In his 1950 book, Panzer Leader, he wrote: In this year, 1929, I became convinced that tanks working on their own or in conjunction with infantry could never achieve decisive importance. Among them, Guderian claimed, was Chief of the General Staff Ludwig Beck (1935–38), whom he alleged was sceptical that armoured forces could be decisive. [a], In 2005, the historian Karl-Heinz Frieser summarized blitzkrieg as the result of German commanders using the latest technology in the most beneficial way according to traditional military principles and employing "the right units in the right place at the right time". Guderian insisted in 1933 to the high command that every tank in the German armoured force must be equipped with a radio. Armoured and motorised units under Guderian, Rommel and others, advanced far beyond the marching and horse-drawn infantry divisions and far in excess of that with which Hitler and the German high command expected or wished. Instead, the purpose of a blitzkrieg is to use ease of movement, shock, and locally concentrated firepower in a skillfully coordinated attack to paralyze the enemy’s ability to coordinate his own defenses. [93], The Germans conquered large areas of the Soviet Union but their failure to destroy the Red Army before the winter of 1941 was a strategic failure that made German tactical superiority and territorial gains irrelevant. When the Allies counter-attacked at Arras using the heavily armoured British Matilda I and Matilda II tanks, a brief panic was created in the German High Command. In fact, it simply doesn’t exist, at least not in the way we usually think it does. Panzer forces were dispersed among the three German concentrations with little emphasis on independent use, being used to create or destroy close pockets of Polish forces and seize operational-depth terrain in support of the largely un-motorized infantry which followed. Le Blitzkrieg [b l i t s k ʁ i ɡ] [1] (de l'allemand : [ˈ b l ɪ t s k ʁ i ː k] [2] Écouter litt. Civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. a really good song that was raped by poeple who dont know who the ramones are but can say the line every one knows Two generals, Debeney on the British right, and Mangin, to his right, began the tactics that were to become famous in 1940 as, 58 percent of prisoners died through neglect, starvation, or other causes associated with. As a result, while France focused its efforts between the wars on building up its defensive border, known as the Maginot Line, the Germans decided to prepare for a shorter conflict won through military maneuvers, rather than in the trenches. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. After the war, the Reichswehr expanded and improved infiltration tactics. [31] Following Germany's defeat, the Treaty of Versailles limited the Reichswehr to a maximum of 100,000 men, making impossible the deployment of mass armies. [146][144], The early 1950s literature transformed blitzkrieg into a historical military doctrine, which carried the signature of Liddell Hart and Guderian. The term blitzkrieg is used with reference to German efforts to win a quick victory in the First World War but is not associated with the use of armoured, mechanised or air forces. [1][2][3] Through the employment of combined arms in manoeuvre warfare, blitzkrieg attempts to unbalance the enemy by making it difficult for it to respond to the continuously changing front, then defeat it in a decisive Vernichtungsschlacht (battle of annihilation). Blitzkrieg comes from the German for lightning warfare and was coined for the Nazi style of swift, overwhelming attack. ), from Proto-Germanic *blikkatjan, from PIE root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn." The surprise attack resulted in the near annihilation of the Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily (VVS, Soviet Air Force) by simultaneous attacks on airfields,[93] allowing the Luftwaffe to achieve total air supremacy over all the battlefields within the first week. to have influenced Heinz Guderian. Paradoxically, from that period onward it became its weakness. [91] That same French army collapsed after barely two months of fighting. The French were hard pressed to organise any sort of counter-attack and were continually ordered to form new defensive lines and found that German forces had already by-passed them and moved on. [60] It was Rommel who created the new archetype of Blitzkrieg, leading his division far ahead of flanking divisions. The bombing was controversial because Dresden was neither important to German wartime production nor a major ...read more, Called “the greatest American battle of the war” by Winston Churchill, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. The French armies were much reduced in strength and the confidence of their commanders shaken. During Operation Barbarossa, huge encirclements in 1941 produced nearly 3.5 million Soviet prisoners, along with masses of equipment. German word for Blitzkrieg and Blitzkrieg translate , translation from english to German www.englishdictionaryonline.org The English for Blitzkrieg is blitzkrieg. English Translation. [120], Historian Victor Davis Hanson states that Blitzkrieg "played on the myth of German technological superiority and industrial dominance," adding that German successes, particularly that of its Panzer divisions were "instead predicated on the poor preparation and morale of Germany's enemies. 