Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
ISBN 0 7 1 1 0 2 9 4 3 1
CONTEXTS
All rights reserved. N o part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
BLITZKRIEG
means, electronic or mechanical, including photo- 6-7
copying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission from the
Publisher in writing.
T H E OPENING MOVES
8-35
© W i l l Fowler 2 0 0 2
Code: 0 2 1 0 / A 2
D e s i g n e d by C a s e b o u r n e Rose Design
Associates Ltd
Illustrations by M i k e Rose
M a p s by M o n t y Black T he origins of the tactics of Blitzkrieg
and its European advocates. The rise
of Hitler and the Nazis and the rearmament
Picture Credits of Germany after 1933. The German
A l l p h o t o g r a p h s are from Bugle A r c h i v e s . expansion into Austria and Czechoslovakia
Page 7 0 I W M . leading up to war. Enigma and new
weapons and organisations.
COVER PICTURE: The c o m m a n d e r of a PzKpfw IV
in the distinctive b l a c k Panzer u n i f o r m .
FALL WEISS T H E STAB IN THE BACK
36-51 58-65
U
ntil the autumn of 1959 wars in weight of fire from tanks, artillery and
Europe could last for years. Leaders bombers would be concentrated on narrow
would attempt to find a tactical or fronts. The intense weight of this bombardment
strategic advantage - by manoeuvring to find shattered the defences. Reconnaissance units
open flanks, routes through swamps or would probe forward and then tanks pour
forests or by making surprise river crossings. through the hole and into the rear areas like
In World War I the open flanks disappeared an expanding torrent. The enemy's defence
as trenches were dug that stretched from would lose cohesion as communications links
Switzerland to the North Sea. The advantage were severed, headquarters bombed, para-
now seemed to lie with the defender. New troops seized key points and tanks roamed
tactics would be needed to break through unrestricted deep behind the front line.
these linear defences. Military theorists in Suddenly a war between nations could be
Europe and America looked at deep pene- fought and won in weeks.
tration tactics using the weapons that had To describe these dramatic tactics in 1940
grown out of World War I - tanks and the journalist Eugene Hadamovsky coined a
bombers. new word. He called German operations in
At the outset of operations the enemy would Poland a Blitzmarsch nach Warschau
be confused by a series of spoiling attacks (Lightning March to Warsaw) and from this
along the length of the front while fighters came Blitzkrieg - Lightning War.
dominated the skies. They would be put Dr Joseph Goebbels Reichsminister fur
under pressure and have no clear idea of Volkserklarung und Propaganda (Reich
where the real threat lay. Minister for Public Enlightenment and
Then at a few selected points the full Propaganda) and the Nazi propagandists
seized on Blitzkrieg idea and revelled in its Blitzkrieg as practised by the German forces
resonance. in World War II from Poland, through France
Blitz and Blitzkrieg have now passed into and the Low Countries, the Balkans, Russia
everyday use as a synonym for intense air and North Africa. It is also the story of Panzer
attacks or fast moving land battles. leaders — men of drive and vision who led
This book is the first in a new series from from the front like Guderian, von Manstein,
Ian Allan Publishing telling the story of Kluge, Rommel and von Rundstedt.
A
t 04.45 hours on Friday September 1 Westerplatte on a mile long strip of land at
1939 the still of the autumn morning the mouth of the Vistula on the Danzig
on the Baltic seashore was ripped Corridor.
apart by the concussion of exploding shells. They were fired by the 13,000 ton German
The air was thick with brick dust and the naval cadet training ship RMS Schleswig-
stench of cordite. The first salvos of World Holstein that had opened fire at point blank
War II had crashed into the Polish fort of range with her four 280mm (11in) guns. The
BLITZKRIEG
big 300kg (6701b) shells from the main arma- ABOVE: Towing 15cm guns SdKfz 7 half-tracks
ment crashed into the fort. The warship was roar past the saluting base at Nuremberg on a
in position because she was on a "goodwill Party Congress. The big half-track went into
visit" to the Polish base. production in 1934 and by 1945 six companies
Within hours the world reeled under the had combined to build nearly 8,000.
shock of a new and frightening way of war
as it watched the violent energy of the first and headlines. You can describe the present
Blitzkrieg campaign of World War II begin to situation, for example, to the effect that we
overwhelm Poland. are merely responding to Polish attacks".
In Berlin in an early example of "media The operation was code named Fall Weiss
spin" the Reich Press Chief Otto Dietrich told - Case White - and involved five German
German journalists, "The term 'war' is to be Armies. The speed of their advance and the
avoided at all costs in German press reports ease with which they defeated the Polish
armies shocked the French and British who
LEFT: Reichswehr becomes Wehrmacht as assumed this new conflict would be an
following the introduction of conscription in updated re-run of the trench warfare of
March 1935 German soldiers in training leap a World War I but now with modern tanks and
trench. Some are still wearing the old pattern aircraft.
Model 1915 steel helmet. Tank designs had developed, since their
BLITZKRIEG
10
BLITZKRIEG
11
BLITZKRIEG
REICHSWEHR
TOP: The trauma of defeat - German PoWs are in 1938. Leading his tanks in a motorised
collected in a temporary prison camp at the end dash for Vienna he was horrified to learn that
of W o r l d W a r I. at least a third had broken down. It was a
useful lesson learned before fighting in
ABOVE LEFT: A British screw picket on the d e a d soil Poland and later operations in more chal-
of the Western Front. The cost in lives and lenging theatres.
exchequer of W o r l d W a r I b e g g a r e d Germany. For the German public, and a disbelieving
world, the pretext for the attack on Poland
ABOVE RIGHT: Dense b a r b e d w i r e obstacles that had been aggressive Polish border incur-
stopped infantry, but could be crushed by tanks. sions. These were in reality faked incidents
that included the notorious Gleiwitz Raid, the
BLITZKRIEG
5
BLITZKRIEG
SS - SCHUTZSTAFFEL
ABOVE: A guard of honour from the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler awaits a VIP.
BLITZKRIEG
SCHE DEUTS
5
BLITZKRIEG
LEGlON KONDOR
21
BLITZKRIEG
1,600 were killed, but what was not disputed ABOVE: Tea with the Fuhrer. British Prime Minister
was the destruction of 71% of the town. With Neville C h a m b e r l a i n at one of several meetings
the benefit of hindsight Guernica showed that he held as he attempted to influence Hitler. O n
tactical and later strategic bombing was a the right is Sir Nevile Henderson the British
double-edged weapon, sometimes failing to Ambassador. Though C h a m b e r l a i n was accused
hit the target and often producing adverse of appeasement he launched a rearmament
propaganda. programme after 1 9 3 8 .
