The methos of war of the Nazis

1. BLITZKREIG AND ITS GENESIS

2. • Blitzkrieg means “Lightning War" is an Anglicized word
describing all motorized force concentration of tanks,
infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power
• Concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break
through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,
proceeding without regard to its flank
• Through Maneuver warfare the blitzkrieg attempts to
keep its enemy off-balance, making it difficult to respond
effectively at any given point before the front has already
moved on
INTRO

3. AIM
To acquaint fellow officers with the Concept of
Blitzkrieg and its genesis

4. SEQUENCE
• Definition
• History or Genesis

5. DEFINITION

6. • The classic interpretation of blitzkrieg is that of German
tactical and operational methodology in the first half of the
Second World War that was often hailed as a new method
of warfare
• The word, meaning "lightning war", in its strategic means is
associated with a series of quick and decisive short battles
to deliver a knockout blow to an enemy before it could fully
mobilize
• The tactical meaning of blitzkrieg involves a coordinated
military effort by tanks, mobilized infantry, artillery and
aircraft, to create an overwhelming local superiority in
combat power, to overwhelm an enemy and break through
its lines
DEFINITION

7. HISTORY

8. HISTORY
• The origins of the term blitzkrieg are obscure. It
was never used in the title of a military doctrine
or handbook of the German army or air force
• It seems rarely to have been used in the German
military press before 1939
• Recent research conducted at the German
military historical institute at Freiburg has found
only two military articles from the 1930s in
which it is employed

9. HISTORY
• Neither article advocates any radically new
military doctrine or approach to war. Both use
the term simply to mean a swift strategic
knockout. The first, published in 1935, deals
primarily with food (and to a lesser extent with
raw material) supplies in wartime

10. HISTORY
• German volunteers first used armour in live field
conditions during the Spanish Civil War of 1936.
Armour commitment consisted of Panzer Battalion
88, a force built around three companies of Panzer I
tanks that functioned as a training cadre for
Nationalists.
• The Luftwaffe deployed squadrons of fighters, dive
bombers, and transport aircraft as the Condor
Legion. Guderian said that the tank deployment was
“on too small a scale to allow accurate assessments
to be made.”
Spanish Civil War

11. HISTORY
• The true test of his “armoured idea” would have to
wait for the Second World War. However, the
Luftwaffe also provided volunteers to Spain to test
both tactics and aircraft in combat, including the
first combat use of the Stuka
• During the war, the Condor Legion undertook the
bombing of Guernica which had a tremendous
psychological effect on the populations of Europe.
The results were exaggerated, and the Western
Allies concluded that the "city-busting" techniques
were now a part of the German way in war
Spanish Civil War

12. HISTORY
• The targets of the German aircraft were actually
the rail lines and bridges. But lacking the ability
to hit them with accuracy (only three or four Ju
87s saw action in Spain), a method of carpet
bombing was chosen resulting in heavy civilian
casualties
Spanish Civil War

13. HISTORY
• Heinz Guderian was probably the first
to fully develop and advocate the
principles associated with blitzkrieg
• He summarized combined-arms
tactics as the way to get the mobile
and Motorized Armoured divisions to
work together and support each other
in order to achieve decisive success
• In his book, Panzer Leader, he wrote
Guderian’s Tactics

14. HISTORY
• In this year, 1929, I became convinced that tanks
working on their own or in conjunction with
infantry could never achieve decisive importance
• My historical studies, the exercises carried out in
England and our own experience with mock-ups
had persuaded me that the tanks would never be
able to produce their full effect until the other
weapons on whose support they must inevitably
rely were brought up to their standard of speed
and of cross-country performance
Guderian’s Tactics

15. HISTORY
• In such formation of all arms, the tanks must play
primary role, the other weapons beings
subordinated to the requirements of the armour
• It would be wrong to include tanks in infantry
divisions; what was needed were armoured
divisions which would include all the supporting
arms needed to allow the tanks to fight with full
effect
Guderian’s Tactics

16. ANY QUESTIONS?

17. THANK YOU