BlitzkriegBlitzkrieg

By Sofia Berman and Laura Weiss2/07

World History 6o

What is Blitzkrieg?

• “lightning war”• German military strategy • Surprise attack by land, sea, and air• Prevented the enemy to prepare their defense• Not used before 1940

History of Blitzkrieg

• Initially invented by Alfred von Schlieffen• “war of manoeuvre”, 1914• Heinz Guderian, innovator• Based on tanks, mechanical artillery• Allow outnumbered German army to outfight

opponents

Development of the Strategy

• Guderian’s pamphlet about blitzkrieg got into the hands of Hitler

• During WWI, applied Schlieffen’s ideas by decentralizing command and increasing power of infantry

• After WWI defeat, reshaping army

•New doctrine proposed in 1921

• Blitzkrieg of 1940 was just German doctrine of 1914 with more technology

Technology of Blitzkrieg

• Used tank and dive-bomber, to create blitzkrieg

• based more on ideas than technology

•Enabled by modern machines

Situations Where Blitzkrieg Was Successful

• On September 1, 1939, Poland was invaded and taken over by Hitler on the same day as Czech….

• March 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrendered immediately, and Norway a few months later. In May of 1940, Germany invaded France, Belgium and Holland.

• France was diminished very quickly by Germans tanks and other technology. After the fall of France, Belgium and Holland soon followed at the end of May.

• Paris was also quickly taken over a few weeks after France, Belgium and Holland.

Situations When Blitzkrieg Warfare

Failed • The preparation for Britain’s invasion began. Britain was

never fully taken over.• April 1941, German forces attacked Greece and

Yugoslavia.• 1941, Hitler entered Russia beginning his take over. Which

fought back later on in 1944 by killing, wounding, or capturing 350,000 German soldiers.

• Early 1943, Germany surrendered at Stalingrad which was a major defeat of Hitler’s armies.

• In 1943 Germany started its invasion of Italy, which was proven to be slow and somewhat costly.

French Maginot Line • An underground way of Polish armies to defend their borders

against Germany. • All of Poland’s borders were covered with Polish soldiers to

prevent an invasion of Germany. The only area that was not covered was the forest next to the Maginot line. Poland did not think that Germany would be able to get through it, so they didn’t put soldiers there.

• Germany knew that the forest was the only place with no soldiers. They ran their tanks through the forest, over Poland’s borders.

• After the invasion and after the 18 days of bombing back and forth, Polish forces finally surrendered.

• Poland became the first battleground of World War II.

Bibliography

• “Blitzkrieg”, History Learning Site, http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/blitzkrieg.htm

• “Blitzkrieg”, BBC Online, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/blitzkrieg_04.shtml

• Doughty, Colonel Robert. “The Myth of Blitzkrieg”, http://web.mit.edu/ssp/fall98/doughty.htm, October 14, 1998.