In the beginning of spring 1943 after Stalingrad Operation the strategic initiative was in the hands of Red Army but after German´s counter offensive near Charkov STAVKA realized that the war was not won and it was necessary to carry out changes in the tactic of fighting units.

Soviet infantry although fought bravely was not able to achieve the quality of German infantry units. This was a reason why Soviet Headquarters decided to set up the high professional heavy assault infantry (storm or shock troop) which could be able to ensure quantitative and qualitative advantage at the most important parts of the frontline. The first storm troops were established on 30 th may 1943 and the core of these troops were created from regular engineer units. The value of one of these units was at the level of a brigade. After this manner STAVKA formed 15 brigades. All of them were a reserve of the Supreme Military Command of Red Army to use them on breaking the strong defense positions of the enemy. The storm troops were generally equipped by PPSh 41 later PPS 43 submachine guns, Finish attack knives, sniper rifles, anti-tank weapons, light machine guns (DP-27), grenades (RPG-3, F-1, RGD-33) and special inflammable bottles (KS) to destroy defense emplacements of the enemy. During the training the most of time was focused at the close combat, throwing of grenades, passing the obstacles etc. The battle gear consisted of the steel helmet, the sharpened field shovel and the bulletproof chest cuirass. The justness of the cuirass was sustained during huge battles in the cities and towns but in the other cases they were rather put off than ought to be worn by the soldiers. In August 1943 already some storm troops were moved to the frontline. The 1 st Storm Engineer Brigade took part at its first employment near the Area of Spas-Djemenskaja on 10 th August 1943 . The task of the unit was to attack the Hill 233.3 and to capture it. This task was really hard. The hill was heavily fortified, mined and enclosed by obstacles made of the barded wire. The hill was hold by units of Waffen SS in the force of approx. 800 soldiers. The underground of the hill Germans set up warehouses, boarding areas, workshops and even a club. Soviets attacked without artillery bombardment in order not to let out the plan of the attack and to surprise defenders of the hill under the advantage of the dark. The Soviet soldiers who worn bulletproof chest cuirasses caused in the lines of the enemy chaos and a fear because bullets reflected from their bodies and they advanced without serious casualties. The bulletproof cuirass was used with the same effect as during the WWI, once again excellently. After two-hours´ combat Soviet soldiers captured the hill.

In September 1943 the Soviet Headquarters markedly stipulated the system of the usage of storm engineer troops. Brigades were sent to seize or to break the heavily built defensive strong points of the enemy. After realization of these tasks the units were immediately retreated to the tail of the attacking forces to replace them. These units were also used to uncover minefield on the routes of the advance to sweep them and also to build up bridges and roads. In the beginning of 1944 the Soviet Headquarters had available 20 storm engineer brigades. They were used in the important situations and played considerable task within successful attack operations of Red Army at the Eastern Front in this period of time of WWII. During springtime of 1944 the battalions of flame-throwers ROKS-3 were added to all storm brigades. Most of the storm troops were motorized and supplemented by T-34/76, T-34/85 medium tanks and OT-34 flame tanks. At the same time the Soviet Headquarters delivered to storm troops US amphibious vehicles Ford GPA (light) and DUKW (heavy). When Germans started to use the special infantry anti-tank weapons (Panzerfaust and Panzerschrek) these stabbed the eyes of Red Army. Captured anti-tank weapons were collected and then distributed to the storm engineer troops at the frontline. They use these weapons much better than Germans. For instance one unit consists of 10 soldier was able to carry 4 flamethrowers, submachine guns with 12 round magazines for PPSh 41 and 50-80 Panzerfausts which were fired using of a special equipment for shooting 10 Panzerfausts at once. To the place of the combat the unit was transported by the tank or self-propelled gun, which provided the satisfactory support fire. One squad of the engineers had to its disposition 200 kilograms of explosives. In the second part of WWII the storm engineer troops took part in each battle to capture bigger towns of Europe especially in Poland , Hungary and Germany .

After finishing of WWII in Europe the storm troops were detached to fight against Japan . Also there they actively took part in the attack operations of the Red Army. Only in the defensive position near Chajlars they destroyed 50 small bunkers and the other defensive objectives. Units that were serving under Zabajkalsky Front destroyed 755 stronghold emplacements where 301 of them were made of concrete. After WWII was a better part of the storm engineer brigades disbanded.