Blitzkrieg Essay -- essays research papers

     BLITZKRIEG (LIGHTNING WAR)           In the first phase of human War II in Europe, Ger some sought to avoid a hanker war. Germanys strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany right away overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "safety blitz" (lightning war). Blitzkrieg tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons (such as tanks, planes, and artillery) along a narrow front. These labours would drive a breach in confrontation defenses, permitting outfit tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines, causing shock and disorganization among the enemy defenses. German air creator prevented the enemy from adequately resupplying or redeploying forces and thereby from sending reinforcements to seal breaches in the front. German forces could in turn encircle opposing troops and force surrender. Germany successfully used the Blitzkrieg tactic against Poland ( onrushed in September 1939), Denmark (April 1940), Norway (April 1940), Belgium (May 1940), the Netherlands (May 1940), capital of Luxembourg (May 1940), France (May 1940), Yugoslavia (April 1941), and Greece (April 1941). Germany did not defeat Great Britain, which was protected from German ground attack by the English Channel and the Royal Navy.                                            Despite the continuing war with Great Britain, German forces invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. At first, the German Blitzkrieg seemed to succeed. Soviet forces were driven back more than 600 miles to the gates of Moscow, with stagger losses. In December 1941, Hitler unilaterally declared war on the join States, which consequently added its tremendo us economic and military power to the coalition array against him. A second German offensive against the Soviet Union in 1942 brought German forces in the east to the shores of the Volga River and the city of Stalingrad. However, the Soviet Union launched a counteroffensive in November 1942, trapping and destroying an entire German army at Stalingrad. Germany proved u... ...Germany). Despite the birth of the United Nations, the world remained politically unstable and nevertheless slowly recovered from the incalculable physical and moral devastation molded by the largest and most costly war in history. Soldiers and civilians both had suffered in bombings that had wiped out entire cities. Modern methods of warfaretogether with the attempt of Germany to extinguish entire religious and ethnic groups (particularly the Jews)famines, and epidemics, had brought death to tens of millions and made as many more homeless. The suffering and degradation of the wars victims were of proportion s that passed the understanding of those who had been spared. The conventions of warfare had been violated on a large scale (see war crimes), and warfare itself was revolutionized by the instruction and use of nuclear weapons. Political consequences included the reduction of Britain and France to powers of lesser rank, the growing of the Common Market (see European Economic Community European Union), the independency of many former colonies in Asia and Africa, and, perhaps most important, the beginning of the frigorific war between the Western powers and the Communist-bloc nations.