2016 war Captain Poon als Gitarrist mit Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg auf Tour. [97] The Red Army had survived enormous losses and regrouped with new formations far to the rear of the front line. [129] Milward's theory was contrary to Hitler's and German planners' intentions. It argued that Germany must develop self-sufficiency in food, because it might again prove impossible to deal a swift knock-out to its enemies, leading to a long war. [32] By the time of the Second World War, their reports had led to doctrinal and training publications, including H. Dv. Such was the Vernichtungsgedanke of the Polish campaign. In the stunned aftermath of France’s fall, both Nazi propaganda and Western media attributed Germany’s success to the revolutionary new form of warfare known as blitzkrieg. All our dictionaries are bidirectional, meaning that you can look up words in both languages at the same time. The prestigious Militärwissenschaftliche Rundschau, the War Ministry's journal, which was founded in 1936, published a number of theoretical pieces on future developments in air warfare. krieg (blĭts′krēg′) n. A swift, sudden military offensive, usually by combined air and mobile land forces. [g] Indeed, the final German offensive operation in the west, Operation Wacht am Rhein, was planned to take place during poor weather to minimize interference by Allied aircraft. Attacks relied on speed and surprise rather than on weight of numbers. German gains were ultimately limited by Hitler diverting forces from the attack on Stalingrad and driving towards the Caucasus oilfields simultaneously. The word 'blitzkrieg' is surely from German, but together with its clipped form 'blitz', which is not directly imported from the German 'Blitz', it has also a figurative meaning, so I wonder how this word can be translated into German, because as far as I know Blitzkrieg in German has only a literal sense. These tactics resulted in the swift German conquest of France in 1940 (see fall of France). Advertisement. [72], The influence of air forces over forces on the ground changed significantly over the course of the Second World War. Through superior mobility and faster decision-making cycles, mobile forces could act quicker than the forces opposing them. [104], The Germans did not achieve surprise and were not able to outflank or break through into enemy rear areas during the operation. The Blitzkrieg, meaning "lightning war" in the German language, was an ambitious, large-scale military campaign in World War II launched by Nazi Germany in 1940. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg. (Translation of Blitzkriegfrom the PASSWORD German–English Dictionary© 2014 K … [27] In early January 1942, Hitler dismissed it as "Italian phraseology". By the end of June, the French army had collapsed, and the nation sued for peace with Germany. "[92] The Red Army was to be destroyed west of the Dvina and Dnieper rivers, which were about 500 kilometres (310 mi) east of the Soviet border, to be followed by a mopping-up operation. Infiltration tactics were combined with short hurricane artillery bombardments using massed artillery, devised by Colonel Georg Bruchmüller. From February 13 to February 15, 1945, during the final months of World War II (1939-45), Allied forces bombed the historic city of Dresden, located in eastern Germany. Examples. Fighter-bomber attacks on German formations made movement during daylight almost impossible. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. [38][39] The four editions of Field Service Regulations published after 1918 held that only combined-arms operations could create enough fire power to enable mobility on a battlefield. Clausewitz proposed the “concentration principle,” the idea that concentrating forces against an enemy, and making a single blow against a carefully chosen target (the Schwerpunkt, or “center of gravity”) was more effective than dispersing those forces. The term blitz (meaning lightning), from the term Blitzkrieg (meaning lightning war). [131] The rearmament of the Kriegsmarine was to have been completed in 1949 and the Luftwaffe rearmament program was to have matured in 1942, with a force capable of strategic bombing with heavy bombers. The notion of a German blitzkrieg concept or doctrine survives in popular history and many historians still support the thesis. 487, Führung und Gefecht der verbundenen Waffen (Command and Battle of the Combined Arms), known as das Fug (1921–23) and Truppenführung (1933–34), containing standard procedures for combined-arms warfare. ‘During World War II, the German blitzkrieg demonstrated a major change in the conduct of warfare.’ ‘The idea of lightning strikes, blitzkriegs, and selective engagement per se is nothing new, going way back into military history.’ ‘The Germans attacked in the best blitzkrieg style, armour supported by aircraft.’ The tactic was based on Alfred von Schlieffen’s ‘Schlieffen Plan’ – this … In November 1937 Hitler had indicated that most of the armament projects would be completed by 1943–45. Case Yellow surprised everyone, overcoming the Allies' 4,000 armoured vehicles, many of which were better than German equivalents in armour and gun-power. [41] The decisive Battle of Megiddo included concentration, surprise and speed; success depended on attacking only in terrain favoring the movement of large formations around the battlefield and tactical improvements in the British artillery and infantry attack. The Germans never used the term Blitzkrieg in any precise sense, and almost never used it outside of quotations. [70] It should however be noted that the disadvantages of terrain could be nullified if surprise was achieved over the enemy by an attack through areas considered natural obstacles, as occurred during the Battle of France when the German blitzkrieg-style attack went through the Ardennes. [citation needed] The Allied air forces had no close air support aircraft, training or doctrine. [40], In the Sinai and Palestine campaign, operations involved some aspects of what would later be called blitzkrieg. In this way they depleted German combat power even as German forces advanced. Guderian met with opposition from some in the General Staff, who were distrustful of the new weapons and who continued to view the infantry as the primary weapon of the army. [147][148] Kenneth Macksey found Liddell Hart's original letters to Guderian in the General's papers, requesting that Guderian give him credit for "impressing him" with his ideas of armoured warfare. Tank and vehicle production was a constant problem for Germany; indeed, late in the war many panzer "divisions" had no more than a few dozen tanks. The Wehrmacht became overstretched, although winning operationally, it could not inflict a decisive defeat as the durability of the Soviet Union's manpower, resources, industrial base and aid from the Western Allies began to take effect. flash noun: Blinken, Blitzen, Aufblitzen, Aufblinken, Lichthupe: lightning noun: Blitz: thunderbolt noun: Donnerkeil, Blitzstrahl: Find more words! Frieser wrote that the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), which was created in 1938 had intended to avoid the decisive battle concepts of its predecessors and planned for a long war of exhaustion (ermattungskrieg). In hindsight—and with some help from Liddell Hart—this torrent of action was squeezed into something it never was: an operational design. As the ideas of making use of the combustible engine in a protected encasement to bring mobility back to warfare developed in the German army, Guderian was a leading proponent of the formations that would be used for this purpose. 2 : blitz … A German friend was astonished and revulsed about the usage of the Nazi wartime word blitzkrieg in such a non-historical context. [83], While early German tanks, Stuka dive-bombers and concentrated forces were used in the Polish campaign, the majority of the battle was conventional infantry and artillery warfare and most Luftwaffe action was independent of the ground campaign. When a powerful country sends in all its soldiers and starts bombing a country that it is … [136], Frieser wrote that the Heer (German pronunciation: [ˈheːɐ̯])[k] was not ready for blitzkrieg at the start of the war. To obtain the best co-operation between all arms, emphasis was placed on detailed planning, rigid control and adherence to orders. The German army, contrary to the blitzkrieg legend, was not fully motorised and had only 120,000 vehicles, compared to the 300,000 of the French Army. The synonyms and antonyms of Blitzkrieg are listed below. [citation needed] Additionally, units could be halted by mud (thawing along the Eastern Front regularly slowed both sides) or extreme snow. The British also had an "enviable" contingent of motorised forces. The operational thinking of the German army had not changed significantly since the First World War or since the late 19th century. blitzkrieg (n.) "rapid attack," 1939, from German Blitzkrieg, from Krieg "war" (see kriegspiel) + Blitz "lightning," from Middle High German blicze, back-formation from bliczen "to flash," from Old High German blecchazzen "to flash, lighten" (8c. [36] Delegation of authority to local commanders increased the tempo of operations, which had great influence on the success of German armies in the early war period. blitzkrieg: 1 n a swift and violent military offensive with intensive aerial bombardment Synonyms: blitz Type of: attack , onrush , onset , onslaught (military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons) v fight a quick and surprising war Type of: war make or wage war [28][29], In 1914, German strategic thinking derived from the writings of Carl von Clausewitz (1 June 1780 – 16 November 1831), Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (26 October 1800 – 24 April 1891) and Alfred von Schlieffen (28 February 1833 – 4 January 1913), who advocated manoeuvre, mass and envelopment to create the conditions for a decisive battle (Vernichtungsschlacht). Hitler had intended for a rapid unlimited war to occur much later than 1939, but the Third Reich's aggressive foreign policy forced the Nazi state into war before it was ready. 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