The Battle of Britain

Blitzkrieg

Captured Polish troops, Warsaw; Captured Polish troops march out of the capital, Warsaw, after the city was taken by the Germans on 27 September 1939. The Polish Army was large, but poorly equipped and thinly spread. It lacked the means to counter Germany's modern armoured forces.

Captured Polish troops, Warsaw

photographs

Captured Polish troops march out of the capital, Warsaw, after the city was taken by the Germans on 27 September 1939. The Polish Army was large, but poorly equipped and thinly spread. It lacked the means to counter Germany's modern armoured forces.

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Blitzkrieg ('Lightning War') was the method of offensive warfare responsible for Nazi Germany’s military successes in the early years of the war.

Combined forces of tanks, motorised infantry and artillery penetrated an opponent’s defences...

Blitzkrieg ('Lightning War') was the method of offensive warfare responsible for Nazi Germany’s military successes in the early years of the war.

Combined forces of tanks, motorised infantry and artillery penetrated an opponent’s defences on a narrow front, bypassing pockets of resistance and striking deep into enemy territory. The Luftwaffe provided close air support, bombing key objectives and establishing local air superiority. Radio communications were the key to effective Blitzkrieg operations, enabling commanders to co-ordinate the advance and keep the enemy off balance.

These techniques were used to great effect in 1939, when the Polish Army was destroyed in a series of encirclement battles. In May 1940 Hitler attacked France, his panzer divisions smashing through slow-moving French formations and cutting off the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. Spectacular success was also achieved during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, with large numbers of Russian troops being captured.

But Blitzkrieg was less successful against properly organised defences. The flanks of rapidly advancing mobile forces were vulnerable to counter-attack. Soviet commanders learned to blunt German assaults with successive defence lines of guns and infantry. By 1943 the days of Blitzkrieg were over, and Germany was forced into a defensive war on all fronts.

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  • German infantry column

    photographs

    German infantry column; A German infantry column marches past a destroyed French horse-drawn column, May 1940. Despite the popular image of Blitzkrieg, the bulk of the German Army still advanced on foot, and most of its artillery and supplies were horse-drawn.

  • Tank Recovery during the Retreat to the Coast, France: June 1940

    art

    Tank Recovery during the Retreat to the Coast, France: June 1940; Tank Recovery during the Retreat to the Coast, France: June 1940, by Richard Seddon. This drawing shows a damaged light tank being hauled onto a wheeled truck during the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk in May 1940. The artist, Corporal Richard Seddon, was serving with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in France when he produced this drawing, one of a series he completed during May and June 1940.

  • On the Road to Louvain

    art

    On the Road to Louvain; On the Road to Louvain, May 1940, by Edward Ardizzone. This watercolour depicts aline of British troops moving along the road from Brussels to Louvain (or Leuven in Flemish) in Belgium, with a procession of refugees and horse-carts fleeing in the opposite direction in the face of the German advance. German aircraft sometimes strafed the columns of refugees to spread further panic and disruption.

  • Refugees in Belgium, 1940

    photographs

    Refugees in Belgium, 1940; The German invasion of Belgium began on 10 May 1940. Belgian defences were quickly overwhelmed by Blitzkrieg tactics, which combined artillery, infantry and tanks with close support from the Luftwaffe. In this photograph, taken in May 1940, Belgian civilians take cover in a roadside ditch during an air raid.

  • German commemorative plate

    souvenirs and ephemera

    German commemorative plate; German commemorative plate marking the invasion of Belgium and France in 1940. This commemorative plate records the participation of Panzerjäger-Abteilung 171 (71 Infantry Division) during the invasion of Belgium and France in 1940. The illustration on the plate shows the route taken by Germany's Army Group A through the Ardennes forest, bypassing the defences of the Maginot Line. The date shown on the calendar is 10 May 1940, the date that the invasion was launched.