The German Martial Masterpiece - Blitzkrieg

The Blikzkrieg, with its tactics of speed and shock, was a fresh approach to war; and the overwhleming success of its debut in the Polish campaign surprised not only the Poles but the Germans themselves. Never before had a nation's military capacity been so utterly annihilated in so short a time, with so few losses to the Victor.

"Blood is the price of Victory", wrote the German military theorist Clausewitz. "Philanthropists may easily imagine that there is a skillful method of disarming and overwhelming the enemy without great bloodshed, and that this is the proper tendency of the Art of War...This is an error which must be extirpated."

His dictum was seized upon so avidly by the political and military leaders of the world that mankind had to pour out rivers of blood, and had to wait over a hundred years for a practical demonstration of the falsity of Clausewitz's conclusions which might relieve them of the theoretical necessity of trying to win the war by nothing less than a physical obliteration of their enemy'r armies. As late as 1917, the british were still attempting to break the German forces opposite them by the simple application of the "Principles of Attrition" - using up 3 British lives to neutralize two Germans, and relying on a numerical superiority of the thirteen to eight to leave a British residue when there were no Germans left. This was attrition at its most Brutal, and the degree of success it achieved is still a matter of argument.

Basic Principle of Blitzkreig

Twenty three years later, Germany completely destroyed Poland, whose total armed forces exceeded 3,000,000 men, at a cost of less than 10,000 fatal casualties - and did so in so effective a manner that even now it can hardly be claimed that the defeated nation has as yet regained her former status. The explanation of the astonishing difference in military efficiency which this comparison indicates lies in the enormous development in military technique which occured during the Inter - War years i.e. between 1918 and 1940.

This development was largely the result of the studies and activities of a small group of military thinkers in England, led by Captain B.H. Liddell Hart, who depicted the action of their theories in terms of the play of lightning. Ironically, it was their country's chief military antagonist, Germany, who translated their theories into action - and called the result "Blitzkrieg".

An Army is composed of men, and has in itself many of the attributes and requirements of a human being. It needs food and drink to keep alive, tools in the shape of weapons to carry out its work, and a constant flow of basic material - ammunition - to produce its finished product: an impotent enemy. Perhaps most important of all, it needs a brain in the shape of a High command, and a nervous system in the shape of a communications and control network.

The basic priniciple behind a Blizkreig technique is that it is simpler, easier and cheaper to reduce the strength of an enemy army by starvation ( cutting off its supplies) or by paralysis ( destroying its High command or cutting its communication and control lines) than by battering it to a blood pulp. The campaign in Poland was the first practical demonstration of this technique in modern times.

Vulnerable Frontiers

Poland was well - suited for such a method of Warfare, for in addition to being fairly flat ( and Dry & Hard surfaced in September, when the invasion happened), her frontiers were much too long for every mile of them to be defended. She was, moreover, flanked by her enemies on both sides - East Prussia to the North and the German occupied Czechoslovakia to the south. And, as it happened, the most valuable areas of the country lay within those flanks. In fact, Poland protruded like a tongue in the Enemy territory ( Refer Poland Map) and it was considered politically necessary for her armies to be deployed in that tongue in order to safeguard the country's prestige and morale despite the Military wisdom of deploying them behind defences along the wide river lines of the Vistula and San.

But Poland's most Fatal weakness was in the quality of her armed forces. Though her soldiers were Hardy, and brave to a degree which elicited the hhighest admiration of her enemies, they were in great majority slow moving, foot marching infantry. Against this rudimentary force, spread in defensive positions along that enormous frontier, were to be launched six armoured division, four light divisions consisting of motorised infantry accompanied by armoured units and four motorised divisions - plus 27 infantry divisions whose main role would be to hold the attention of the Polish infantry while the mobile forces raced around the flanks and stuck at the vital rear centres of control and supply.

Systematic Destruction

Even before the armoured columns had broken thru any defensive crust which might impede their progress, the attack on nerve centres began. At 0445 hours on September 1, 1939, bombers and fighters of the German Airforce ( Luftwaffe ) crossed the frontiers and began systematic destruction of Polish Airfields and Aircrafts, of road and rail centres, of concentration of troops and reserves, and of anything which intelligence or observation indicated as likely to house command headquarters of any status. Within two days they had established German air superiority over Poland. They could now revert to the purely tactical role of concentrated bombings immediately ahead of the probing tank columns. (As depicted in the diagram "Typical application of Blitzkreig")

The Tank columns followed the Luftwaffe across the frontier one hour later. The main German concentration had been along the Bydgoczsz towards the North and Breslau towards South. (Refer Poland Map). Here had lain Army Group South under General von Rundstedt, comprising from North to South the VIII Army under General Blaskowitz, the X Army under General Reichenau and the XIVArmy under General List.

On the left wing, the VIII Army was to break thru between two Polish Armies ( Based at Poznan and Lodz ), isolate the Poznan Army in the West and Guard Reichenau's left Flank. On the right wing, One part of List's XIV Army would break thru towards Krakow and then swing east to isolate the Polish carpathian army against the mountains.

In the centre, Reichenau's X Army, with the bulk of the German Armoured force, would engage the Polish Army at Lodz with infantry while while the armour raced around the southern flank, turned north and made contact with Blaskowitz's VIII Army, and then advanced with them towards Warsaw. Thus would the main Polish army be first isolated from each other and their own supplies, and then cut up piecemeal.

Second part of List's X Army, mainly consisting of Armoured divisions would advance towards River San, after which it would turn Northwards.

Parallely, Army group North would have struck. The IV Army would move eastwards across the Polish corridor into East Prussia and then strike Southwards ( EAST of Warsaw and River Vitsula ), eventually to join forces with List's XIV Army coming from the South, which would have already turned Northwards after crossing River San.

Thus, two vast encircling movements would be carried out. Any Polish forces which managed to escape the trap west of the Vitsula would be caught in the outer trap.

This was a practical implementatiof of the Groundbreaking technique "Blitzkreig".

Outcomes

The plan was put to practice with near 100 % accuracy. Some confusion prevailed in the German Army itself in terms of whether a significant percentage of Polish army has managed to escape the inner circle. It was estimated that it has not ( which proved to be accurate later on - another proof of the Blizkreig's efficacy). The final leg of the battle was fought by Reichanau's X Army which was diverted towards West of Warsaw to confront the Polish army remaining between the Inner and outer circles. This, expectedly, was the most bitter battle of the campaign, and Poles did fight bravely. But encircled from all sides with their Supply and communication lines cut, the fate of this battle was decided in favour of the German army the very first day.

Poland fell within 20 days of the invasion. Impact of Russia's advancement on 17th Septmeber notwithstanding, the credit almost completely goes to the brilliant military tactic Blitzkreig, delivered on ground with German perfection.