![]() Was Blitzkrieg Truly a New Form of Warfare? But the strategy proved less successful against the highly organized and well-armed Soviet defenses, and by 1943 Germany had been forced into a defensive war on all fronts. In 1941, German forces again employed blitzkrieg tactics in their invasion of the Soviet Union, expecting a short campaign like the one they had enjoyed in Western Europe the previous spring. By the end of June, the French army had collapsed, and the nation sued for peace with Germany. With close air support from the Luftwaffe (German air force) and the benefit of radio communications to aid in coordinating strategy, the Germans blazed through northern France and toward the English Channel, bombing London and other cities while pushing the British Expeditionary Force into a pocket around Dunkirk. In May 1940 came Germany’s invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands and France, during which the the Wehrmacht (German army) used the combined force of tanks, mobile infantry and artillery troops to drive through the Ardennes Forest and quickly penetrated the Allied defenses. Then in April 1940, Germany invaded neutral Norway, seizing the capital, Oslo, and the country’s main ports with a series of surprise attacks. German forces employed some tactics associated with blitzkrieg in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the invasion of Poland in 1939, including combined air-ground attacks and the use of Panzer tank divisions to quickly crush the poorly equipped Polish troops. WATCH VIDEO: The Battle of Britain Uses in World War II After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and made clear his intention to rearm the nation, he encouraged younger commanders like Heinz Guderian, who argued for the importance of both tanks and aircraft in this mobile approach to warfare. This focus on mobile warfare was partly a response to Germany’s relatively limited military resources and manpower, following the strictures imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles. In the wake of their defeat in World War I, German military leaders determined that a lack of mobile, maneuverable forces and flexible tactics had led that conflict to bog down in the deadly attrition of trench warfare.Īs a result, while France focused its efforts between the wars on building up its defensive border, known as the Maginot Line, the Germans decided to prepare for a shorter conflict won through military maneuvers, rather than in the trenches. Clausewitz proposed the “concentration principle,” the idea that concentrating forces against an enemy, and making a single blow against a carefully chosen target (the Schwerpunkt, or “center of gravity”) was more effective than dispersing those forces. The reason for Hitler's spectacular early success in WWII was a brazen new style of warfare known as Blitzkrieg, a combination of the German words for “lightning” ( blitz) and “war” ( krieg) coined by Western journalists who were floored by the speed and ferocity of the Nazi attack.Blitzkrieg-which means “lightning war” in German-had its roots in earlier military strategy, including the influential work of the 19th-century Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz. ![]() ![]() It relied on the speed and surprise of highly mobile units. How to Blitzkrieg: Definition & Significance | StudySmarterīlitzkrieg Birth of the USA American Costitution American Independence War Causes of the American Revlution Democratic Repblican Party Genral Thomas Gage biography Intolerable Acts Loyalists Powers of the Presdent Quebec Act Seven Years' War Stmp Act Tea Party Cod War Battle of Dien Bien Phu Brezhnev Doctrine Brezhnev Era Cod War.īlitzkrieg was amlitary tactic used by the German am in WW2. ![]() Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns.īlitzkrieg, (German: “lightning war”) Military tactic used by Germany in World War II, designed to create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy forces through the use of surprise, speed, and superiority in matériel or firepower. “Blitzkrieg,” a German word meaning “Lightning War,” was Germany’s strategy to avoid a long war in the first phase of World War II in Europe. krieg ˈblits-ˌkrēg Synonyms of blitzkrieg 1 : war conducted with great speed and force specifically : a violent surprise offensive by massed air forces and mechanized ground forces in close coordination 2 : blitz sense 2a blitzkrieg transitive verb Synonyms barrage blitz bombardment cannonade drumbeat drumfire flurry fusillade hail.People Also Read: Morris Residual Class Settlement: A Comprehensive Guide What is Blitzkrieg Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster
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