BLITZKRIEG (LIGHTNING WAR)
In the first phase of World War II in Europe, Germany sought to avoid a long war. Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). Blitzkrieg tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons (such as tanks, planes, and artillery) along a narrow front. These forces would drive a breach in enemy defenses, permitting armored tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines, causing shock and disorganization among the enemy defenses. German air power 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 (attacked in September 1939), Denmark (April 1940), Norway (April 1940), Belgium (May 1940), the Netherlands (May 1940), 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 staggering losses. In December 1941, Hitler unilaterally declared war on the United States, which consequently added its tremendous economic and military power to the coalition arrayed 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...
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Despite the birth of the United Nations, the world remained politically unstable and only slowly recovered from the incalculable physical and moral devastation wrought 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 warfare–together with the attempt of Germany to exterminate 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 war's victims were of proportions 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 development and use of nuclear weapons.
Political consequences included the reduction of Britain and France to powers of lesser rank, the emergence of the Common Market (see European Economic Community; European Union), the independence of many former colonies in Asia and Africa, and, perhaps most important, the beginning of the cold war between the Western powers and the Communist-bloc nations.
World War II, known as the largest armed conflict in history, began in Europe in the 1930s and led to effect many people. The war resulted in not only the involvement of more countries than any other war but also introduced powerful, new, nuclear weapons that also contributed to the most deaths. As Hitler rose to power in 1933 the Holocaust began, his quest for the ‘perfect’ race resulted in the use of concentration camps, which would help to create the largest genocide of people in history.
As the Soviet Union approaches Berlin from the East, the allied forces invade from the west. Hitler’s German war-machine was crumbling. The United States had to make an enormous decision. Should they attack the Red Army of the Soviet Union? Should they keep the increasingly shaky alliance with the Russians and end the war in Europe? America chose to remain allies, resulting in a decision that affected the world for the next 46 years. World War 2 had concluded but now there was a new enemy, the Soviet Communist.
In 1939, the Communist USSR entered into a pact with Nazi Germany containing a secret protocol that divided the eastern part of Europe into German and Soviet interests. While the two signed a non-aggression treaty that should last for ten years, it was only to buy time to prepare their troops to attack the other. Joseph Stalin, the de facto leader of the Soviet Union, was consumed about reforming his army after losing most of his senior officers, who were either detained or executed. Germany initiated the war against Russia in 1941 through Operation Barbarossa, the largest land strike in history. The Germans slaughtered twenty million Russians, including civilians, in an attempt to annihilate what Adolf Hitler referred to as sub-humans. In 1945, the Germans surrendered, and this put the Soviet Union in a strong position in the continent.
Military historians have described Stalingrad was not only noteworthy as it was a turning point of the Germany’s invasion on Eastern Front and even of the entire Second World War. The ultimate defeat of Germany in Stalingrad was resulted from Hitler’s military misjudgment and indecisiveness in setting single operational objectives, which paralyzed the whole German forces and turning the tide of war in the Russians’ favor. The initial missions of the offensive in 1942 were the advances of forces to cut off the west bank of Volga River, which served as the important link for the transport of Soviet oil supply from the Transcaucasus oil fields to the Red Armies in Central Russia. Before Stalingrad, the plan went well and achieved substantial opening successes in the capture of few important territories.
During WWII, Germany possessed many powerful advanced technologies and weapons. One of these new technologies was blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg was a new set of tactics which were used to easily defeat opposing armies who were attempting to fight in trench warfare. Germany was the first country to recognize how useful this new set of tactics could be. Germany quickly perfected blitzkrieg and trained its army in how to use them. Blitzkrieg was Germany's most powerful weapon because it allowed Germany to quickly defeat its opponents and take an early lead in the war. Germany's use of blitzkrieg was it largest advantage in WWII and is what allowed Germany to nearly take over Europe early in the war.
During World War II, Germany’s military was superior to anyone else in the world, with far more advanced technology, tactics, and weaponry. They had a fearless leader who would stop at nothing to make his country great again. Their closest rival, the Soviet Union, was almost out of the picture with a death toll of over 26 million. On top of that, Germany had nothing to lose, and would not conceivably stop. So how then, with all odds against them, did the Allies win the war? A combination of factors affected Germany’s downfall, such as lack of morale, unwieldy weapons, and failure to work with its so-called allies.
Advancements in technology and science contributed to one the most gory and bloodiest war in the annals of human existence. These new technological advancements revolutionized how people regarded war. War was no longer where the opposite forces fought in a coordinated battle. War evolved into game of cunning strategy where the side with the bigger, powerful, and smarter toys played better. This led to a fierce competition where each side tried to create the smarter machines and better weapons, leading to deadly mass killing weapons in the process. One weapon or machine was created and an even better one was made. New developments such as machine guns, poison gas, tanks, and new strategy to thwart trench warfare affected how WWI was fought and it came with catastrophic results.