Hitler had chosen August 26, 1959 as the
date for the attack on Poland, however on the caused casualties and so fired the first shots
day he ordered a postponement. It was not of World War II. A truce was agreed the next
the first example of the behaviour that would day and they returned to Germany. The Poles
dog his conduct of operations throughout the were not alerted by this action because in the
war - mixing of high-risk options and inde- recent months there had been numerous
cision. Some units only received the incidents on the border.
cancellation orders a mere hour or two Then six days later the first salvos crashed
before H Hour. It actually failed to reach one into the fort at Westerplatte, held only by a
small group tasked with the capture of a company of Polish soldiers, and now the war
Polish railway station and tunnel in the south- was on in earnest. Following the bombard-
west. They went into action, opened fire and ment the tiny garrison repelled a landing by
22
BLITZKRIEG
German naval forces, inflicted casualties and to defending Poland in a treaty signed on
held out until September 7. August 25, 1959, Great Britain declared war
As with so many of Hitler's moves in World on Nazi Germany at 11.00 on September 5,
War II the attack was a gamble. The German 1959 and France followed at 17.00. In Britain
Army had completed autumn manoeuvres the public had tuned their radios into the
and so was still in the field. However the Home Service and heard the Prime Minister
F u h r e r a n d t h e staff of t h e OKW, Neville Chamberlain explain quietly that the
Oberkommando des Wehrmacht (High British government had requested that
Command of the Armed Forces) knew that Germany should withdraw her troops from
two thirds of the German strength on land Poland.
and in the air would have to be committed to He ended the broadcast with the resigned
the attack. It was vital that Poland should be
defeated before France and Great Britain BELOW: Hitler ascends to the podium past massed
had time to declare war, mobilise and attack SA banners at a rally at Buckeberg in 1 9 3 4 .
in the west. These vast stage-managed events helped to
For France and Great Britain the attack on establish Hitler's position as Fuhrer - leader -
Poland was the final fatal move. Committed and his popularity with o r d i n a r y Germans.
BLITZKRIEG
PZKPFW I AUSF B
SPECIFICATIONS
Armament: 2 x 7.92mm (0.31 in) SAG
(2,250 rounds)
Armour: 13mm (0.51 in)
Crew: 2
Weight: 5,800kg (5.71 tons)
Hull length: 4.42m (14ft 6in)
Width: 2.06m (6ft 9in)
Height: 1.72m (5ft 8in)
Engine: Maybach NL38TR 6-cylinder, petrol,
l 0 0 b h p at 3,000rpm.
Road speed: 40km/h (25mph)
Range: 170km (105miles)
24
BLITZKRIEG
25
BLITZKRIEG
The first was on March 7,1936 when in an it never happened and Hitler scored a victory
operation code named Winter Exercise Hitler over his military detractors as well as the
ordered about one division of German troops West.
to enter the Rhineland, a strip of land about Austria, a neighbour to the south that had
60 km long to the west of the River Rhine. It been created out of the old Austro- Hungarian
had been demilitarised since 1918 as part of Hapsburg Empire, was entirely German
the Treaty of Versailles, a treaty ratified at the speaking, and significantly included the
Locarno Pact. The area included the cities of Fuhrer's birthplace. Its population was obvi-
Cologne, Dusseldorf and Bonn and all the ously Volksdeutsche and thus it was natural
territory to the west that they should be united with Germany
The Rheinlandbesetzung - Rhineland through the Union or Anschluss. The Austrian
Reoccupation - was Hitler's first foreign Nazis fronted by Artur Seyss-Inquart had
policy coup. His generals were concerned pressed for union with Germany and the
that the German army was not strong enough Austrian Legion, the military arm of the
to defeat a concerted attack by the French - Austrian Nazis, had waged a guerrilla war
26
BLITZKRIEG
27
BLITZKRIEG
ARMY S E P T E M B E R
low point of the policy of Appeasement, but accelerated by the surprise invasion of
it was also an awakening in the West to the e a s t e r n Poland by the Red Army on
threat posed by Nazi Germany. It bought time September 17.
for Britain and France who now began to A major tenet of National Socialism had
accelerate re-armament and in conjunction been intense hostility towards Communism.
with Poland work began on breaking the In his speeches in the 1930s Hitler had rolled
German Enigma code machines. anti-Semitism and hatred of "Bolshevism"
This decryption operation was still in its into ranting outbursts that had enraptured his
infancy in the autumn 1959 and could not audiences. On April 7, 1939 Germany, Italy,
save Poland. However Poland's collapse was Spain and Japan had signed the Anti-
28
BLITZKRIEG
29
BLITZKRIEG
H AIR FOR
PZL-P11c
I n the mid 1930s the Polish National Aero
Factory (PZL) produced a new monoplane
fighter, the PZL P11, that became the object
of international interest and respect.
However by 1939 the PZL P11c that
equipped 12 of the Lotnictwo Wojskowe
fighter squadrons were outclassed by the
Messerschmitt Bf 109. The PZL P11c has the
distinction of being the first fighter in World
War II to shoot down a Luftwaffe aircraft, a
Ju87 dive bomber. By the close of the
campaign PZL P11 fighters had downed
125 enemy aircraft. The only operational
model of the intended successor, the PZL
P50, was shot down by Polish A A fire since
its modern silhouette was confused
with that of a German aircraft.
intervene to support the Poles and paved the ABOVE: M a i l call for French troops in 1 9 3 9 . Poor
\\ ay for the German invasion in September leadership and low morale w o u l d undermine the
that year and allowed the USSR to extend its army in the bitter winter of 1 9 3 9 - 4 0
western borders by seizing areas of Poland.
With the political ground prepared the pushed north into the industrial areas around
Germans launched a two pronged attack on Cracow.
Poland. Army Group North under General Their mission was to carry out a pincer
Fedor von Bock consisting of the 5rd Army movement to surround and destroy the bulk
under General Georg von Kuchler in East of Polish forces west of the Vistula-Narev line.
Prussia punched south and 4th Army under The Polish ground forces ranged opposite
General Hans von Kluge with the XIX Panzer them, commanded by Marshal Edward Rydz-
Corps commanded by General Guderian Smigly, were grouped to face a threat from
drove east from Prussia. To the south the 8th the west.
Army commanded by General Johannes The Polish armies positioned close to the
Blaskowitz drove towards Lodz. border in linear defences under a scheme
Army Group South under General Gerd von designated Plan Z or "West" could not have
Rundstedt consisting of the 10th Army under been worse sited to withstand a Blitzkrieg
General Walter von Reichenau and the XVI attack. The Polish planners knew that they
Panzer Corps under General Erich Hoepner could not withstand an all out German attack
drove north towards Warsaw. In Slovakia the and hoped that French and British forces in
14th Army under General Wilhelm von List the West would attack Germany and so draw
BLITZKRIEG
DeveIoped in 1931
was based
on open topped
"tankette" vehicles
from the British
Carden-Loyd design. The
improved
suspension
supporting girder
closed crew
compartment. About 3 9 0
built and in
a few were
upgunned with a 20mm
gun and given
thicker armour.
B LITZKRI EG
off some of the pressure. The flat wheat fields machine gun. The 7TP-3 had thicker armour,
of Poland offered few natural obstacles on stronger suspension and wider tracks. It went
which to base a defence, but rivers like the into production in 1939 but few reached front
Bzura, Narev, Bug and the Vistula were line formations.
considerable barriers. In the West on September 7 the French
When fully mobilised the Polish Army forces caused some consternation in the
would have had a strength of 3,600,000 men. OKW when they began a slow advance into
The Poles had a tiny armoured force divided the Saarland, but they did not attack the
into nine companies of light tanks and 29 Westwall, the line of fortifications close to the
companies of light scout cars. German border.
In 1928 the Poles had bought Carden-Loyd Given the grand name "Operation Saar" it
light tanks and in 1932 Vickers tanks from was directed by General Gaston Pretelat.
Britain. These two vehicles formed the basis Though he had 31 divisions available for the
for locally built TK light tanks. The first were operation, including 14 first line units, he
the TK-1 and TK-2 open topped two man only used nine. General Edouard Requin's 4th
vehicles armed with a machine gun, they Army managed to capture 12km (7 miles) of
were followed by the TR-3 reconnaissance German territory while General Conde's 3rd
vehicle. The 7 TP light tank based on the
Vickers Six-Ton was initially armed with two BELOW: British troops help bring in the harvest in
machine guns, but the 7TP-2, of which about France in the autumn of 1 9 3 9 . Though not
170 were built, mounted a Swedish Bofors military t r a i n i n g , activity like this helped to keep
37mm anti-tank gun with a coaxial 7.92mm men busy and maintain morale.
