协约国取得辉煌胜利奠定了基础。

General Haig wanted to attack north, the French at Verdun, needed the British to come to their aid. And as a result, it leads to rushed planning for the Battle of the Somme.
How I'd try breaking the deadlock of trench warfare, (hindsight is wonderful) is to coordinate different British army unit elements, enabling them to work together effectively, and in doing so won the Battle of the Somme.

黑格将军原本计划向北进攻，但在凡尔登作战的法军急需英军支援，这直接导致索姆河战役的计划制定十分仓促。
如果让我来打破堑壕战的僵局（事后诸葛亮总是容易的），我会协调英军各作战单元，让它们高效协同作战，从而赢得索姆河战役。

The British High Command was guilty of being over-optimistic, speculating that the British artillery barrage would be able to neutralise the German lines. After gaining as much intelligence as possible, (dugouts, barbed wire, artillery positions, etc.) through raiding parties, Royal Flying Corps (RFC). I'd look at the following:
The concentration of the Royal Artillery's Guns by co-locating them so that they could concentrate their fire against strategical important defences.

英军总司令部过于乐观，错误地认为英军的炮火覆盖能够彻底压制德军防线。我会先通过突袭部队和皇家飞行队，尽可能搜集德军防御情报（包括掩体位置、铁丝网布局、炮兵阵地等），然后重点推进以下几项工作：
将皇家炮兵部队的火炮集中部署，以便对战略要地的防御工事实施集中火力打击。

The RFC is to observe if the artillery is affecting German barbed wire during the five-day artillery bombardment.
The correct artillery ammunition used against dugouts and barbed wire: High Explosive.
The location of German artillery a priority. The RFC/Sound Ranging.

在为期五天的炮火轰炸期间，由皇家飞行队侦察炮火对德军铁丝网的破坏效果。
针对德军掩体和铁丝网，使用正确的炮弹类型：高爆弹。
将定位德军炮兵阵地作为首要任务，由皇家飞行队和声波测距部队负责执行。

Although the tactic of a creeping barrage used at the Battle of the Somme wasn't mastered, it could have been. This tactic required precise timing by both the artillery and the infantry; as the artillery fire moves, in stages, the infantry advances. For this capability to work the placement of a designated local commander in Command and Control for the coordination of artillery and the infantry.

尽管索姆河战役中使用的徐进弹幕战术尚未成熟，但本可以做到尽善尽美。这种战术要求炮兵和步兵严格把控时间节点：炮火逐步向前延伸，步兵同步推进。为确保战术有效实施，需任命专门的前线指挥官，负责协调炮兵与步兵的作战行动。

Across a 15-mile front, the generals expected to make spectacular gains. As the cavalry wait for the orders to advance, the infantry would effortlessly take trenches using his rifle, bayonet, and grenades. However, no plan B if the battle didn't go to plan, thus, inflexible. I'd allow the ability of commanders down the food-chain to change or adapt to planning if the circumstances dictated.

在15英里的战线上，将军们期望取得辉煌战果。他们设想骑兵待命出击，步兵仅凭步枪、刺刀和手榴弹就能轻松夺取战壕。但这种计划缺乏灵活性，一旦战局偏离预期，便没有备选方案。我会赋予下级指挥官根据战场实际情况调整作战计划的自主权。

In conclusion, I'd hope that the French at Verdun is relieved, (the Germans couldn't counter-attack at the Somme because of Verdun) and end the deadlock of trench warfare once the cavalry and tanks are unleashed.

总而言之，我希望通过这些举措缓解凡尔登法军的压力（德军因凡尔登战役无法在索姆河发动反击），并在投入骑兵和坦克部队后，彻底打破堑壕战的僵局。

Larry Wood
Project Manager (2017–present)

拉里·伍德
项目经理（2017年至今）

As the allies: Defence in dept on steriods and give the German high command what they think they want. Build trench networks 30–50 miles behind the in the center of the of the front in between in Brittish and French; even thin the defences and use counter intellegence to encourage the German Breakthrough attempt. Give the Germans a whiff of a war of movement, they will rush all reserves into the breach. Given them a reckless 48 hours until they have out streched their supply lines and hit your new line of trenches. Now two flanking assults retake the orginal trenches lost on day one, and destroy the encircled forces.

