Blitzkrieg
By Sofia Berman and Laura Weiss
2/07
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
• During WWI, applied Schlieffen’s
ideas by decentralizing command
and increasing power of infantry
• After WWI defeat, reshaping army
•New doctrine proposed in 1921
• Guderian’s pamphlet
about blitzkrieg got into
the hands of Hitler
• Blitzkrieg of 1940 was just German
doctrine of 1914 with more
technology
Technology of Blitzkrieg
• Used tank and divebomber, 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/blitzk
rieg_04.shtml
• Doughty, Colonel Robert. “The Myth of Blitzkrieg”,
http://web.mit.edu/ssp/fall98/doughty.htm, October
14, 1998.