As the United States emerges from the era of so-called forever wars, it should abandon the regime change business for good. Then, Washington must understand why it failed, writes Stephen Walt. Seventy-five years ago, on June 22, , Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, betting on a brief war with the firmest of goals, a type of war that came to be known as blitzkrieg.
By June the German Wehrmacht had evolved into one of the most powerful and effective military machines in history. The German armed forces had refined their blitzkrieg techniques to what seemed like perfection during their campaign against Poland in and their rout of the French and their allies in Making sure that the German attack would catch the Soviets by surprise on a tactical, operational and even strategic level was one of the most important components of planning the blitzkrieg.
To that end Berlin conducted an unprecedented disinformation campaign that proved largely successful. The summer and autumn of saw the Wehrmacht deal a number of very heavy defeats to the Red Army. This put an end to the blitzkrieg as a phenomenon of that period of history. However, three and a half more years of bloody battles lay ahead as part of World War II, which saw the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and France act as allies against a most dangerous common enemy.
Write an entry Read more. When the German forces swept into Russia in World War 2, the key strategy was the same as those that defeated Poland and France earlier in the war; A very rapid, combined arms attack made up of a tank thrust, supported by aircraft and mobile artillery cabable of keeping up with the tanks and backed up by mobile infantry to consolidate gained territory, or, as it was named, Blitzkrieg.
However, where the French and Polish campaigns led to the swift surrender of the countries in question, the Russian campain became bogged down, extended and eventually a devastating defeat that had a tremendous affect on the outcome of the war. There is little doubt that had Germany forced the surrender of Russia and been able to turn its full considerable military might on Britain in the west, that the D-Day landings would not have been possible simply because Britain would have been under German occupation.
But why did the offensive fail? Well, a key factor was the lack of a real understanding in the German high command of the aims of Blitzkrieg. A Blitzkrieg offensive demands constant mobility as it strikes as swiftly as possible at the key points of the enemy which will cause immediate surrender. These may be industrial, military, political or commercial targets, but their capture must bring victory.
Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on this new military tactic of "Blitzkrieg.
These forces would drive a breach in enemy defenses, permitting armored tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines, causing shock and disorganization among the enemy defenses.
German air power prevented the enemy from adequately resupplying or redeploying forces and thereby from sending reinforcements to seal breaches in the front. German forces could in turn encircle opposing troops and force surrender. At first, the German Blitzkrieg seemed to succeed. Soviet forces were driven back more than miles to the gates of Moscow, with staggering losses. David T. Zabecki, ed. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
The bombing was controversial because Dresden was neither important to German wartime production nor a major Dunkirk is a small town on the coast of France that was the scene of a massive military campaign during World War II. On July 20, , during World War II , a plot by senior-level German military officials to murder Adolf Hitler and then take control of his government failed when a bomb planted in a briefcase went off but did not kill the Nazi leader.
The assassination Beyond their goal of crushing Italian Axis forces, the Allies wanted to draw German troops away from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler predicted a quick victory, but after initial success, the brutal campaign dragged on and eventually failed due to strategic blunders
0コメント