Musical Stormtroopers

An appreciation

German raiding party move through a communications trench (September 1917) (US National Archives)

Sabaton makes martial music. To be more specific, since 2008, the Swedish power metal band has performed songs, invariably of its own composition, that tell tales drawn from the annals of military history.

Many of these songs celebrate events. Thus, we have The Winged Hussars (about the charged that ended the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683); Forty to One (about the Polish defenders of Wizna in September of 1939), and (my personal favorite) The Last Stand (about the self-sacrifice of the Swiss Guards during the sack of Rome in 1527). Other numbers showcase particular personalities. Such is the case with Carolus Rex, a splendidly pathetic (in the original sense of that word) exploration of inner life of warrior king Charles XII.

Every once in a while, Sabaton will also come out with a song about a particular type of soldier. Thus, we get both The Royal Guards (about the Swedish Life Guard Regiment) and the subject of this piece, Stormtroopers.

Years ago, when the world was young, I cut my authorial teeth on a book called Storm Troop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914-1918. You can thus imagine the delight I felt when I discovered that the lyrics Stormtroopers featured many of the observations that I had made in my book. (These include the importance of short but intense artillery bombardments, the contribution made by combat engineers, and the degree to which the stormtroopers borrowed from the Jäger tradition.) I was particularly pleased to see the writers of the song mention the connection between the new methods of fighting developed in the First World War and the Blitzkrieg of the Second.¹

A glimpse of the future, new tactics in war
New doctrine in combat explored
As fast as lightning, there’s no time to mourn
A glimpse of the future and Blitzkrieg is born

For Further Reading:

Articles about Elite Assault Units

Making the Most of The Tactical Notebook

1. Rather than emerging from the German military tradition, the term Blitzkrieg arises from a back translation, coined by American journalists, of a phrase employed by emigré economist Fritz Sternberg in Germany and a Lighting War (London: Faber and Faber, 1938).