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Tanks and mechanised infantry of the 24th Panzer Division advancing through Ukraine, June 1942, typifying fast-moving combined arms forces of classic blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg [a] is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack, using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with artillery, air ...
The Coventry Blitz (blitz: from the German word Blitzkrieg meaning "lightning war" listen ⓘ) was a series of bombing raids that took place on the British city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force . The most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940 and ...
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, [4] for slightly over 8 months during the Second World War.. The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940 (a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe ...
In this battle, Rommel helped pioneer infiltration tactics, a new form of manoeuvre warfare just being adopted by German armies, and later by foreign armies, [25] and later described by some as Blitzkrieg without tanks. [26] But he played no role in the early adoption of Blitzkrieg in World War II. [27]
Panzer divisions were the key element of German success in the blitzkrieg operations of the early years of World War II. Later the Waffen-SS formed its own panzer divisions, and the Luftwaffe fielded an elite panzer division: the Hermann Göring Division .
Coupled with traditional war fighting methods such as encirclements and the "battle of annihilation", the Wehrmacht managed many lightning quick victories in the first year of World War II, prompting foreign journalists to create a new word for what they witnessed: Blitzkrieg. Germany's immediate military success on the field at the start of ...
Throughout the war, the panzer was a key piece of the combined arms doctrines supporting the German blitzkrieg. The tanks were used in almost every theatre of German involvement. Their largest engagement occurred at the Battle of Prokhorovka, which saw about three hundred panzers pitted against five hundred Soviet tanks. [citation needed]
Hitler's plan called for a Blitzkrieg attack through the weakly defended Ardennes, mirroring the successful German offensive there during the Battle of France in 1940, and aimed at splitting the armies along the U.S.-British lines and capturing Antwerp. [36]