Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)

        In German, Blitzkrieg means lightning war. Blitzkrieg was named so because it included surprise attacks, "Lightning fast" rapid advances into enemy territory, with coordinated massive air attacks, which struck and shocked the enemy as if it was struck by lightning. The German military in World War 2 achieved most of its great victories with the Blitzkrieg tactic.

The classic characteristic of what is commonly known as "blitzkrieg" is a highly mobile form of infantry and armour working in combined arms teams.

The Development of Blitzkrieg

        The First World War was a long static trench war in which artillery and machine guns made mobile ground warfare almost impossible for both infantry and cavalry. After the war, various military establishments gave various levels of attention to further study and developing new weapons. The German military bound by severe post-war limitations, was practically forced to develop the most efficient new tactics, which naturally involved using tanks and aircraft for mobile ground warfare.

Heinz Guderian

        In 1929, a German infantry officer, Heinz Guderian, was assigned to the common German-Russian tank school in Kazan, which was established to allow Germans to bypass the post-war limitations by training in operating tanks in Russia. Guderian read British books about the new principles of tank warfare, and while Liddell-Hart's ideas were given little attention, Guderian developed them over and demonstrated them to his superiors in military excercises and war games. Germany's new leader, Adolf Hitler, inteneded to go to a major war again, and as soon as possible, and he pushed the German military back in full shape, ignoring the peace treaty's limitations and spending a huge portion of the budget on re-armament. Hitler needed the right tool for his grand war plans, something that would make his future war very different from World War 1, and will fully exploit the German advantages in military professionalism and industry. Although he was just a Corporal in World War 1, Hitler had good and creative military perception, both tactical and technical, and so when he observed a combined exercise of tanks and motorized infantry led by Guderian shortly after he came to power, he immediately understood that he found his military tool.