作为协约国一方，我会采取极致的纵深防御战术，投德军最高统帅部所好。在英法联军防线中部的后方30至50英里处，构建新的堑壕网络；甚至可以故意削弱前沿防御，通过反情报手段引诱德军发动突破攻势。让德军以为有机可乘，重拾机动作战的幻想，他们就会把所有预备队投入突破口。给他们48小时的时间，等其补给线过度延伸，再依托新的堑壕防线发起反击。此时，从两翼发动突击，夺回第一天丢失的原有阵地，歼灭被包围的德军部队。

As entante: Bet it all on spycraft and counter intel and try to start anti-colonial uprisings. After all WWI was not a whole lot more than an imperial mob war; factions trying to squeeze each other out of African/Asia/Paciffic “protection” rackets. Make things too bad for business and war becomes to expensive to maintain. Plus mutanies of Irish/Senigalise/Indian/Algerian troops could give them a tactical advantange

作为协约国，我还会孤注一掷地运用谍报和反情报手段，策动殖民地的反殖民起义。毕竟，一战本质上不过是一场帝国主义列强的混战，各方都想把对手挤出在非洲、亚洲和太平洋地区的“保护国”利益圈。只要让战争变得无利可图，其维持成本就会高到难以承受。此外，爱尔兰、塞内加尔、印度和阿尔及利亚等殖民地部队的哗变，也能为协约国创造战术优势。

Alex Dunn
Infj, chemistry student, outdoors lover.

亚历克斯·邓恩
调停者型人格，化学专业学生，户外运动爱好者

I would concentrate on fighting in theatres outside of France. Attacking the Ottoman empire and force them into a seperate truce. When they are forced outside of the war, concentrate on the smaller powers allied with the germans. Over the course of time, the force ratio will swing heavily in favor of the British and French. Eventualy the Germans will realize the issue of their allies dropping and make the necesary arrangements to prevent further allies dropping. While the German allies are being destroyed, I could destroy the German navy by means of the British navy and eventually destroy their naval facilities with artilery bombardment and prevent them from building naval assets. As soon as naval supremacy had been accomplished, an amphibious assault into Germany and accupy a portion of their land and bring the Germans into a negotiated peace.

我会将作战重心转移到法国以外的战场。首先进攻奥斯曼帝国，迫使他们单独签订停战协议。在奥斯曼帝国退出战争后，集中兵力打击德国的其他小盟友。假以时日，兵力对比将大幅向英法联军倾斜。最终，德军会意识到盟友接连倒戈的严重性，不得不采取措施防止更多盟友退出。在消灭德国盟友的同时，我会依托英国海军摧毁德国海军，最终通过炮火轰炸破坏其海军设施，阻止其建造新的海军装备。一旦取得制海权，立即发起对德国的两栖登陆作战，占领其部分领土，迫使德国接受谈判和平。

Neil Wells
Studied at Poorly educated but more knowable than modern day humanty graduates!

尼尔·威尔斯
学历不高，但比当今人文专业毕业生更有见识！

I assume that Company Commander Jim Phipps is another German admiring American. If the Stoßtrupp were so good then why did they fail a year and a half or so later in the spring of 1918.

我猜吉姆·菲普斯连长又是一个崇拜德国的美国人。如果风暴突击队真的那么厉害，为什么在一年半后的1918年春天会遭遇失败？

Yes the British Fifth Army was ill prepared for the tactics, but the Germans still failed! Why? Jim suggest that they should have aimed and captured the Channel Ports. I assume he means the ports near at hand? However they would have failed if they had aimed at those Channel Ports and even captured them, since the “stupid” British were not using the ports near at hand (Dunkirk and Calais), but a ports much further south (le Havre) which was out of reach just in case the Germans tried to capture the other two! Indeed what if the Germans had targeted Dunkirk and Calais and had succeeded in capturing them would that have won the war - NO! Since the British would still have been lix to the French and their supply port of le Havre would have been safe and still in operation.

