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
There were primitive tanks utilized in World War I, but it was not until after the war that Germany, among many others, began researching tank prototypes, such as the Char B battle tank, which found a balance between speed and firepower (Paret et al, Makers of Modern... pg.610). What is perhaps more important, however, is not the actual technology behind the tank, but the concept of the tank itself. The tank, of course, is designed to be a powerhouse, capable of plowing through enemy defenses, attacking at long range, or any number of other tasks. The increasingly drawn out warfare in World War I necessitated a crude tool that would allow for the kind of warfare that the tank brings, which is slow, cumbersome, yet effective, combat. Obviously, this concept has withstood the test of time, and remains a practical tool of war, even in the modern era.
However, it all changed during Pearl Harbor. Starting on December 7, 1941, Japanese air raids dropped bombs on battleships. The bombing did not stop, even after four hours, the bombing had not finished. Throughout the time, Japanese aircraft completely dominated the skies and caused terror to Americans. The damage had caused five of the eight battleships to be destroyed and sunk, 21 American ships to be sunk, and the death of thousands (Chen).
Hitler’s first goal was to split the allied lines in half just like they had done three times previously in the war. The allies had totally miscalculated this attack and left their divisions that were on the front lines were battered and beaten up from months of intense fighting. The battle of the bulge name came from the giant bulge in the American lines because of the German attack. The attack took place December 16, 1944 at 5:30 a.m. and lasted till January 16th 1945.
King later visited Germany to meet Hitler for himself and personally judged the intentions of the Nazi regime. King was charmed by Hitler and left Germany believing that the Hitler was not intent upon aggression expression. He thought that Hitler only wanted to restore the country to its pre-Treaty of Versailles status. The idea was that Germany would only bring those areas with German speaking populations
Adolph Hitler was the German man who rose to the challenge of bringing Germany out of the depression. Under Hitler’s control, the Nazis began invading other lands. This was a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which did not allow Hitler to have a military. Ignoring the treaty, Hitler “ordered hostilities” against Poland on August 31, 1939.
These were essentially airborne tanks, which operationalized advantages of both an aircraft and ground artillery. These weapons were designed to successfully destabilize German armored vehicles. However, the weather proved to be a
The Weapons of World War II During World War II, a multitude of weapons were used, varying from conventional firearms and artillery, to more unorthodox armaments like suicide bomb dogs, Hitler’s Gustav gun, and even bat bombs. The majority of weapons used in World War II were very traditional. However, sometimes innovative, interesting, and even bizarre ideas gave way to extremely efficient weapons or lack thereof. The advancements in weaponry during World War II was unprecedented. Each major nation had its own rifles, planes, tanks, and equipment that they had created and manufactured in order to attain victory over their foes.
Britain Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had all but forfeited the European mainland to Nazi Germany. Eventually, Hitler continued to take over land and grow his popularity in Germany as well as his power. For Example, Hitler became Führer of Germany after German President Hindenburg dies on August 2 1934. (HistoryPlace.com) After years of Hitler’s growth as a dictator in Germany, the idea of expansionism was a recurring idea.
Back in World War One, airplanes were a thought of the future, but they became extremely prominent in World War Two, and essentially ruled the offensive and defensive strategies of the European and Pacific Theater. The Germans were able to defeat many countries through their use of advanced military equipment, as they notoriously demolished France, Belgium, Poland, Norway, and Denmark. Hitler was able to utilize many successful tactics such as the Blitzkrieg and the Sitzkrieg. Those deadly tactics, when combined with the use of airplanes and tanks, was virtually unstoppable. Germany kept advancing its technology until it matched Britain, who was able to consistently match and fend off Germany’s shiny new weapons.
In September of 1939, the battle would begin with the war. Germany would quickly overrun Poland, and in 1940, took over France and Norway. The Fall of France and Norway had a huge impact on the Battle of the Atlantic, which
This was able to happen when joseph Stalin the Soviet Leader signed the German Soviet Nonaggression Pact allowing Hitler to invade Poland. Poland was taken over rather quickly and according to secret protocol Germany and the Soviet Union divided up control over Poland because of the Nonaggression Pact (“World War Two History”). The six months following the war Germany wasn’t really active resulting in the media referring to it as a “Phony War”, little did they know that Britain and Germany navies were intensely facing off at sea and unfortunately Germany’s U-boats sank 100 Britain vessels in the first four months of the war. German forces invaded Belgium and the Netherlands which was known as “Blitzkrieg” translated as lighting war this happened on May 10, 1940. Only a few days later German troops crossed The Meuse River and attacked French forces at Sedan.
A few years later another major key point of World War II took place on September 1, 1939. Germany invaded Poland. Hitler and the German military had enough ammunition to destroy the world but chose Poland. Many scholars notated this as being the beginning of the war. This war lasted six months.
The kamikazes were Japanese fighter pilots who crash their planes into U.S. ships mostly. Their aircraft were loaded with explosives to damage or destroy whatever they crash into. For the Air Defenses to combat these kamikaze fighters the U.S. used rapid-firing automatic antiaircraft guns along with radars that tracked tiny radio waves sent out by the planes. This leads to the next topic of the type of weaponry used by the U.S. Air
World War 1 generated new demands for armoured self-propelled weapons which could navigate any kind of terrain, prevent major damage being inflicted
On May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany began an immense attack against Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Defending those countries were soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, along with the French, Belgian, and Dutch (Allied) armies. The