Blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” was the tactic of rapid attack with massive numbers of mechanized infantry and tank divisions covered by close air support that enabled the German army to quickly invade and overrun Poland, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and France in the early stages of World War II. Blitzkrieg doctrine was to use highly mechanized armored forces to win quick victories, robbing the enemy of time to mobilize their forces and resources, and thus avoid a war of attrition that Germany was ill prepared to win.
Blitzkrieg tactics were developed from the traditional German military doctrine of encirclement and annihilation, and from the high losses during the static trench warfare during World War I. During the interwar period, the German general staff adopted the idea that tanks should be separated from traditional infantry units and be used with motorized infantry units or operate independently. Tanks could be used to destroy the enemy’s front lines, and then penetrate deep into the rear areas, destroying the enemy’s command and control infrastructure and its will to fight. In theory, the use of mechanized forces in unison with tactical air power would allow movement of some 250 miles per day and devastate the enemy before they could form any resistance.
Europe got its first taste of blitzkrieg warfare on September 1, 1939, when 50 divisions of the German army rolled across the German-Polish border, and Poland surrendered by the end of the month. The true power of blitzkrieg was demonstrated in the spring of 1940. Using amphibious landings, paratroopers, and panzer divisions, the German army swept into Scandinavia in April 1940 with such speed that Denmark surrendered within a few hours and Norway was subdued in a few weeks. Then, on May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Low Countries of Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. Four days later, German forces moved through the Ardennes Forest, north of the useless Maginot line, and pivoted north toward the English Channel, eventually trapping the majority of the Allied army in the port of Dunkirk. The remaining French forces crumbled in front of the German onslaught and France surrendered in less than 40 days from the start of the invasion.
The greatest asset of blitzkrieg proved to be its largest drawback. While blitzkrieg gave the German army the ability to drive large distances over a relatively short period of time, it required huge amounts of supply and support to sustain such long-distance drives. It could not be successful against an enemy that could trade soldiers and space for time, a lesson that Germany would learn from the ultimately disastrous invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
See also World War II European theater.
Further reading: James S. Corum, The Roots of Blitzkrieg: Hans von Seeckt and German Military Reform (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992).
—George Michael Curry
World History