没错，英军第五集团军确实对这种战术准备不足，但德军最终还是失败了！这是为什么？吉姆认为德军本应瞄准并夺取英吉利海峡沿岸港口。我猜他指的是近在咫尺的敦刻尔克和加来港吧？但即便德军以这些港口为目标并成功占领，他们也终将失败。因为“愚蠢”的英军根本没有使用这两个近距离港口，而是启用了更靠南的勒阿弗尔港——这个港口德军鞭长莫及，正是为防备德军夺取敦刻尔克和加来而准备的！事实上，就算德军以敦刻尔克和加来为目标并成功占领，就能赢得战争吗？答案是不能！因为英军仍能与法军保持联系，而勒阿弗尔补给港会安然无恙，继续运转。

Now if you look at a map - even a modern map - you will quickly see that the attack route for the Germans by aiming at Amiens would if it had been successful would have split the British from the French, but also it was on a direct line to le Havre. If they had captured le Havre they would have isolated the rest of the British Army to the north requiring a sort of WW1 version of WW2 Dunkirk to save the rest of the BEF! So perhaps the German high command were not so “stupid” after all?

现在，如果你看一下地图——哪怕是现代地图——你很快就会发现，德军瞄准亚眠的进攻路线，一旦成功，不仅能将英军与法军分割开来，还能直指勒阿弗尔港。如果他们占领了勒阿弗尔，就能将北部的英军主力孤立，迫使英军进行一场一战版的敦刻尔克大撤退，才能拯救剩余的英国远征军！如此看来，德军最高统帅部或许并没有那么“愚蠢”？

The main reason among a lot of reasons for the 1918 German failure was the huge loses in man power, loses that they could not replace.
The basic mistake here is to assume that the German with “1918” offensive tactics could defeat the British using “1916” defensive tactics. For every British attack in 1916 the Germans lunched a counterattack and the Germans were using an early form of Blitzkrieg in 1916, but their loses were almost as great as the British.

1918年德军失败的原因有很多，其中最主要的是巨大的人员伤亡，而这些损失他们根本无法弥补。
这里的根本错误在于，有人认为德军用1918年的进攻战术，就能击败仍采用1916年防御战术的英军。1916年，英军每发动一次进攻，德军都会发起反击，而且当时德军已经在使用早期形式的闪电战，但他们的伤亡人数几乎与英军相当。

In the autumn (fall) of 1916 the British had produce the first tank. They had a light machine gun (the American Lewis) which was used more like an assault rifle than a machine gun. They had the Stoke mortar, and the Mills bomb. They had the aeroplane. What the British lacked was the combine arms tactics which they developed over the next two years so that by the autumn of 1918 they proved to be a winner.

1916年秋，英军造出了第一辆坦克。他们拥有刘易斯轻机枪，这种武器的使用方式更像是突击步枪而非机枪；他们还有斯托克迫击炮和米尔斯手榴弹，以及作战飞机。当时英军所欠缺的，是诸兵种协同战术——而这种战术在接下来的两年里逐步成型，到1918年秋，这套战术被证明是制胜关键。

It does not matter how good Stoßtrupp tactics were and how brave the Stoßtrupp were; the results was always going to be the same - ending in a lot of casualties. Using firepower, tanks and aircraft and not the bodies of brave men would eventually win the war.

无论风暴突击队的战术多么精妙，队员多么英勇，结果都注定是一样的——造成大量伤亡。最终赢得战争的，必然是火力、坦克和飞机的协同作战，而非依靠士兵的血肉之躯。

If the British could have combined all the above weapons and developed the combine arms tactics in 1916 then it is possible that the war could have been won in 1916 by the British, but there again the Germans would have been developing their own counter tactics…

如果英军能在1916年就将上述所有武器整合起来，并形成诸兵种协同战术，那么英军有可能在1916年就赢得战争。但反过来，德军也会相应地发展他们的反制战术……

Ronald Kimmons
Independent Novelist (2022–present)

罗纳德·基蒙斯
独立小说家（2022年至今）

Tanks.
The first use of tanks by the British was a stunning success.
Well…no, it wasn't, but it almost was, and it should have been.
The first tanks were plenty powerful enough to render trench warfare obsolete. The problem that the British had was that they were not strategically prepared for implementing tanks.

坦克。
英军首次投入坦克作战，取得了惊人的成功。
好吧……其实并没有，但差一点就成功了，而且本该成功的。
初代坦克的威力足以让堑壕战成为历史。英军的问题在于，他们在战略层面并未做好运用坦克的准备。

When the first tanks were used, they punched through the German lines and kept going - just as they were designed to do. The problem was that they failed to communicate back to the (horse) cavalry that they had been successful. The tanks were only supposed to spearhead the offensive: the calvary were supposed to charge in behind them and seal the deal. Due to lack of communication, they failed to do that.

