Adolf Hitler's "Blitzkrieg" was a strategy of rapid and overwhelming force used during World War II. Blitzkrieg meant “Lightning War” in German. The Blitzkrieg was a major factor in the German successes in the early stages of the war, culminating in the successful invasions of Poland, France, and the Low Countries. This strategy allowed the Germans to seize objectives with minimal casualties while still inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. The Spanish Civil War was a huge help in the development of this approach. During the Civil War, Germany would aid the Nationalist forces in Spain and their leader, General Franco. Hitler saw Spain as a potiental trading and military partner. Hitler saw this as more than a business exchange and decided to …show more content…
The most common tank they used for the Blitzkrieg was often the Panzer tank. The Panzer tanks were designed to be the backbone of the German army's Blitzkrieg strategy. They were heavily armored, with sloped armor plates that provided good protection against enemy fire, and were armed with a variety of weapons, including machine guns and cannons. There were six different versions of the tank. Light and dive bombers were two types of military aircraft that were used during the Second World War. Dive bombers were aircraft that were designed to dive directly at a target and release bombs. These dated back to the First World War. The design for a direct target created greater accuracy for the bombs that would be dropped. One of the most famous dive bombers of the war was the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, which was used extensively during the early Blitzkrieg campaigns in Poland and France. A special factor that made the Ju 87 famous was the fact that it was the only dive bomber that could make a vertical dive. Most dive bombers found it difficult to put the aircraft’s nose past seventy degrees. It also had small brakes that could help slow the drive, which would give the pilot more time to aim. Artillery-armored vehicles were commonly used by both sides of the war. The vehicle that the Germans most used was the German Sturmgeschütz III, or StuG III, another series of …show more content…
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This caught Poland by surprise, as they attacked in the middle of dawn and had many more weapons than Poland had. Due to the rash invasion, Poland was unprepared and fell a few weeks later, on September 28. By this point, the world soon adopted the term “Blitzkrieg” to describe the successful war tactics Germany used. The next two countries that Germany would attack with their ploy were Denmark and Norway. In April of 1940, Germany invaded both Denmark and Norway on the same day. Although Germany was neutral toward both countries, Hitler feared that Great Britain would occupy the land. It was easy to take control of Denmark, as it only took a few hours because of the lack of military the Danish had. This victory was very important in the war because it gave Germany access to seaports and supplied them with food for the soldiers. However, unlike Denmark, it took much longer for Norway to surrender. In fact, it took exactly two months. While the Germans were trying to acquire Norway, they invaded four different countries. They invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France all in the same month and on the same day, May 10th. A few days had passed, and both Luxembourg and the Netherlands had stopped resisting the German. It would take Belgium another two