Assault engineering sapper brigade reserves of the supreme high command of the Red Army were formed in the spring of 1943 and had to solve a certain range of tasks that resulted from the increased offensive activity of the Red Army. Sappers-stormtroopers were massively armed with automatic weapons and flamethrowers, anti-tank guns, sniper rifles, a large number of grenades and explosives. The soldiers were supposed to wear special protective steel breastplates that could withstand shell fragments and pistol bullets. Because of them, stormtroopers were called “armored infantry” or “cuirassiers”. The baptism of fire of the newly created assault engineer-sapper brigades took place in the summer of 1943 on several fronts. One of the first to go into battle on the Leningrad front section of the 13th sappers-stormtroopers, the initial stage of the combat path of which was the subject of research by the author of this article. Before that, this historical story was not dedicated to any work. The brigade's debut on the Leningrad front may be considered a failure: the brigade suffered heavy losses, while it failed to achieve any significant success. The reason for this is seen in the fact that the team composition of assault engineer brigade and the command of the 67th army of the Leningrad front in which interests acted brigade, had clear ideas about the combat capabilities of the brigade and about using this formation in battle. Understanding of the tactics of the assault engineer-sapper brigades in the battle was not developed immediately. Only in December 1943 the order of their combat use was finally and clearly defined.