首批坦克投入使用时，成功突破德军防线并继续推进——完全达到了设计初衷。但问题在于，坦克部队没能及时将突破成功的消息传递给骑兵部队。坦克本应只是进攻的先锋，后续需要骑兵冲锋扩大战果、巩固胜利。但由于通信不畅，骑兵部队未能及时跟进。

So I would help the British to construct a more effective system for communication. Either that or just assure them that the tanks would be successful and instruct them to send in the cavalry after a certain amount of time no matter what.

因此，我会帮助英军建立一套更高效的通信系统。或者退而求其次，直接向他们保证坦克作战必将成功，命令他们无论战况如何，都要在规定时间后派遣骑兵投入战斗。

Bob Smith
Studied at Florida State University

鲍勃·史密斯
曾就读于佛罗里达州立大学

Actually the basic strategy was sound. Hold the Germans and enforce a naval blockade to starve them out. Mistakes were attacking fortified German trenches. Do not do that. Wait them out. Build up your own defensive fortifications. Allied trenches were never as good as German fortifications. Fix that. Even Verdun became a killing ground eventually for Germans once French artillery was ensconced.

实际上，协约国的基本战略是合理的：牵制德军，同时实施海上封锁，从物资上拖垮他们。错误在于主动进攻德军坚固设防的堑壕。这种做法应该杜绝，转而采取坚守待机策略。同时，要加强自身防御工事建设——协约国的堑壕防御水平始终不如德军，这一点必须改进。就连凡尔登战场，在法军炮兵部署到位后，最终也成为了德军的葬身之地。

The Germans messed up by using unrestricted submarine warfare because they were the ones who would not survive the status quo.

德军的失误在于发动无限制潜艇战，因为他们才是那个无法承受现状的一方。

John Bard
Dabble, mainly in anglosaxon and Roman history.

约翰·巴德
涉猎广泛，主要研究盎格鲁-撒克逊与罗马历史

Maintain a Naval blockade that would starve Germany in to a series of increasingly hopeless and desperate attacks by 1918, which would destroy it’s remaining ability to prosecute the war, then with my French and Belgian allies launch a counter-attack that throws the Germans back in complete disarray and forces them, along with the aforementioned starvation, to the table by November at the latest.
Which, oddly enough, is precisely what the British Empire did.

我会持续实施海上封锁，迫使德国在1918年发起一系列愈发绝望的进攻，以此耗尽其残存的作战能力。随后，联合法国和比利时盟友发起反击，将德军彻底击溃，使其陷入混乱。再加上物资匮乏的压力，最迟在11月就能迫使德国坐到谈判桌前。
说来也奇怪，这正是大英帝国当年采取的策略。

Graham Troy
Lives in North Carolina

格雷厄姆·特洛伊
居住于北卡罗来纳州

Who am I doing it for? What nation?

我是为哪个国家制定策略？

Likely a combination would be the best doctrine. Stormtrooper tactics, creeping bombardments, infiltration, air surpirority, and lots of tanks and if possible APCs. Artillery was the big killer, so proper usage of it and neutralization of enemy artillery is the name of the game.

最有效的策略应该是多种战术结合。比如风暴突击队战术、徐进弹幕射击、渗透作战、夺取制空权，再投入大量坦克，如有可能还可使用装甲运兵车。炮兵是一战中的主要杀伤武器，因此合理运用己方炮兵、压制敌方炮兵是制胜关键。

Once that occurs, Tanks and APCs come into their own through speed and enough armor to protect troops from enemy fire.
The issue is this would take some technological progress. Hopefully, if I can tell my engineers about the pitfalls and what I am looking for, we can get to equivalents of the FT-17 and Mark IX pretty fast o;the ground, and a combination of the Fokker DVII and the BE5a for domination of the skies.

一旦达成上述条件，坦克和装甲运兵车就能凭借速度和防护优势发挥作用，保护部队免受敌军火力打击。
但问题在于，这需要一定的技术突破。希望我能向工程师们说明技术难点和研发目标，这样我们就能快速研发出相当于FT-17轻型坦克和马克IX型坦克的地面装备，同时研发出福克D.VII战斗机和BE5a侦察机的组合机型，夺取制空权。