BLITZKRIEG
I
n the east in great curving thrusts the cloud and rain - it would come a few days
attacking German tanks and mechanised after their last units had surrendered.
infantry supported by dive-bombers cut The Luftwaffe had more than 5,600 opera-
off the Polish armies. The Germans were tional aircraft and deployed 1,500 for the attack
enjoying "Fuhrer's weather" - a dry sunny on Poland. Of these 897 were bombers and 426
autumn, perfect for flying and ideal for trucks fighters with additional reconnaissance and
and armoured vehicles. The Poles prayed for transport aircraft. Opposite them the Polish
ABOVE: Hitler meets the Polish Foreign Minister Colonel Jozef Beck in the last days of peace.
36
BLITZKRIEG
ABOVE: An He111 seen from the glazed cockpit of another bomber in the formation
ABOVE: Stukas peel off to attack. The howl of the Among the more colourful Luftwaffe dive
diving aircraft as well as their accuracy made bomber experts whose aircraft attacked the
them a very effective psychological w e a p o n . Polish airfields and bridges was Wolfram
Freiherr von Richthofen. He was a cousin of
LEFT: A Junkers Flugzeug und M o t o r w e r k e Manfred von Richthofen, the World War I
advertisement celebrates the J u 8 7 Stuka dive fighter ace known as the "Red Baron" and
bomber. commander of the squadron known as the
"Flying Circus". In 1936 Wolfram had served
railways as well as more immediate military as Chief of Staff to General Hugo Sperrle and
targets like headquarters and airfields. Generalmajor Helmuth Volkmann, the
The c o m m a n d e r s of the Lotnictwo commanders of the Legion Kondor in Spain.
Wojskowe had anticipated a German air In 1958 as an Oberst von Richthofen was its
attack and though their airfields were final commander. In Poland he commanded
destroyed, the planes on the ground were the Fliegerkorps VIII, three squadrons of Ju87
non-fliers grounded with mechanical prob- Stukas that b e c a m e "flying artillery"
lems. Airworthy planes had been dispersed providing very efficient close support for the
to emergency strips and put up a brief and Panzers.
brave defence. The problem of correct aircraft recognition
39
BLITZKRIEG
PZKPFW II AUSF A, B, C
Polish armies
German attacks
Polish pockets
RIGHT: Mounted G e r m a n
troops advance through
Poland. Though the Panzers
were the cutting edge many
soldiers marched or rode on
horseback.
BLITZKRI EG
RIGHT: General G u d e r i a n
watches in his SdKfz 2 5 1
half track command vehicle
as a signal is d e c o d e d . The
Enigma encryption machine
has been c r o p p e d out of the
bottom of the picture by the
w a r t i m e German censor.
that would bedevil all combatants in World cruisers RMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau,
War II appeared in the campaign in Poland. three "pocket battleship" light battle cruisers,
Colonel von Mellenthin, the Intelligence two heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, 22
Officer with III Corps, recalled: destroyers and 43 U-boats. There were two
"A low flying aircraft circled over Corps obsolete pre-Dreadnought battleships, the
battle headquarters and everyone let fly with Schlesien and the Schleswig-Holstein, the
whatever he could grab. An air-liaison officer latter had opened the fighting. The Polish
ran out trying to stop the fusillade and Navy under Rear Admiral Jozef Swirski had
shouting to the excited soldiery that this was only three modern destroyers and five
a German command plane - one of the good modern submarines as well as 23 aircraft and
old Fieseler Storche. Soon afterwards the a small number of coastal craft.
aircraft landed and out stepped the Luftwaffe The six Panzer and four Light Divisions
general responsible for our close air support. that formed the cutting edge of the ground
He failed to appreciate the joke". attack on Poland were still only equipped
Offshore in the Baltic the Kriegsmarine - with PzKpfw I and PzKpfw II light tanks and
the German Navy - had the modern battle ex-Czech PzKpfw 38(t) and 35(t) tanks. The
.',:,
BLITZKRIEG
a Panzer Regiment commanded by Oberst for the onboard radios linked to their Enigma
Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma - a veteran of encryption equipment. His driver nearly
armoured operations in Spain. It outflanked e n d e d t h e c a r e e r of t h i s i l l u s t r i o u s
a Polish position at the Jublenka Pass by commander when on the first day as they
making a 80.5km (50 mile) night march advanced through morning mist they came
through densely wooded hill country and so under unexpected artillery fire. Guderian
achieved complete surprise. was such an enthusiastic exponent of forward
On the larger scale Guderian handled his command that his own gunners had taken his
XIX Corps, composed of two Panzer and two vehicle to be Polish.
Motorised Divisions, as single entity leading Guderian ordered his driver to turn round
it from the front in an SdKfz 251/6 halftrack and move away, however he panicked and
armoured command vehicle. drove the halftrack at full speed into a ditch,
The SdRfz215/6 mittler Kommando bending the front axle and rendering the
Panzerwagen had a distinctive frame antenna vehicle immobile. "This" remarked Guderian
BLITZKRIEG
"marked the end of my first drive". RIGHT: A g r e n a d i e r pitches a stick grenade into a
The right flank of the Pomorze Army under Polish position. The Stielhandgranate 2 4 was
Brigadier General Boltuc was beaten after a easy to operate, the friction pull cord was in the
two-day battle along the River Ursa and Lake hollow handle covered by a screw cap and gave
Melno and pushed south. A thrust by the XIX a d e l a y of 4 to 5 seconds.
Panzer Corps broke the Polish defence on the
western bank of the Vistula along the Brahe to withdraw through the Corridor to Chelmno
on the first day of fighting. The German tanks and Grudziadz. The Danzig Corridor was no
reached the Vistula and around the southern more, the Pomorze Army had lost 50 per cent
Tuchel Heath cut off two Polish infantry divi- of its strength and was forced back to Torun
sions and a cavalry brigade that were trying and Bydgoszcz.
The Poznan Army under General Kutrzeba
BELOW: A n M G 3 4 crew prepare to give covering had only limited contacts in the first few days
fire over an improvised Polish r o a d block. The of the campaign. The Lodz Army however
M G 3 4 was the first G e n e r a l Purpose M a c h i n e fought for two days against the combined
Gun that could be used in the light or medium forces of the German 8th and 14th Armies.
medium role and fired by one man. On Saturday September 2 the situation of
BLITZKRIEG
BRYGADA KAWALERII
B-1
T heJu87,Universallyknown as the Stuka from
acronym for Sturzkampfflugzeug -
- developed a reputation as an
awesome instrument of war during the Polish
campaign. The scream of the diving aircraft was
terrifying to men attacked on the ground. Some
aft were fitted with sirens called Jericho-
Trompeten - the Trumpets of Jericho - fitted to the
spatted undercarriage to enhance the psycholog-
ical shock. It was superb in a close support role
where A A defence was negligible and where
tile fighters were not present. At the outbreak
of war the Luftwaffe had 3 3 6 Ju87B-1s on its
strength.
strength.
the Cracow Army was critical and the threat encircle the Cracow Army from the north. At
from the north and south forced General this point the Cracow Army started receiving
Szylling to order a withdrawal along the reports that German forces had appeared in
Vistula behind the Rivers Dunajec and Nida. the Beskid Mountains on their left flank.
