The Blitzkrieg Or Lightening War

Without much warning, on June 22, 1941, Hitler’s German army invaded the Soviet Union, his goal was to destroy communism, and turn a large population of the Soviet Union into slaves. This invasion became the largest force in the whole European history. Joined by the Romanians and Finnish allies, the Nazis destroyed 3.6 million troops and thousands of tanks and planes along the 1,800 miles from the Arctic to the Black sea. At that time, the German armies went through western Russia, destroying and capturing entire Soviet armies. This rounded up to, 3 million captured in the year of 1941.

“This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war, and will, I believe be regarded as an ever famous American victory.” Winston Churchill said these famous lines after the Americans had defeated the Germans in the battle of the bulge. It will forever go down in history as one of the greatest battles ever fought for it sealed up the last German offensive and ultimately caused the fall of berlin and the fall of the Nazis. It was midnight on December 16, 1944 in the Ardennes forest the German forces are about to unleash a last ditch offensive effort on the thinly spread untrained American and allied lines hoping to break thru and retake German territory. The allies were not ready for the German blitzkrieg.

In this essay, the following question will be discussed. Why did the Nazis choose to bomb London instead of the English Airfields, and how did this hurt them strategically? The following evidence and reasoning will discuss why the Nazis decided to take the course of action they did, and how it affected them in their conquest of Europe. The research will primarily be focused on the reasoning, and strategic effects of this decision by the Nazis, but will also discuss how the British used this to their advantage, and eventually won the battle of Britain. All of of the sources to be used in this paper were written far after the Second World War explosively concluded.

One of them being The Battle of Britain. Britain outsmarted the Germans by decoding German messages. Hitler stopped his attacks, shocked by Britain’s resistance. Everyone learned a lesson after this battle. The lesson was that Hitler could be outsmarted and overtaken.

The Battle of Britain was struggling with hard times which meant that the British Royal Air force erupted over Britain between July and October of 1940. The battle happened above Britain. The battle, which was the first major military campaign in history to be fought completely in the air (-www.History.com). Germany wanted to control the flying space in the sky. Many months later, the battle ended with the British Empire winning, and this great victory protected them from the invading Germans who

The Russians were trained to fight in the cold; however the Germans were not as fortunate. Approximately “100,000 cases [of frostbites] were reported by end of 1941, resulting in the amputation of nearly 15,000 limbs” for the Germans (Andrews). The harsh weather did not only cause problems to the German soldiers but also to their weapons. “Tanks and jeeps refused to start, and guns and artillery often froze and failed to fire” (Andrews). This gave the Red Army an advantage, because they were prepared to fight in the winter.

Back in World War One, airplanes were a thought of the future, but they became extremely prominent in World War Two, and essentially ruled the offensive and defensive strategies of the European and Pacific Theater. The Germans were able to defeat many countries through their use of advanced military equipment, as they notoriously demolished France, Belgium, Poland, Norway, and Denmark. Hitler was able to utilize many successful tactics such as the Blitzkrieg and the Sitzkrieg. Those deadly tactics, when combined with the use of airplanes and tanks, was virtually unstoppable. Germany kept advancing its technology until it matched Britain, who was able to consistently match and fend off Germany’s shiny new weapons.

As a result, the Luftwaffe always suffered from shortages of high octane gasoline. German aircraft design was hampered by lack of high octane fuel. Stalingrad was an important assembly point for Soviet forces and needed to be crushed to allow the Germans to capture those six critical oil fields. Unfortunately, Stalingrad became a resource sink that wiped out the German Sixth Army, crippled the 4th Panzer Armee, cost over 5 squadrons of aircraft, over 500 planes, including skilled pilots that were difficult to replace and 270,000 men in the German army and probably 500,000 more in the Romanian and Italian armies. And the necessary oil

In Why the Allies Won, Richard Overy analyzes how the Allies regained military superiority and were able to win the war. The Allies won World War II because a wiser political leadership leveraged, through an adaptive and coordinated strategy, the technological and material superiority, capitalizing on Axis miscalculations and Allied military victories. In the book, the author extensively examines the decisive campaigns: the war at sea, the Eastern

How the T34 Won the War After viewing the German blitzkrieg strategy used in the invasion of Poland, Russia reevaluated its armory in fear of German aggression. Recognizing the German superior tank technology, the Russian authorities commissioned a design for a new tank. Mikhail Koshkin and his team of designers engineered a tank that surpassed expectations (Tucker-Jones). The Soviet engineers designed the T-34 tank to be one of the most versatile tanks of World War II, and its use enabled key victories that enhanced the Soviet Union’s ability to defeat the German aggression. Koshkin and the designers packed the T-34 with many functional design features that made it a great all-round tank.

The Germans were defeated in the Battle of Britain. The Britain`s were at an advantage because they were able to land and re-fuel faster than the German`s could. Giving them more time to attack all the other ships and planes. Germans had limited time before they had to land and fuel up. The Germans were way to close to the fueling station and battling right there causing them to have gas explosions.

https://za.pinterest.com/pin/477803841701945016/ https://www.thinglink.com/scene/756634879264817154 info http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-britain http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/battle_of_britain.php https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Britain-European-history-1940 Battle of Britain tactics In order to invade Britain, the Germans had to have control in the air over the English Channel, otherwise the RAF and the Royal Navy would have been able to destroy their invasion force before it reached the shore. It has been postulated by many naval experts that due to the type of flat-bottomed barge built by the Germans, simply

Clearly, the Allied troops knowledge, planning and deception all played a major role in helping to defeat the German

When they retreated, they destroyed the train tracks used to transport the troops. Russia has also recovered from the war between Russia and Japan. The Germans did not think the Russians were armed well enough at the time because of the Russo Japan war. This really weakened the Schlieffen plan. Also, Britain declared war on Germany because of the treaty in 1839.

While on the other hand the Allied Forces had powerful allies such as the USA which could contribute greater resources of men and materials. Furthermore, the British had put in place a Naval Blockade prevent the passing of cargo of any ships that attempted to pass through, this was very effective and starved much of Germany’s population. Lastly, Germany’s two front with Russia greatly weakened German forces and had larger repercussions later on. Although these are all important causes, the most factor that