Blitzkrieg

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Blitzkrieg (German: "lightning war") is a method of fast-moving, air-and-land warfare first used extensively during World War II. German armies invading Poland in 1939 used tanks, armored trucks, self-propelled guns, and dive bombers to break through opposing forces and penetrate far behind their lines. During the invasion of the Low Countries and France in 1940, the German armored columns again used these tactics to shock and disorganize the defenders. On the Allied side, U.S. general George S. Patton exhibited (1944) particular skill in mobile warfare in Europe.

In a blitzkrieg, tanks and troop-transport vehicles were concentrated, and massive attacks by dive bombers were conducted on enemy front-line positions. When these forces had broken through, they continued deep into enemy territory, encircling and cutting off the enemy. The techniques were first developed by the German army late in World War I in an effort to overcome static trench warfare, but the Germans lacked the mobility to succeed. Between the wars, armored tactics were further developed by Basil Liddell Hart and J. F. C. Fuller in Britain, Charles de Gaulle in France, and Heinz Guderian in Germany. Made chief of German mobile troops in 1938, Guderian led the drive across France in 1940. Bibliography: Corum, J. S., The Roots of Blitzkrieg (1992); Kaufmann, J. E. and H. W., Hitler's Blitzkrieg Campaign (1993).

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