With Polish forces withdrawing a gap devel- This was the 17th and 22nd Corps part of the
oped in t h e c e n t r a l s e c t o r b e t w e e n 14th Army.
C z e s t o c h o w a , P i e t r k o w , Kielce a n d Despite the critical situation of his armies
Sandomierz. Marshal Rydz-Smigly still believed that the
By Saturday evening after Germans had Polish armies could pull back to defensive
encircled the left flank of the Lodz Army the positions on river lines and hold the assaults.
Polish forces were forced to withdraw from On S u n d a y S e p t e m b e r 3 G e n e r a l
their positions on along the Rivers Warta and Kasprzycki was ordered to prepare Warsaw
Widawaka. They were under intense pres- for defence. To the north of the city troops
sure from the XV and XVI Panzer Corps that commanded by General Przedrzymirski-
had pushed into the gap between the Lodz Krukowiecki that had held positions at Mlawa
and Cracow Armies and smashed the Polish against attacks by the 1st Corps was forced
7th Infantry Division u n d e r Brigadier to withdraw during the night of September 3
General Gasiorowski. - 4 to avoid encirclement.
This allowed the 10th Army to push On Monday General Piskor took command
towards Pietrkow and Kielce and threaten to of the Polish forces along the central Vistula
BLITZKRIEG
and formed them into the Army of Lublin. To sive positions was now threatened from the
block Polish forces withdrawing behind the south by fast moving German forces.
Vistula the Army Group South ordered the On Wednesday September 6 the XVI and XV
14th Army to drive for the River San. Panzer Corps punched through the Prusy
Meanwhile the right flank of the 10th Army Army at Tomaszow and fought their way
was to block the withdrawal of Polish troops towards Warsaw. The 22nd Army Corps
from the area of Kielce-Radom, while its left under vonKleisthad reached Tarnow and the
flank was to smash forces in the Pietrkow- Polish defence line had been split open
Tomaszow Maz area and advance on Warsaw between Czestochowa and Warsaw.
to cut off the withdrawal of the enemy from A day later Marshal Rydz-Smigly aban-
Lodz and Poznan. Luftwaffe dive bombers doned his headquarters in Warsaw and
flying continuous sorties had pulverised the moved eastwards to Brest-Litovsk.
Modlin Army and it crossed the Vistula German assessments of Polish options
leaving Warsaw unprotected from the north. were not to try and hold the Vistula but
The German 3rd Army had pushed from attempt to hold a line behind the Narev,
Ciechanow to the Narev and formed a bridge- Vistula and San while concentrating about
head on the left bank. The Pomorze Army that seven to ten divisions around Lublin.
had successfully reached its fall back defen- The OKH, Oberkommando des Heeres -
BLITZKRIEG
Right: G e r m a n soldiers
prepare a message
c a r r y i n g Alsatian d o g .
Dogs were used in the w a r
to locate casualties, find
mines a n d even by the
Russians as living anti-tank
mines.
BELOW: M a r s h a l Rydz-Smigly
the Polish C-in-C, the first
victim of Blitzkrieg tactics.
51
WEEK TWO
The disintegration and surrender of the scattered or encircled remnants of
the Polish Army is proceeding rapidly...Hostilities have resumed outside
Warsaw after the Polish truce delegate failed to turn up. The Poles are
defending the city without thought for the population of over one million.
OKW Communique September 19, 1939
O
n Saturday September 9, 1939 the with the tanks and infantry of the 4th Army.
OKH ordered the German 8th Army to Meanwhile in the south the Carpathian
a c c e l e r a t e its advance towards Army was forced back from its positions on
Warsaw to cut off the Pomorze and Poznan the River Dunajec towards Przemysl.
Armies which were withdrawing in contact Initial probes into Warsaw by tanks of the
ABOVE: Germans soldiers nervously scan the ruins RIGHT: House clearing G e r m a n style, breaking
of W a r s a w for snipers. into a building in W a r s a w .
52
BLITZKRIEG
BLITZKRIEG
4th Panzer Division met with tough resist- Polish armies and initially the attack was a
ance in the suburbs and after three hours the shock. In a three day battle at Kutno the Poles
Germans withdrew after losing 57 of the 120 virtually destroyed the 30th Infantry Division
tanks they had committed. commanded by Major General von Briesen
On September 10, the 3rd Army and the XVI and forced the Germans back 16km (10
Panzer Corps had trapped ten Polish divisions miles) before, supported by air attacks in
around Modlin. The Polish force was made vicious fighting near Lowicz and Sochaczew,
up of elements of the Pomorze Army and the reinforcements from the German 10th Army
Poznan Army that was almost intact. A checked the attack.
desperate battle now opened between the
Germans and the Poznan and Pomorze BELOW: Flames roar from a building in a Polish
Armies trying to break out of encirclement v i l l a g e as G e r m a n soldiers c a r r y i n g respirators
across the River Bzura where they managed and assault equipment scan the streets.
to capture bridgeheads near Lowicz.
The Poznan Army attacked in a south east RIGHT: Shells or bombs have set fire to this house,
direction against the advancing German 8th silhouetting the G e r m a n troops dashing through
Army. The OKH had lost contact with the two the streets to clear the v i l l a g e .
BLITZKRIEG
BLITZKRIEG
On September 10 the left flank of Army when the cohesive Polish resistance began to
Group North attacked south and south east collapse. The XV and XVI Panzer Corps and
across the River Narev encircling the bulk of the 4th Army Corps had encircled the Prusy
the Polish Narev Operational Group under Army at Radom and its commander General
General Mlot-Fijalkowski at Zambrowo. At Dab-Biernacki along with 60,000 soldiers was
the industrial city of Radom on the bend of forced to surrender. To the north on the same
Vistula fighting had reached a crescendo. day the 1st Army Corps severed the Poles
On the same day to the south the 14th Army eastward communications with Warsaw.
established bridgeheads across the River San Despite the breakdown of command and
on either side of Przemysl. Meanwhile to the control the Poles were far from beaten. On
north Guderian's XIX Panzer Corps had September 11 the Army of Poznan continued
carved its way through the Narev Operational its attacks from Bzura towards Strykow, but
Group and annihilated the Polish 18th General Kutrzeba realised that these attacks
Infantry at Lomza. When the XIX Panzer were making no headway and so shifted his
Corps reached Brest Litovsk the Polish high army to the lower Bzura and then thrust east-
command realised that they would be unable ward to open a path to Warsaw. He believed
to move the front to establish positions that this new unexpected axis might catch the
behind the River Bug. enemy around Lodz by surprise.
Monday September 11 marked the day The 4th Army Corps commanded by
56
BLITZKRIEG
LEFT: A Waffen-SS M G 3 4
crew with their machine gun
mounted on a Dreifuss 3 4
A A tripod take aim at a
ground target. O p e n i n g the
b i p o d helped to give the
w e a p o n a better centre of
gravity on this mount.
General von Schwedler formed weak bridge- On Saturday September 16 von Rundstedt
heads across the Vistula at Annapol and Solec started the final encirclement of the Armies
on September 14. The ad hoc formation of the of Poznan and Pomorze. The battered divi-
Lublin Army was now in no condition to sions of the Army of Poznan managed to fight
oppose them. The major threat was however through to the lower Bzura, but the Army of
to the south where the 14th Army had crossed Pomorze was cut off and trapped in the
the River San, reached Lvov and so cut off a confluence of the Rivers Vistula and Bzura.
withdrawal route to the south east for the In a l e t t e r h o m e a s o l d i e r of t h e
Carpathian Army and any other Polish forces Leibstandarte-Adolf Hitler later recalled the
that might attempt to escape to Hungary and shock of war.
