Strategy

** The Blitzkrieg **

When Hitler was starting his plans to invade Europe, he had to think of a strategy plan or all he worked for would go to waste. Hitler could not just send his troops in and hope to win the war. Hitler had to come up with a strategy plan that his adversaries would not expect, would not be able to counter, and w ould cause terror and confusion. // "Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future." - Adolf Hitler //

When Hitler was planning he came up with the idea to use the Blitzkrieg strategy. The Blitzkrieg was a strategy in which all of the branches of military in Hitler’s army would do a joint operation to take down the enemy as fast as possible. This is where the strategy got its name, the Blitzkrieg, which is known as “The Lightning Attack”, from the speed required to pull of the strategy. The strategy was to use the German air force and artillery to soften up the enemy lines, then the tank and infantry divisions would sweep in and break through the enemy’s weakened line. The enemy would either be caught off guard and the defense force would be destroyed before it could even be formed together or the defense force would be so overwhelmed by being bombed and shelled by artillery, planes, mortars and tanks then German soldiers that they would be crushed. Hitler was an impatient man, and this was one of his favorite strategies as it was fast and efficient in the opening years of the war. When Hitler was on his campaign against Poland and France, the Blitzkrieg absolutely demolished the Polish and French lines. This is mainly because the Polish and French were not as well armed as some other world powers and were not as capable to defend themselves. This gave Hitler a false sense of security about the strategy and its strength. As the war progressed to involve more and more world powers, such as America and Britain, Blitzkrieg flaws were shown and the strategy was soon broken. Since the strategy requires a well coordinated attack from every single division, removing one of these or stopping one or more of these divisions would hinder the Blitzkrieg success rate greatly. We see the factor of stopping multiple divisions ruins the strategy when America enters the war on Britain’s side. Both Britain’s and America’s forces had the air superiority. So when Germany tried to implement the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, they would not be successful due to the fact of the lack of air superiority and would soon be obliterated by allied anti-air and allied planes. Britain and America also had large divisions dedicated as anti-tank squads. These squads were able to pulverize the German armor stopping the German’s greatest strength in th4e Blitzkrieg.

(Wikipedia Article on The Blitzkrieg [|Here])

The world first saw the weakness as Hitler invaded Russia and was not able to implement some of the tactics of the Blitzkrieg due to the terrain. Then during the invasion of Normandy, and when the allies pushed forward in France, the tactic was proven time and again as not successful and the Blitzkrieg strategy was soon crushed by the overwhelming allied powers. Unfortunately for Hitler, his plan for to take over Europe depended highly on the success rate of the Blitzkrieg. His strategy to invade Europe was to have short wars, fast with countries in Europe by implementing the Blitzkrieg tactic. Then after each short war he would re-supply and recover from any losses from the war then strike again. This way the German forces were always at their strongest and fighting at full capacity. This tactic stopped by the allied forces pressing the attack early in the war so Hitler could not use the strategy to its full potential. (Essay on the Blitzkrieg [|Here])