World Wars: World War II

1. World Wars: World War II Blitzkrieg

2. Blitzkrieg • Blitzkrieg(lightning war) was an innovative and fast-moving type of warfare developed and used effectively by the Germans in World War II.  • Blitzkriegbattle tactics emphasized the use of tanks, aircraft, flexibility,  and mobility to rapidly accomplish battlefield objectives.

3. Blitzkrieg • During the prewar years (Spanish Civil War), Germany perfected the Blitzkrieg (or "lightning" attack). • When World War II broke out, unleashed it on countries who were still preparing for World War I type trench warfare.

4. Blitzkrieg • The Blitzkrieg tactics gave the Germans quick successes even though the total force arrayed against them  was often numerically larger than their own.

5. Blitzkrieg • 1926 leaders of the German Army asked the German government to commission the production of new tanks that would enable them to use Blitzkrieg tactics in any future conflicts.

6. Germany's Blitzkrieg tactics overwhelmed Poland in September 1939, then, after a pause, crushed Denmark, Norway, and the Low Countries in April-May 1940, and finally France in June 1940.

7. Blitzkrieg first appeared in the form of elite infantry units known as “Sturmtruppen”, or Storm Troops, designed to rapidly overrun enemy positions using momentum and speed.

8. Blitzkrieg of Poland, September 1939 • On 1 September 1939, using a manufactured pretext, columns of German forces launched Blitzkrieg across the German-Poland border at more than ten points. • The Germans had about 1 million men against about 600,000 Poles available for active duty. • The Luftwaffe had 3 planes for every Polish aircraft, most of which were destroyed on the ground in the first few days, allowing the Wehrmacht to do its work with little to fear from the air.

9. Blitzkrieg of Poland, September 1939 • The Polish army was rapidly pushed back eastward to a natural line of defense along Poland's rivers, but had little hope of holding out without outside help from Britain and France.

10. Blitzkrieg of Poland, September 1939 • In just over a week, the Germans were at Warsaw and the following week two German army groups moving from the north trapped 170,000 Polish troops at Kutno (100 miles west of Warsaw).

11. Blitzkrieg of Poland, September 1939 • On 17 September 1939, Soviet troops entered Poland from the east, carrying out the pact between Hitler and Stalin, just signed on 23 August.

12. Blitzkrieg of Poland, September 1939 • Poland was crushed between the Red Army moving westward and the Wehrmacht moving east. Although completely surrounded, Warsaw held out heroically until 27 September when, out of food and ammunition, they surrendered.

13. Blitzkrieg of Poland, September 1939 • Germany and the Soviet Union met the next day to set new borders dividing Poland between them.

14. Blitzkrieg in Scandinavia March-April 1940 • The British and French declared war on Germany in September 1939 as a result of the aggression against Poland. • In mid-March 1940 Finland was forced to capitulate to the Soviet Union after a brief but bloody war.

15. Blitzkrieg in Scandinavia March-April 1940 • On 9 April 1940, in a one day campaign, Denmark fell to the Germans, a small country unable to resist directly.

16. Blitzkrieg in Scandinavia March-April 1940 • On the same day, Germany moved against Norwaywith combined operations by the Wehrmacht, Krieg marine, and Luftwaffe.

17. Blitzkrieg in Scandinavia March-April 1940 • With surprise, speed, and daring the Germans defied British Royal Navy patrols along the Norwegian coast, moving shiploads of troops and their supplies directly into Norwegian ports where they quickly disembarked and took up positions.

18. Blitzkrieg in Scandinavia March-April 1940 • The Luftwaffe bombed targets and landed paratroopers across the nation. • Within a few hours all important points of control in Norway were in German hands and by the end of the day German troops occupied government buildings in Oslo. • A puppet government under the traitor Quislingwas installed.

19. Blitzkrieg in Scandinavia March-April 1940 • The British were stunned and surprised by these lightning moves. • They attempted to respond with ill fated raids on Trondheim and Narvik, but the result was disaster. • By 8 June 1940, the British had fully withdrawn from Norway. • Although Norway was humiliation for the Allies, valuable lessons were learned and the danger of Hitler's Germany would no longer be underestimated.

20. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • An assault on the Low Countries -- Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg -- was the essential next step in Hitler's plan to consolidate control of Europe under German rule.

21. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • Having neutralized the Soviet Union, absorbed western Poland, and secured Germany's northern flank, on 10 May 1940 the Wehrmacht rolled across the Dutch border in the now familiar Blitzkrieg fashion.

22. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • German parachutists seized strategic points, dive bombers destroyed the small Dutch air force, and the infantry followed Panzers across the flat land, eliminating any resistance.

23. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • The Hague and Rotterdam fell quickly to airborne troops and the main force took only a few days to penetrate the Dutch interior and link up. • On 14 May 1940 Rotterdam was heavily bombed with estimates of up to one thousand civilian deaths and the heart of the city was destroyed, an atrocity with no military reason.

24. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • The Dutch Royal Family escaped to England and the country surrendered on 15 May 1940, after 5 days of German slaughter.

25. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • Belgium and Luxemburg were attacked on the same day as Holland. • Tiny Luxemburg fell in a few hours. Belgium was able to mount a strong defense, although the result was the same.

26. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • The Blitzkrieg tactics of simultaneous air assault and direct attack on the ground by fast moving armored infantry made a mockery of prepared defenses and Allied plans. • The Belgian fortress of EbenEmael on the Meuse River, reputed to be the most formidable stronghold in the world, fell on 11 May, the second day.

27. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • Allied forces on the Continent moved toward Belgium to assist, but it was far too little, too late. • The Germans pushed through the "impassable" Ardennes and opened a breach in the Allied lines • Within seven days the Germans reached the English Channel, dividing the Allied forces.

28. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • On 28 May as the Belgian Army approached exhaustion, King Leopold asked Germany for an armistice, exposing the British and French troops fighting with Belgium to annihilation.

29. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • In a miraculous operation, every civilian and military craft afloat in Britain was sent to the Channel port of Dunkirk, opposite Dover.

30. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • While the Germans were held at bay by the Royal Navy and a defensive perimeter on land, over 338,000 men -- including 140,000 French and Belgians -- were evacuated to England over a harrowing period of nine days (26 May-3 June).

31. Blitzkrieg of the Low Countries, May 1940 • Although their equipment was lost, the troops lived to fight another day, a moral victory that baffled the Germans who thought the troops were hopelessly trapped.

32. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • From the invasion of Poland (September 1939) into the spring of 1940, France waited behind the mighty Maginot Line with an army that on paper was the strongest in Europe. • During this "Phony War" or"Sitzkrieg" the French hoped they were not on Hitler's list, but were confident they could win if challenged by the Germans.

33. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • Not until the debacle in Belgium did the French wake to the dimensions of their danger. As the battle raged at Dunkirk, the French army formed the defensive Weygand Line opposite the Belgian border, trying to extend the Maginot Line to the west. • The effort was futile.

34. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • On 3 June 1940 Paris was bombed and two days later 100 Wehrmacht divisions attacked furiously at four points, outflanking the static Maginot defenses and overwhelming the pathetic Weygand Line.

35. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • Blitzkrieg came to France with unopposed Luftwaffe dive bombers pounding the French from above while an estimated two thousand panzers roared across the French countryside scattering the disorganized French army and destroying anything in their path.

36. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • The Germans moved too fast for the French to mount effective counterattacks or even to defend any point successfully. • The French army, and then the French population, dissolved into headlong, panic-driven retreat southward, abandoning Paris and other French cities.

37. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • The Luftwaffe bombed and strafed not only the French military, but also these columns of refugees who were defenseless in their traffic jams, leaving French roads littered with corpses.

38. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • On 10 June, Mussolini's Italy took cowardly advantage of the German onslaught to declare war on France and invade through the Riviera with 400,000 troops.

39. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • On 11 June, the French government left Paris to the Germans and fled to Tours and on 14 June German soldiers entered Paris to the horror of its remaining citizens. German victories in the field continued to accumulate until, on 17 June, Marshal Pétainassumed control of the vestigial French government.

40. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • Pétain handed the country over to Hitler at a humiliating ceremony on 22 June 1940, staged by the Germans at Compiegne, on the very spot where Germany had surrendered to the Allies at the end of World War I in 1918.

41. Blitzkrieg of France June, 1940 • Europe lay at Hitler's feet. • Hitler tore up the hated Treaty of Versailles standing in the rail car where Germany was forced to sign the document.

42. Terms, Names, Events • Blitzkreig Spanish Civil War • Sturmtruppen September 1, 1939 • Red Army Wehrmacht • Kreig Marine Luftwaffe • Quisling Dunkirk • Maginot Line Phony War • Weygand Line Marshal Philip Petain