Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg (German, literally "lightning war") is a popular name for an operational-level military doctrine which employed mobile forces attacking with speed and surprise to prevent an enemy from implementing a coherent defense. The doctrines resulting in the blitzkrieg effect were developed in the years after World War I as a method to help prevent trench warfare.

Countermeasures and limitations

Terrain

Blitzkrieg was largely dependent upon terrain and weather conditions. Where the ability for rapid movement across "tank country" was not possible, blitzkrieg was often avoided or resulted in failure. Terrain would ideally be flat, firm, unobstructed by natural barriers or fortifications, and interspersed with roads and railways. If it was instead hilly, wooded, marshy, or urban, panzers would be vulnerable to infantry in close-quarters combat and unable to breakout at full speed. Additionally, units could be halted by mud (thawing along the Eastern Front regularly slowed both sides) or extreme snow.

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Air superiority

Allied air superiority became a critical hindrance to German operations during the later years of the war. Early German successes enjoyed air superiority with unencumbered movement of ground forces, close air support, and aerial reconnaissance. However, the Western Allies' air-to-ground attacks were so great following the lead up to Operation Overlord that panzer crews deployed from the Western to Eastern Front showed reluctance to moving en masse during daylight. Indeed, the final German blitzkrieg operation in the west, Operation Autumn Mist, was planned to take place during poor weather which grounded Allied aircraft. Under these conditions, it was difficult for German commanders to employ the panzer arm to its envisioned potential.

Related Topics:
Air superiority - Operation Overlord - Operation Autumn Mist

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Counter-tactics

Blitzkrieg was very effective against static defence doctrines that most countries developed in the aftermath of the First World War. Early attempts to defeat the blitzkrieg can be dated to Polish September Campaign in 1939, where Polish general Stanis?aw Maczek, commander of 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, prepared a detailed report of blitzkrieg tactics, its usage, effectiveness and possible precautions for the French military from his experiences. However, the French staff disregarded this report (it was captured, unopened, by the German army). Later, Maczek would become one of the most successful Allied armoured forces commanders in the war.

Related Topics:
Static defence - Polish September Campaign - Stanis?aw Maczek

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During the Battle of France in 1940, De Gaulle's 4th Armour Division and elements of the British Armour Brigade in the British Expeditionary Force both made probing attacks on the German flank, actually pushing into the rear of the blitzkrieging armoured columns at times (See Battle of Arras (1940) ). This may have been a reason for Hitler to call a halt to the panzers' advance. Those attacks combined with Maxime Weygand's Hedgehog tactic would become the major basis for responding to blitzkrieg attacks in the future: deploy in depth, roll into a ball and let them slide past you, rely on your anti-tank guns, build strong sides to the blitzkrieg incursion, then cut it off at the base and destroy it in detail. However, Allied forces in 1940 were unable to successfully develop those tactics before they sustained heavy losses and France capitulated.

Related Topics:
Battle of France - Battle of Arras (1940) - Maxime Weygand - Hedgehog tactic

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By 1944 the Allied armies' 17 pdr anti-tank guns and 90 mm gun-equipped tank destroyers and the Germans' famous 88s were very successful in blunting tank attacks, especially those with little infantry support. By that time the Allies had also developed their own version of both offensive and defensive strategies using armoured forces.

Related Topics:
17 pdr - 90 mm gun - 88s

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Logistics

Although effective in quick campaigns against Poland and France, blitzkrieg could not be sustained by Germany in later years. Blitzkrieg strategy has the inherent danger of the attacking force overextending its supply lines, and the strategy as a whole can be defeated by a determined foe who is willing to sacrifice territory for time in which to regroup and rearm, which is exactly what the Soviets did on the Eastern Front. Tank and vehicle production was a constant problem; indeed, late in the war many panzer "divisions" had no more than a few dozen tanks.{{ref|11}} As the end of the war approached, Germany also experienced critical shortages in fuel and ammunition stocks as a result of Anglo-American strategic bombing. Although production of Luftwaffe fighter aircraft continued, they would be unable to fly for lack of fuel. What fuel there was went to panzer divisions, and even then they were not able to operate normally. Of those Tiger tanks lost against the United States Army, nearly half of them were abandoned for lack of fuel.{{ref|12}}

Related Topics:
Supply line - Fuel - Ammunition - Strategic bombing - Tiger

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