Romania. When the 22nd Army Corps under "Our advance took us across that part of the
General von Kleist reached Hrubieszow they battlefield which had been held by the so-
cut off the Cracow Army from the south and called Pomorze Army. The whole area was a
also blocked withdrawal routes into the hills scene of death and destruction. The bloated
around Lublin. bodies of men and animals blackening under
The following day the 14th Army was the hot sun, smashed carts, burnt out vehi-
ordered to advance towards Tarnopol and cles and those most tragic victims of war, the
Stanislawow to block retreat routes to wounded horses, waiting for the mercy shot.
Romania which was still neutral. Everywhere there was evidence of a beaten
The converging German armies had army covering the ground.
surrounded Warsaw by September 15 and "Now I understand what the words of our
demanded that the city surrender. It refused song mean:
and was subject to what at the time was seen 'Man and horse and wagon, the Lord God
as a massive air attack. struck them all down...'"
57
T H E STAB IN THE BACK
"The Soviet Union can no longer remain indifferent to the sufferings of its
blood-brothers the Ukrainians and Belorussians who, inhabitants of Polish
territory, are being abandoned to their fate and left defenceless. In considera-
tion of this situation the Soviet Government has ordered the Red Army to
send its troops across the frontier to take under their protection the lives and
welfare of the populations of western Ukraine and western Belorussia."
Vladimir Potemkin,
Soviet Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs
03.00 September 17, 1939
T
he Soviet Union attacked Poland on
Sunday September 17 and the Polish
government fled across the border
into Romania, but was interned following
Soviet pressure. The invading Soviet forces
consisted of the Belorussian Front (Army
Group) under General Kovalev made up of
the Vitebsk, Bobruisk, 10th and 11th Armies
and to the south the Ukrainian Front under
General Timoshenko composed of the
Zhitomir, Vinnitsa and 12th Armies. The
Pripet Marshes that divided the two Fronts
proved no obstacle to their advance.
Committed to their fight to the death in the
west the Polish forces were in no condition
to offer a coherent resistance though they
hung onto the important rail junction of
Moledeczno on the line between Minsk and
Vilna. In the first day's fighting the Red Air
Force reported that it had shot down seven
Polish fighters and three bombers and the
Army said that its troops "were greeted with
cheers by the local White Russian and ABOVE: A German N C O swigs from his water
Ukrainian populations". bottle in the heat of the autumn sun.
The surviving 116 aircraft of the Lotnictwo
Wojskowe flew into Romania where they RIGHT: The crew of a Polish Bofors 4 0 m m medium
were interned. anti-aircraft gun scan the sky. The Poles had
On that grim Sunday the XIX Panzer Corps limited A A defences.
BLITZKRIEG
BLITZKRIEG
under Guderian drove along the right bank ABOVE: Hitler scans the front through artillery
of the Vistula, seized Wlodawa and formed a observers' periscope binoculars. He w o u l d gloat
bridgehead on the left bank of the Bug. His over France less than a year later but as the w a r
reconnaissance and advanced forces had swung against the Third Reich his visits to the
reached the Lublin-Kovel railway and so cut front became infrequent.
off Polish forces on the northern front from
retreat behind the Bug. after evacuating Przemysl and were now
Meanwhile the 4th Army Corps advancing attempting to push towards Lvov.
from the Annapol area on the axis Krasnik - The remnants of the Army of Pomorze
Krasnystaw - Lublin cut the Polish Army of finally surrendered between September 18 -
Lublin in half while the 14th Army blocked 19 inside the Bzura pocket. The remains of
routes to the south. the Army of Poznan fought their way through
The 14th Army was now aligned west along to Warsaw. By now the capital had a garrison
the line Zamosc - Tomaszow - Lubelski. Its of 180,000. However few were adequately
centre then pushed towards Lvov encoun- armed.
tering violent resistance and was attacked Units of von Reichenau's 10th Army and
from the rear by elements of the Army of the List's 14th Army surrounded the 60,000
Carpathians. The Poles had been encircled strong Army of Lublin on Wednesday
BLITZKRIEG
September 20 and its commander General tries that at the time were still neutral and
Pyskor was forced to surrender. eventually some 120,000 managed to escape
On September 21 Soviet troops reached to serve with the Allies.
Lvov. The garrison under General Langner Warsaw capitulated on September 27, and
put up a tough resistance for ten days before on the same day Hitler summoned his
being obliged to surrender. Soviet forces generals to a conference in Berlin and told
finally halted on the north south line of the them that he planned to invade France and
Rivers San and Bug. When Soviet forces demanded to know how long it would take
linked up with the German 4th Army at Brest- for them to prepare for the attack.
Litovsk on September 18 the German News Ten Polish divisions trapped near Modlin
Bureau reported smugly "On Monday, north of Warsaw were finally forced to
German and Soviet troop detachments
rendezvoused at Brest-Litovsk: the officers
exchanged greetings".
Hitler entered Danzig in triumph and made
a seemingly conciliatory speech directed at
Britain and France on September 19.
Heavy air raids were directed against
Warsaw on Sunday September 24 to prepare
the way for the ground forces of von
Kuchler's 3rd Army and von Reichenau's 10th
Army who were to attack the following day.
Surviving Polish forces began to fight their
way towards Romania and Hungary, coun-
LEFT: G e n e r a l G u d e r i a n
discusses boundaries
with a Soviet tank
officer f o l l o w i n g the link
up between G e r m a n
and Russian forces in
eastern Poland.
BLITZKRIEG
Above: The Fuhrer greets his victors. There w o u l d War I these losses seemed minute. The Soviet
be more triumphs in the next three years feeding Union lost 737 dead and 1,859 wounded.
an illusion of invincibility that w o u l d perish in the The Poles lost 70,000 killed and 130,000
snows of Russia. wounded while the survivors marched into
grim captivity. They had been unable to
hand grenades they threw from their cock- mobilise their full strength from September
pits in a final gesture of defiance. 1 and so had only 540,000 men and 160 tanks
On Friday October 6 Hitler visited the men in the field. Crucially they had been let down
of the 8th Army outside Warsaw and ordered by Anglo French forces in the West.
a parade of the men who had taken part in At the close of the campaign in Poland
the fighting in the Polish capital. The OKW Guderian derived considerable satisfaction
reported that morning that the last remnants from the report that at one time only 25 per
of the Polish army, approximately 8,000 men cent of German vehicles were out of action
under General Kleeberg, surrendered at through mechanical problems. The
Rock east of Deblin. Panzerwaffe had come a long way from the
The campaign had cost the Germans 8,082 unreliable vehicles that had crawled into
killed, 27,278 wounded and 5,029 missing. Austria only eighteen months before.
Compared to the grim butcher's bill of World After action analysis established that the
BLITZKRIEG
Artur Seyss-Inquart. Under their direction Occupied France working in factories, farms
between September 1959 and June 1940, or on defences.
