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Assault Battalion No

Assault Battalion No. 5 (Rohr) was a Stosstruppen infantry battalion of the Imperial German Army that existed from 1915 to 1919. The battalion was named for its commander, Captain Willy Rohr, and the battalion evolved from a combat engineer detachment of the 8th Army Corps into the first incorporated German assault battalion. The detachment formed the vanguard of the first German offensive at the Battle of Verdun, easily taking the first French trench and suffering heavy losses during the attack on the second trench. The unit was expanded to battalion size and became a driving force int he adoption of Stosstrupp tactics among the German Army. In October 1918, the battalion was sent to guard Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany as he evacuated Berlin amid a brewing revolution, and the battalion was demobilized near Schwelm after the war's end. The stormtroopers found themselves with no military position after the military was reduced to 100,000 men, and many stormtroopers would later join the Black Reichswehr and other paramilitary organizations during the Weimar era.

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