Blitzkrieg

    

    The term "blitzkrieg" refers to an offensive tactic that strikes the opponent with a concentrated quick blow using maneuverable forces like armored tanks and air support. A quick victory from such an assault would minimize the loss of troops and artillery.  

Blitzkrieg refers to the effective strategies utilized by Nazi Germany in the early stages of World War Two, when German troops invaded Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France with incredible speed and power. It was also called as 'Lightning War' ,a offensive warfare responsible for Nazi Germany’s military successes in the early years of the Second World War.

     In the aftermath of their loss in World War I, German military officials believed that a lack of mobile, maneuverable troops and adaptable tactics had caused that fight to bog down in the fatal attrition of trench warfare. As a consequence, while France concentrated its resources between the wars on building up its defensive barrier, known as the Maginot Line, the Germans opted to prepare for a shorter struggle won via tactical exercises, rather than in the trenches. 

This concentration on mobile warfare was partially a reaction to Germany’s comparatively restricted military resources and personnel, after the strictures placed on it by the Treaty of Versailles. Once Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and made plain his goal to rearm the country, he backed younger commanders like Heinz Guderian, who advocated for the need of both tanks and aviation in this mobile approach to combat. The last part of an offensive operation was the destruction of un-subdued pockets of resistance, which had been enveloped earlier and by-passed by the fast-moving armored and motorized spearheads. 

    German forces adopted several tactics connected with blitzkrieg in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the invasion of Poland in 1939, notably combined air-ground strikes and the use of Panzer tank divisions to quickly crush the inadequately prepared Polish army. But in April 1940, Germany attacked neutral Norway, taking the city, Oslo, and the country’s principal ports with a series of surprise attacks. In May 1940 came Germany’s invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands and France, during which the the Wehrmacht (German army) employed the combined power of tanks, mobile infantry and artillery troops to advance through the Ardennes Forest and quickly through the Allied lines. The Germans pushed through northern France and toward the English Channel, bombing London and other cities while forcing the British Expeditionary Force into a pocket around Dunkirk, with the help of close air support from the Luftwaffe (German air force) and the advantage of radio communications to help in coordinating strategy. The French army had disintegrated by the end of June, and the country requested peace with Germany.

                                                                                         

    German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 using blitzkrieg tactics once more, hoping for a quick battle similar to the one they had in Western Europe the spring before. However, the plan did not work as effectively against the well-prepared and well-organized Soviet defenses, and by 1943, Germany had been compelled to fight on all fronts on the defensive.

    After blitzkrieg failed in the Soviet invasion, however, Hitler and German military leaders distanced themselves from the concept, claiming it was an invention of their enemies; Hitler himself denied he had ever used the word.

sources:

>https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/The-end-of-the-German-war

>https://www.history.com/news/how-did-the-nazis-really-lose-world-war-ii

>https://2worldwar2.com/blitzkrieg.htm

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzkrieg

>http://www.longwood.edu/staff/hardinds/blitzkrieg.html

>https://youtu.be/6yOPih9zRNs

>https://youtu.be/36UrLDiTLvU

Photos Collected from:

>https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/205/adolf-hitler-in-paris/

>https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/The-end-of-the-German-war

>https://www.history.com/news/wwi-kaiser-wilhelm-war-crimes-leipzig-trial

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yOPih9zRNs&t=1s

>https://2worldwar2.com/blitzkrieg.htm

>https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/germany/1940-09-01/blitzkrieg