2,000 Polish men and women were appre- On Sunday October 1, 1959 the British
hended and executed. The first execution of Prime Minister Winston Churchill broad-
107 men took place in Wawer, a town near casting to the world summed up the feelings
Warsaw, on December 27, 1959. of the West. "Poland has again been overrun
They were the first of about three million by two of the great Powers which held her in
who would die. During the war Poland lost bondage for 150 years, but were unable to
45 per cent of her doctors, 57 per cent of her quench the spirit of the Polish nation. The
lawyers, 40 per cent of her academics, 50 per heroic defence of Warsaw shows that the soul
cent of her engineers, 185 of her clergy and of Poland is indestructible, and that she will
most of her journalists. The Germans rise again like a rock which may for a spell
deported approximately 2,000,000 Polish men be submerged by a tidal wave, but which
and women for forced labour in the Reich and remains a rock."
O
n Wednesday November 29, 1939 the "mutual assistance pact" was agreed between
USSR attacked Finland. The Soviet the USSR and Latvia. In June 1940, while the
leader Joseph Stalin had already world watched the German invasion of the
established with the Nazi foreign minister West, the USSR effortlessly gathered up the
Joachim von Ribbentrop that the Baltic States three tiny states.
of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were in the Finland however was a different customer.
Soviet sphere of influence. In October 1939 a Stalin saw the close proximity of the Finnish
66
BLITZKRIEG
border to Leningrad, the second city of the to death, 50 tanks as well as artillery and
USSR, as a threat. He offered a mutual assis- vehicles. The Finnish casualties were 900
tance treaty and demanded that Finland cede dead and 1,770 wounded.
areas of the Karelian Isthmus close to In Germany officers in the OKW noted the
Leningrad. Finland refused on both counts incompetent performance of the Soviet divi-
and without warning the USSR attacked. sions and their poor equipment.
Finland had a peacetime army of barely The Soviet 10th and 20th Heavy Tank
30,000 men grouped in nine divisions Brigades equipped with multi-turreted T-28
composed of three infantry regiments. also suffered heavy losses from the small
Finland had 60 largely obsolete tanks, 150 number of Finnish anti-tank gun crews on
aircraft and 22 anti-aircraft guns. the Mannerheim Line. They nicknamed the
In the bitter winter of 1939 - 40, reserves clumsy vehicles "The Mail Train".
were mobilised and 15 Finnish divisions went In February 1940 the Allied War Council
into action inflicting heavy defeats on 45 decided to send a 50,000 strong expeditionary
Soviet divisions. At Suomussalmi in Karelia force to support Finland. As it was being
on January 5, 1940 outnumbered Finnish ski assembled the Soviet Union committed more
troops of the 9th Division under Colonel forces to the attack.
Siilasvuo counter-attacked the Soviet 163rd
and 44th Divisions and destroyed them. The
Soviet forces lost 27,500 men killed or frozen
T-28
T hough a medium tank, with its three turrets the T-28
d to observers in Moscow
e May Day parade superficially like a heavy tank,
went through four modifications during its
action run from 1933 to 1940.
by the time of the Winter War against Finland there
e two T-28 Brigades, the 10th and 20th Heavy Tank
Brigades. In an attempt to improve the level of defence
the frontal armour on the hull and turret was increased
from 50mm (1.96in) to 80mm (3.14in) and the rear
and sides to 40mm (1.57in) by adding additional
"screened armour". The weight increased to 32,510kg
Despite heavy losses between February 1 aircraft and 1,600 tanks. The Finns lost 25,000
and 13 the massively reinforced Northwest men and were forced to sign a treaty on
Front under General Semyon Timoshenko March 15, 1940 in which they ceded the city
composed of the 7th Army under General of Viborg, the Karelian Isthmus and other
Merestokov and 13th Army under General territory.
Grendal punched through the defences of the On February 16, 1940 a boarding party
Mannerheim Line that covered the Karelian from the destroyer HMS Cossack had
Isthmus north of Leningrad. Finland was released 299 British merchant sailors held
crushed by sheer weight of numbers. The prisoner aboard the German supply ship KMS
Soviet Union eventually forced her to capit- Altmark sheltering in Jossing Fjord in
ulate on March 12,1940. The Winter War had Norway.
cost the Russians 200,000 men, nearly 700 In 1940 Norway was neutral and German
68
BLITZKRIEG
ABOVE: The slim fuselage of the Dornier D o 1 7 , the BELOW: An E Boat on patrol. Ideal for operations
fast medium bomber and reconnaissance aircraft in the Baltic these fast torpedo boats w o u l d later
nicknamed the "Flying Pencil". extend their operations to the C h a n n e l .
BLITZKRIEG
cargo ships used her ice free port of Narvik ABOVE: The smashed hull of the Tribal Class
to collect high-grade Swedish iron ore for the destroyer HMS Eskimo hit by bombs off N o r w a y .
war industries of the Ruhr. The British She limped back to Britain, was rebuilt a n d
considered mining the coastal waters to survived the w a r to be scrapped at Troon in
disrupt this traffic and even making a landing Scotland in 1 9 4 9 .
at Narvik. With two Fuhrer Directives on
February 26 and March 1 Hitler forestalled The Royal Danish Navy of 3,000 had
these moves with Fall N, Case N for North. submarines, torpedo boats and two elderly
The invasion plans were given the code name coastal defence vessels the Niels, Juel and
Operation Weserubung - Weser Exercise, a Peder Skram. They also manned the forts and
name that sounded like a simple river coastal defences. The Royal Danish Air Force
crossing exercise. had 50 mostly obsolete aircraft.
Weserubung originally scheduled for March At 04.15 on April 9, 1940 two German
20 was quite simply the invasion of Denmark motorised brigade groups from the XXXI
and Norway. Corps commanded by General Kaupisch
The Danes had a tiny Army of 14,000 men. crossed the north German border with
70
BLITZKRIEG
RIGHT: AS German
forces landed in
Norway
Norwegian, French
and British forces
attempted to block
their advance.
Halted at
Lillehammer the
Allies were forced
back and landings
at Namsos were
also counter
attacked.
urn MK 1
T heGlosterGladiatorentered service in
le last biplane fighter
Air Arm (FAA). Two
squadrons, No 263 and No 8 0 4
ators took part
in the Norwegian campaign. Some aircraft
ated off frozen lake Lesjaskog when
airfields were not available or had been
bombed. The Sea Gladiator had a catapult
point, arrester hook and stowage for a
dinghy. When it had been withdrawn from
front line service it was used for liaison and
rneteorological work until 1 9 4 4 .
72
BLITZKRIEG
73
BLITZKRIEG
=§
Frederik IX who remained in the country ABOVE: A 2cm Flak 3 0 A A gun with range finder
provided a focus for loyalty and until August covers G e r m a n shipping in a N o r w e g i a n fjord.
1943 the government retained some degree The gun had a maximum vertical range of 2 , 0 0 0
of independence. metres and could be depressed for use against
Denmark was effectively a stepping stone ground targets.
for the Germans for the invasion of Norway.
