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'Blitzkrieg'

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by missNatalie (U1755161) on Saturday, 3rd June 2006

  Hello Everyone,
  Does anyone know how Hitler referred to the 'blitzkrieg' method? What term did he use and how was it known to him? As far as I know , 'Blitzkrieg'(Lightning War)did not originate from the German military and that the term was coined by an American journalist in 1939. But correct me if I'm wrong. Does anyone know the exact origins of the term ? I have read somewhere that the German army used the term 'angriffschlacht' (attack battle) when referring to this method of attack. If anyone has any information regarding this subject,please share it with me.
  
  
  

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by giraffe47 (U4048491) on Saturday, 3rd June 2006

  I suggest reading the Len Deighton book, 'Blitzkrieg' - a brilliant summing up of how, why and what it was, and the only time it was REALLY used, in 1940. He says the same about the word - some journalist invented it.

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  Posted by arnaldalmaric (U1756653) on Saturday, 3rd June 2006

  missNatalie,
  
  Correct, Blitzkrieg was a term invented (as far as I know) by an American journalist in Time (or was it Life?) magazine.
  
  In Achtung Panzer Guderian uses the term "Stosskraft" which has no english equivalent, it can be translated as striking power or similiar.
  
  However angriffschlacht does seem to have been the most used term for what we know as blitzkrieg.
  
  Cheers AA.

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  Posted by Steelers708 (U1831340) on Saturday, 3rd June 2006

  This is from a posting a made a month or two back concerning this very subject.
  
  There seems to be a lot of confusion concerning "Blitzkrieg" and it's origins.
  
  Blitzkrieg in itself was never a tactic or doctrine it was/is a word that has come to symbolise the tactics used by the Germans to achieve their early war victories. Some historians claim that it was invented by Hitler, yet other sources claim that Gen Walter Nehring was sure that it was not of German origin, which adds credibility to the claim that it was used for the first time by an American Time magazine correspondent who, describing the events of 1939 in Poland wrote of them being "no war of occupation but a war of quick penetration and obliteration - Blitzkrieg - lightening war" and apparently even Guderian admitted that "our enemies coined the word blitzkrieg".
  
  As to the workings of tank warfare that Blitzkrieg' came to encompass Balanchine is partly correct. Whilst people like Fuller, Liddell Hart, Broad, Chaffee and Tukhachevsky worked on the theory it was the Germans under Guderian who took the theory and developed it further and then put it into practice with devastating effect.
  
  As to the French there were a few officers, amongst them De Gaulle, whose thinking was similar to Guderians, but the French High Command was very defensive in mentality and the tank was very much subordinate to the infantry and was there purely to help the infantry break through difficult enemy positions. Their idea of mobile warfare was to advance at infantry pace with all the supporting arms regulated to the speed of the slowest unit.
  
  The Heer did indeed use the term 'angriffschlacht' for the type of battle that became known as Blitzkrieg, the main point of any attack was always known as the 'schwerpunkt' which doesn't have any direct translation, but is usually translated to mean 'point of attack'.

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  Posted by arnaldalmaric (U1756653) on Saturday, 3rd June 2006

  Steelers708,
  
  Very precise, if I may carp on one thing perhaps Hobart ought to be mentioned as one of those working on the concept of tank warfare?
  
  That's All, AA.

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