Kraus, Jürgen Armierungstruppen

Volume 18 of the series Handbook of German Army Units and Troops 19141918 deals with the armouring troops, special construction troops that were responsible for armouring fortresses during the First World War. At the beginning of the war in 1914, civilian workers were initially recruited for this purpose and organised into military formations such as squads, columns and battalions. The demand was enormous in Metz alone, over 20,000 people were employed. After the construction work was completed in autumn 1914, many of these units were disbanded. Due to negative experiences with civilian workers, the army administration created militarily organised fortification battalions consisting of conscripts and volunteers from 1915 onwards. A total of 217 battalions were formed, which were deployed directly on the front lines to construct positions, defensive structures and buildings. Their importance grew as the defensive lines were progressively deepened; in September 1917, around 155,000 soldiers were deployed on the Western Front alone. Despite their great military relevance, the armouring troops remained largely ignored in historical research. Even important works by Hermann Cron and Max Schwarte mention them little or not at all. Only local studies on individual fortresses provided additional information. The presentation in this volume is therefore based almost exclusively on contemporary archival sources in order to document this hitherto neglected branch of the armed forces.