The German forces intended for this opera- RIGHT: Endless columns of G e r m a n troops march
tion, commanded by Colonel General Niklaus into Oslo w a t c h e d by small crowds.
von Falkenhorst, were divided into five
groups. Bergen from the light cruisers RMS Koln and
Group I with ten destroyers carrying the RMS Konigsberg, the Gunnery Training ship
139th Gebirgsjager Regiment were to land at RMS Bremse and the depot ship RMS Karl
Narvik in the north. Group II with the heavy Peters. Group IV at Kristians and Arendal
cruiser RMS Hipper and four destroyers deliv- composed of one battalion of the 310th
ered the 138th Gebirgsjager Regiment to Regiment was to land from the light cruiser
Trondheim. Group III composed of two RMS Karlsruhe and the depot ship RMS
battalions of the 69th Division would land at Tsingtau. Group V made up of two battalions
BLITZKRIEG
BLITZKRIEG
'7- J L
Ju52/3M G7E
T h e rugged Tante Ju" - Auntie Junkers -
with its distinctive corrugated fuselage
was the transport workhorse for the
Luftwaffe throughout the war. A total of
4 , 8 5 0 were built and ironically the largest
operator of the type after the Germans was
over 80 captured or
ift. The USAAF had one Ju52
gnation C-79 and
the RAF had two. It was aboard Ju52s that
• were carried to Crete
in the assault in 1 9 4 1 .
of the 163rd Division would land at Oslo, the forces were not fully mobilised they put up a
Norwegian capital, where they would be tough and very creditable resistance. The
assisted by airborne forces. The Oslo Group peacetime strength of the Norwegian Army
would be supported by the pocket battleship was six divisions that would on mobilisation
RMS Lutzow (formerly the Deutschland), the be expanded to a force of 56,000. The bulk of
heavy cruiser RMS Blucher and light cruiser the divisions were concentrated in the south,
RMS Emden. the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th close to the capital
T h e y w o u l d be b a c k e d by t h e X Oslo, w h i l e the 5th w a s b a s e d n e a r
Fliegerkorps commanded by Lt General Hans Trondheim and the 6th at Narvik.
Geissler with 290 bombers, 40 Stukas, 100 The Navy that had been partially mobilised
fighters and 70 floatplanes. In addition the in 1939 had four new escort destroyers, a new
Luftwaffe corps had 500 Ju52 transports that minelayer, two large but outmoded coastal
allowed troops and equipment to be moved defence vessels, three small pre-1918
across mountain ridges or deep fjords. destroyers and about 40 smaller vessels. The
Norway, like Finland, was not a nation coastal forts partially manned and the naval
prepared to accept invasion and though her air force brought the total mobilised
77
BLITZKRIEG
78
BLITZKRIEG
79
BLITZKRIEG
RIGHT: Following
the destruction
of their shipping
in two attacks
by the Royal
N a v y the
German forces
at N a r v i k were
forced back
against the
Swedish border
and were close
to defeat in the
spring of 1 9 4 0 .
80
BLITZKRIEG
ABOVE: G e r m a n gunners man a captured wave of troops that the Fuhrer was sending
N o r w e g i a n coastal defence gun covering the to the aid of Norway.
approaches to O s l o . The delays imposed by the defences on the
German task force at Oslo gave Ring Haakon
LEFT: A Gebirgsjager with a Solothurn M G 3 0 light VII and the Norwegian Royal family enough
machine g u n . A special trigger a l l o w e d single time to escape. Eventually they went via
shots or bursts to be fired. Andalsnes to Great Britain taking with them
the Norwegian gold reserves aboard the
At Bergen the light cruiser RMS Konigsberg cruiser HMS Devonshire. A Norwegian
was crippled by two 210mm shells fired by a Government in exile headed by the Ring was
coastal battery. Unable to put to sea she was established in London on May 5.
sunk by aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm on April Earlier Ring Haakon had refused to accept
11. Earlier naval actions offshore should have a government headed by the Norwegian Nazi
given the Norwegian government warning Vidkun Quisling stating that he would rather
that the country was about to be attacked. On abdicate than endorse the Norwegian traitor.
the morning of April 8 the Polish submarine On April 8 the men of the 15,900 ton heavy
Orzel had sunk the German transport Rio de cruiser RMS Admiral Hipper encountered the
Janeiro off Kristiansand and the survivors had 1,345 ton d e s t r o y e r HMS Glowworm
told the Norwegians that they were the first commanded by Lieutenant Commander
BLITZKRIEG
82
LEFT: A German d i a g r a m shows how KMS was split b e t w e e n Lt General Massy
Admiral Hipper manoeuvred to a v o i d the commanding Allied Forces Central Norway
torpedoes fired by the destroyer HMS Glowworm. and North Norway under Admiral Lord Cork
The ship then went on to ram the cruiser. and Orrery.
At Andalsnes the British 148th Brigade
ABOVE: Following the attack on A p r i l 18 some of commanded by Brigadier Morgan pushed
the 3 0 survivors, seen through a gun sight on inland along the line of the railway to Oslo
Hipper, cling to the sinking remains of HMS and at Lillehammer encountered the German
Glowworm. 163rd Infantry Division and was forced back.
The Allies evacuated the port on April 30.
and III. Southern Norway passed under The Anglo French 146th Brigade that
German control by April 16. However in the landed at Namsos was commanded by the
north the French, Polish and British forces dashing Major General Carton de Wiart VC.
that had originally been intended for Finland Wounded in World War I he now sported a
were landed near Narvik on April 15, a day piratical black eye patch. It was persuaded by
later at Namsos and on April 18 at Andalsnes. the Norwegian commander General Ruge to
Allied operational responsibility for Norway move south to assist Norwegian troops
BLITZKRIEG
RENAULT R-35
D eveloped
World War I vintage Renault FT 17. By
1940 1,600 had been built. The tank was
the
holding Lillehammer but was forced back. Colonel Konrad Sundlo, a Quisling. However
French 5th Demi-Brigade Chasseurs Alpins in two naval actions on April 9 and April 13,
arrived on April 24 but were unable to halt 1940 the Royal Navy had attacked destroyers
the withdrawal and the port was evacuated and cargo ships. The British accounted for
on May 2. nine destroyers and seven t r a n s p o r t s
At Narvik the German forces surprised the including the German ammunition ship RMS
elderly coastal defence ships Eidsvold and Rauenfels that blew up. In the first attack the
Norge and landed, obtaining the surrender of Royal Navy had suffered losses including the
BLITZKRIEG
85
BLITZKRIEG
destroyer HMS Hardy and the death of its the 137th Gebirgsjager Regiment who had
Captain and the commander of the 2nd received a crash parachute course. The 2,600
Destroyer Flotilla, Captain B. A.W. Warburton- sailors now trapped ashore were equipped
Lee, who was awarded a posthumous VC. with 8,000 rifles and 325 machine guns taken
In the second attack the Royal Navy came from the Norwegian Army 6th Division depot
back in force with the battleship HMS at Elvegardsmoen and became "Mountain
Warspite as well as destroyers and sank the Marines".
remaining German ships commanded by A joint F r e n c h and Polish force
Commodore Paul Bonte. There was jubilation c o m m a n d e d by Lt G e n e r a l C l a u d e
in Paris and London as the Germans under Auchinleck, who would later serve with
Generaloberst Eduard Dietl were now distinction in North Africa, landed in the
trapped in Narvik. Narvik area between April 28 and May 7.
The German soldiers and sailors were rein- French and Polish troops under General
forced by parachute troops including men of Marie Emile Bethouart grouped as the 1er
86
BLITZKRIEG
87
BLITZKRIEG
PZKPFW V (NEUBAUFAHRZEUG)
91
BLITZKRIEG
BLITZKRIEG
About 40,000 Norwegians were imprisoned Communism was a cause with which they
or sent to concentration camps, of whom could find sympathy.
about 2,000 including 700 Jews died. A The conquest of Denmark and Norway had
further 500 Norwegians were killed or cost the Germans 2,700 men, over 200 aircraft
executed for resistance activities. Total war and a number of their most modern warships.
related civilian losses in the Norway during The British had lost 4,400, the Norwegians
World War II were 8,000. Not all Norwegians 1,355 and the French and Poles 530. Though
resisted the German invaders. About 5,000 the Royal Navy had lost the aircraft carrier
volunteers joined the Finnish Army and HMS Glorious and with it 1,500 men, the
Waffen-SS and m a d e up the 5th SS- depletion of the Kriegsmarine that was a far
Panzerdivision "Wiking" and the Waffen-SS smaller force would weigh significantly in the
Division "Nordland" which fought on the plans for the invasion of Britain that were
Eastern Front. For many men in occupied only considered after the Fall of France in
Europe combat against the USSR and June 1940.
