(Body) The tactic “Blitzkrieg” was mostly unheard of until it was successfully tested during the 1938 Spanish civil war in the town of Guernica. The town only had 5000 residents at the time. One day A Heinkel bomber followed by many attack planes stormed the town, initially causing heavy confusion in the civilians and many casualties. This showed the effectiveness of the air force in Blitzkrieg first phase. After the bombers’ attack, infantry and tanks followed with many rounds of ammo killing over 1000 civilians: “with a brutality that had never been seen before” according to the president of the Basque at the time Jose Antonio De Aguirre (Spiegel online). War reporter George L Steer in the London Daily described the tactic as “Clear”, recapping the phases of the devastating attack: “First came the heavy bombs and grenades to drive the population into panic. Then came the machine gun strafing to drive them underground. Finally came the incendiary bombs to destroy their hiding places”. Since the attack involved the “center of gravity” the civilians were terrorized and …show more content…
During World War one, most battles were fought for months in trenches with slow advances from both sides. France and the rest of european allies had built massive fortresses, hoping they would work as the trenches did in world war one. Germany however had found that blitzkrieg changed how battles were fought. Battles that would last months and years during World War 1, Would now end in a matter of weeks or short months thanks to coordination, quick successful strikes and the creation of shock and confusion in the enemy army. The fortresses the allies had built were excellent defences even for the now prepared german army. However Germany decided to attack quickly and unexpectedly from different places such as the ardennes. Leading to France’s