The foundation of mobile warfare has its roots in Ancient and Medieval World. The German Army late in World War I initially developed basic tactics that eventually evolved into modern mobile warfare. Germans developed those tactics in an attempt to overcome the static trench warfare on the Western Front. Elite "Sturmtruppen" infantry units were created to attack enemy positions using the momentum of speed and surpass but eventually failed because of the lack of mobility and support needed in order to continue advancing further into enemy controlled territory. During 1920s, British military philosophers Captain Sir Basil Liddell Hart, General J.F.C. Fuller and General Martell further developed tactics of mobile warfare. They all postulated that tanks could not only seize ground by brute strength, but could also be the central factor in a new strategy of warfare. If moved rapidly enough, of tanks could smash through enemy lines and into the enemy's rear, destroying supplies and artillery positions and decreasing the enemy's will to resist. All of them found tank to be an ultimate weapon able to penetrate deep into enemy territory while followed by infantry and supported by artillery and airfare. In late 1920s and early 1930s, Charles De Gaulle, Hans von Seekt, Heinz Guderian and many others became interested in the concept of mobile warfare and tried to implement it in an organizational structure of their armies. Heinz Guderian organized Panzers into self-contained Panzer Divisions working with the close support of infantry, motorized infantry, artillery and airfare. From 1933 to 1939, Germany was on a quest to fully mechanize their army for an upcoming conflict.
The battle fought between the Soviet Red Army and the Nazi Wehrmacht over the “city of Stalin” for four long months in the fall and winter of 1942-3 stands as not only the most important battle of the Eastern front during World War II, but as the greatest battle ever fought. Germany’s defeat at Stalingrad ended three years of almost uninterrupted victory and signaled the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. In this way, Stalingrad’s significance was projected beyond the two main combatants, extending to all corners of the world.
The red army fought mostof ww2 and took on nearly all of germanys troops.and after the loss in resources and man power soviets still pushed germans from moscow to berlin and end their front of the war . Truman ends his front with the atomic bomb even after the war ussr and us had conflicting ideas on how europe should be run and how germany sholud be dealt with. the amplified the mistrust that the soviets had with the us a war of ideas what was best for the free world capitalism and free trade or comminism.
The Blitz Blitz, the German word for 'lightning', was applied by the British press to the tempest of heavy and frequent bombing raids carried out over Britain in 1940 and 1941. This concentrated direct bombing of industrial targets and civilian centres began on 7 September 1940, with heavy raids on London. The scale of the attack rapidly escalated. In that month alone, the German Air Force dropped 5,300 tons of high explosives on the capital in just 24 nights. In their efforts to 'soften up' the British population and to destroy morale before the planned invasion, German planes extended their targets to include the major coastal ports and centres of production and supply.
During the early stages of the war, most of Germany’s victories were because of the success of blitzkrieg, or lightening war. Blitzkrieg tactics emphasised mobility and the concentrated use of armour and air power to overwhelm an enemy. Blitzkrieg was especially successful in flat, open countryside and was supremely suited for the Polish campaign in 1939. It was with blitzkrieg, as well as Germany’s superior tactics, effective use of armour, airpower and modern equipment, plus with the support of the USSR that the Germans used to overwhelm Poland in only 5 weeks. Two days after the German troops entered Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Hitler did not want this because it was a distraction from his main aim, to attack the USSR.
World War II was by far the bloodiest war we have ever known. With death tolls estimated near 60 million, 40 million of those being civilians killed by massacres, bombings, and intentional genocide, it is the greatest display of inhumanity our species has seen. However, the sheer number of deaths is not as atrocious as the way they were killed. World War II saw the use of mustard gas, flamethrowers, the atomic bomb, the holocaust, mass graves, horrifying treatment of prisoners of war, and the dismemberment and cannibalization of the dead. Dehumanization made most of this carnage possible.
On the 22nd June 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union under Directive 21. Under the codename “Operation Barbarossa”, it was recorded as the largest military operation ever seen in history as it involved more than 3 million Axis soldiers and 3,500 armoured vehicles. Throughout the war Operation Barbarossa was a conflict that demoralised the Germans and significantly contributed to the Allied victory.
The United States involvement in WWI and WWII have distinctly different causes, effects on U.S society, and consequences for U.S involvement in global issues. For WWI the United States had economic ties with Great Britain while WWII was triggered by spread of communism and fascism. WWII was really the caused by the aftermath of WWI. WWI began with the tension in Austria- Hungary and the enmity Germany had with parts of Europe. Though there has been wars and battles between other countries, two wars that involved major countries of the war and that caused many devastation and deaths was World War I and World War II. The first World War began in 1914 and lasted for four years until 1918. World War II lasted longer than the first one, it lasted for six years from 1939 to 1945. The reason behind fighting these wars are very different as well as it methods of warfare and its outcomes of the war. One similarity behind all its differences is the horrific outcome it left, the losing of lives and mass destruction.