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The Blitzkrieg Tactics

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In September 1939, the Germans annexed Poland – causing the beginning of World War II when Great Britain and France declared war to Germany. Theoretically, France was as powerful as Germany. It possessed both a large territory and advanced weapons. Moreover, France created the Maginot Line - a number of ramparts at the eastern border of their territory along Germany. This Line was created to keep the Germans out of France. Originally, Britain and France seemed to be equal to Germany. But, in only few weeks, France clearly proved that it was unprepared to fight the German army. It experienced an embarrassing defeat – resulting in the quick occupancy of their territory by the Germans. This defeat was the result of a shockingly separated …show more content…

This appeared to be fatal for France. Germany’s success was essentially thanks to a plan put in action by a great military - General Erich von Manstein. This general used the Schlieffen Plan which used to be a success during World War I. Nevertheless, the German army deployed most of their forces such as their tanks, in the Ardennes area of Belgium instead of just advancing on a front through Belgium. This region was not properly protected because they thought that the ground was not suitable for the tanks. Thus, Germany caught France and Great Britain – their allies – by surprise when they attacked from the Ardennes region. After successfully invading France, the German army developed a strategy called “the sickle stroke”. This swept away all the northern region of France at an unbelievable speed – dividing the French army and their allies in two parts. Great Britain got cutoff far way in Belgium and the French army was left to undergo the suffering inflicted by the German …show more content…

This officer was a war veteran and hero of World War I. He is known to be the one who developed the tactic that generated the crucial victory of France in 1914. Moreover, he is responsible of ineffectively trying to modernize the French army. Unfortunately, since general Gamelan was seriously ill, he was unable to successfully lead the army. The leadership of the army below officer Gamelan was surprisingly very poor as they were too slow to counteract the Germans attacks. Furthermore, the French army did not only experience poor leadership in the army but also poor political leadership. As stated by some French newspapers during the war, the army was unable to encourage the French population - they seemed to be more focused in fighting one another than the German

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Germany's army was so small that even Belgium had a bigger army. Germany in fact was surrounded by larger, more powerful enemies that were under france’s control and were ready to harm germany whenever France wished. Germans politicians and citizens felt extremely insecure about their military’s ability to protect them. Germany's military had been reduced as a result of the versailles treaty. In addition to being treated unfairly and being punished beyond what they deserved, Germany felt that they needed to rearm themselves in order to protect

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The Battle of Britain had taken place over the skies of Great Britain in the summer of 1940. Being part of the Allied forces fighting against Nazi Germany ruled by the dictator Adolf Hitler, Great Britain had to face a serious obstacle. The German’s successful blitzkrieg tactics over the continental Europe from 1939 to 1940 stunned the Allied forces, which contributed to their early victories during the initial part of the war. The Nazi Germany soon defeated and occupied much of France in 1940, Britain’s only allies in Europe. History.com quoted that after the fall of France, “Britain now stood alone against the power of Germany’s military forces…” (History.com, 2017).

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However for the French they were expecting to fight on the border between Germany and France, but Germany instead snuck past Belgium and attacked from inside France. With Blitzkrieg the initial battles were deciding factors that could take the entire country. Although Blitzkrieg was highly effective in these environments in others such as Russia they

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This was able to happen when joseph Stalin the Soviet Leader signed the German Soviet Nonaggression Pact allowing Hitler to invade Poland. Poland was taken over rather quickly and according to secret protocol Germany and the Soviet Union divided up control over Poland because of the Nonaggression Pact (“World War Two History”). The six months following the war Germany wasn’t really active resulting in the media referring to it as a “Phony War”, little did they know that Britain and Germany navies were intensely facing off at sea and unfortunately Germany’s U-boats sank 100 Britain vessels in the first four months of the war. German forces invaded Belgium and the Netherlands which was known as “Blitzkrieg” translated as lighting war this happened on May 10, 1940. Only a few days later German troops crossed The Meuse River and attacked French forces at Sedan.

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This plan worked by taking the troops from the French border and moving them across the Belgian frontier to for a wall blocking the german troops from taking over the Belgian capital and forming a clear front between Germany and the western countries. Slide 3 France’s plan to prevent a German invasion included vast complex system of tunnels, forts, and ground artillery along the border between france and Germany in the region of

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One of the earliest causes of the Allied Powers victory was the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan. Its aim was to occupy the France, coming through the Belgium, and then, when these would be under their control, it would create one big front to fight with Russia. Unfortunately, everything went wrong, Belgium soldiers were extremely brave, what delayed the German advance. Germany did not manage to break through to France as quickly as it intented to. Due to the "Treaty of London", which guaranteed the independence of Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany.

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With the fall of France, Germany was able to gain control of important French resources, including factories and raw materials. The Axis powers also gained access to the French navy and air force, which they used to strengthen their own military capabilities. The invasion of France also enabled Germany to launch an attack on Britain, as it provided them with an important base from which to launch their air raids. The Axis invasion of France marked a critical turning point in World War II.

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However, the Armies’ leaders at Paris and London gave it the full on go ahead. It was the second objective that had largely failed the plan. They were going to bombard the German Forces for 7 days straight to wipe out the Germans, before sending the troops over the top to take out anyone remaining. On paper it sounds like a fantastic battle plan, however in reality the bombardment did not work.

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The fall of France in World War II was one of the most catastrophic events in modern history, marking the swift and decisive defeat of one of Europe's major powers by Nazi Germany. The fall of France had far-reaching consequences, including the occupation of much of Europe and the establishment of Nazi rule across the continent. There are several factors that contributed to the rapid fall of France, including the lessons each army learned from World War I, competing tactical doctrines, training and readiness, war plans, leadership, and resources. One major factor was the impact of World War I on both the French and German armies. After World War I, the French army was heavily focused on static defense, with extensive fortifications along the Maginot Line as their primary line of defense against German aggression.

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This idea however wasn’t exactly followed through with the battles it was revived by Hitler and Hitler’s military leaders. In 6 weeks from May 10th 1940, the German armies defeated the allies, conquered the countries and occupied them. Italy involved themselves with eh invasion on June 10th 1940 with the attempted invasion of France. Germanys planned on having a two successions of operation in defeated the allies. First they wanted to surround the forces that were based in

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The Germans were going to use their new advancement in technology as a way of transportation, the railways. The original plan was to travel through Luxembourg and Belgium to get to France. This was a risky operation because Belgium had neutrality that was guaranteed by Great Britain. The strategy depended on Britain not supporting Belgium in this case. Once secured on the Franco-Germany border, Germany

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This was the turning point in the battle for the French. In the fall of that year, the French regained Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux. The French continued to advance on the German Army. This battle had lasted 10 months and saw 600,000 casualties. Erich Von Falkenhayn, the German’s general, was dismissed after the battle of Verdun due to his failure.

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Once passing Belgium, they falsely assumed they were going to sweep in and destroy france in a single blow. Since the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) had shown up, that was made impossible. 10 days after Germany’s journey to Belgium, Russia had invaded Germany with her enormous army. This forced the Germans to dive the soldiers to both sides, This doomed Germany up until Russia had the revolution. So, although she could have won the war from the start, she lost in the Spring

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This fact made the scale of war much larger than it was before, earning its name 'World War 1'. This was due to Germany's original tactics for prestige backfiring, allowing the balance of power to shift and letting rash and unnecessary decisions pass. Therefore Germany not only started the war, but it continued to fuel the war for the next four years while it

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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

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