BLITZKRIEG
BLITZKRIEG
95
BLITZKRIEG
Lublin, Army, 50, 57, 60 P.37B Los B, 30 Richthofen, Wolfram von, Tuchel Heath, 46
Luftwaffe, 36, 39, 42, 48, Panzer Corps XV, 49,50,56 39 Tsingtau RMS, 74
50,64 Panzer Corps XVI, 32, 49, Rio de Janeiro, 81 U-50, 25
Lutzow, RMS, 77, 78 50, 54, 56 Rommel, Juliusz, 28 U-Boat, 42
Lvov, 57, 60, 61 Panzer Corps XIX, 32, 43, Romania, 57, 58, 61 Ukraine, 58, 62, 64
45, 46, 56, 58 Roope, Gerard, 82 Ukrainian Front, 58
Macksey, P.J., 88 Panzer Division, 42 Ruge, 83, 93 Ultra, 26
Maczek, 47 Panzer Division 4th, 51, 54 Ruhr, 70 Unrug, 62
Madneso, 71 Panzer Lehr, 43 Rundstedt, Gerd von, 7, 32, Ursa, 46
Maginot Line, 35 Paratroops, 71 57 USSR, 21
M a n n e r h e i m Line, 67, 68 Paris, 62 Rydz-Smigly, Edward, 32,
Manstein, Erich von, 7 Pavlov, 21 49, 50, 51 Versailles, Treaty of, 15,
Massy, 83 Peder Skram, 70 17, 19
Mauser, 51 Pietrkow, 49, 50 Saar, Operation, 34 Viborg, 68
Melenthin, F.W. von, 42 Piskor, 49 Saarland, 34, 35 Vickers, 33, 34, 47
Melno, 46 Poland, 14, 15, 20, 22, 23, Salisbury Plain, 10, 12 Victoria Cross, 82
Merestokov, 68 24, 28, 32, 36, 41, 58, 64 San, 35, 50, 56, 57, 61 Vienna, 14, 27
MG 34, 44, 46, 48, 57, 71 Polish Navy, 62 Sandomierz, 49 Vinitsa Army, 58
Mlawa, 49 Pomorze (Pomeranian) Scharnhorst, RMS, 42 Vilna, 58
Mlot-Fijalkowski, 28, 56 Army, 28, 46, 48, 50, 52, Schlesien, RMS, 42 Vindictive, HMS, 90
Modlin, 61 54, 57, 60 Schleswig-Holstein, RMS, Vistula, 8, 34, 55, 46, 49,
Modlin Army, 28, 50 Potemkin, Vladimir, 58 8,42 50, 51, 56, 57, 60
Molededczno, 58 Poznan, 50, 51 Schuschnigg, Kurt, 27 Vitebsk Army, 58
Molotov, Vyacheslav, 31,62 Poznan Army, 28, 46, 48, Schwedler, von, 57 Volkmann, Helmuth, 39
Morgan, 83 52, 54, 56, 57, 60 SD, 16 Volksdeutsche, 26
Moscow, 62 Pretelat, Gaston, 34 SdKfz 251, 45 Volkswagen 18
Minsk, 58 Pripet Marshes, 58 Seyss-Inquart, Artur, 26, 65 Vuillemin, Joseph, 35
Munich, 25, 27 Prisoners of War (PoW), 14 Siberia, 64
Prusy (Prussian) Army, 28, SIG 33, 65 Waffen-SS, 16, 51, 57
Namsos, 83, 50, 51, 56 Signal, 78, 82, 91 Warburton-Lee, BAW, 86
Nansen, Fridtjof, 82 Przedrzymirksi, 28, 49 Siilasvuo, 67 Warndt Forest, 35
Narew Army, 28 Przemysl, 52, 56, 60 Sikorskie, Wladyslaw, 62 Warsaw, 5, 32, 48, 49, 50,
Narev, 34, 35, 50, 51, 56 Pyskor, 61 Skarczinski, 28 51,52,56,57,60,61,63,
Narev Operational Group, Pyskor Group, 28 Skoda, 27 65
56 PzKpfw I, 2 1 , 24, 42, 65, 89 Smolensk, 64 Warspite, HMS, 86
Narvik, 7 0 , 7 7 , 8 8 , 9 1 PzKpfw II, 40, 42, 65 Sochaczew, 54 Warta, 49
Nasjonal Samling, 82 PzKpfw III, 43, 45, 65 Solec, 57 Wawer, 65
Naujocks, Helmut, 15 PzKpfw IV, 43, 45 Soviet Union, 58, 62 Wehrmacht, 9, 13
Netherlands, 62 P z R p f w V Spain, 20, 2 1 , 28, 45 Weiss, Fall, 36
Nida, 49 (Neubaufahrzeug), 90 Sperrle, Hugo, 39 Weserubung, 66, 70
Niels, Juel, 70 PzKpfw 35 (t), 27, 42 SS, 15, 16 Westerplatte, 8, 22
Nordland, 93 PzKpfw 38(t), 4, 27, 42 Stalin, Joseph, 31, 64, 66 Westwall, 34
Norge, 84 PZL-P11c, 30 Steyr-Solothurn MP34, 93 White, Case, 9
North Africa, 62 Storche, Fieseler, 42 White Russia, 58
Northwest Front, 68 Quisling, Vidkun, 8 1 , 82 Strykow, 56 Wiart, Carton de, 83
Norway, 68, 77, 83 Stuka, 38, 39, 48, 77 Widawaka, 49
Norwegian Air Force, 78 Radom, 50, 5 1 , 56 Sundlo, Konrad, 84 Wiking, 93
Norwegian Army, 77 RAF, 10 Suomussalmi, 67 Wlodawa, 60
Norwegian Navy, 77 Rauenfels, RMS, 84 Swirski, Jozef, 42 World War I, 17, 39
Norwegian 6th Div, 91 Red Air Force, 58 Szylling, Antoni, 28, 49 World War II, 17
NSDAP, Nazis, 18 Red Army, 28 Wyskow Group, 28
Reich, Third, 27 T-28, 67, 68
OKH, Oberkommando des Reichenau, Walter von, 32, T-34, 10, 21 Z, Plan, 32
Heeres, 8, 50, 52, 54, 64 60,61 TR3, 33, 34 Zambrowo, 56
OKW, Oberkommando des Reichswehr, 9, 13 Tarnow, 50 Zamosc, 60
Wehrmacht, 23, 67, 91 Reinhardt, 51 Terboven, Josef, 82 Zhitomir Army, 58
Orrery, Lord Cork and, 83, Renown, HMS, 82 Third Reich, 19
88 Requin, Edouard, 34 Thoma, Ritter von, 45
Orzel, 81 Rhineland, 26, 27 Timoshenko, Semyon, 58,
Oscarborg, 78 Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 68
Oslo, 71, 74, 77, 78, 81, 82, 31, 62, 66 Tomaszow, 50, 60
83,90 Richthofen, Manfred von, 39 Trondheim, 77
96
• Over 100 black and white
pictures
• Profiles of the major personalities • Over 20 colour illustrations
• Specifications of weapons and vehicles including maps, weapons
and photographs