The Blitzkrieg tactic was a tactic developed by the Germans but more specifically by Hanz Guderian. He produced a book, Achtung Panzer. He said, Strike hard, strike quickly, and do not disperse your forces. Hence the name, Blitzkrieg, which means, lightning war. Blitzkrieg tactics definitely played a very big part in the defeat of Germany's enemies. The Germans definitely had superior air power with their Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers. The Luftwaffe did rule the skies with majority in numbers, and more effective aircraft. On the ground however, it was a different matter. The Panzers (German tanks) were outnumbered by the British and French tanks. The tactic in which they deployed made them superior. The British and French spread their tanks out. They gave each infantry platoon a certain number of tanks. Maybe a pair, maybe a few more but the basic message is that their tanks were more or less independent and fought alongside infantry. The difference with the German tanks, was that they moved in divisions. They had Panzer armoured divisions of about three or four hundred tanks which were much more powerful than an infantry section with a few tanks. The massing of tanks was also a part of Blitzkrieg and that helped immensely. The object of surprise played a major role in the war. Poland had more men and if they knew the Germans were coming, Germany still would have won but they would have suffered a great deal more of losses. Blitzkrieg was an ingenious war tactic yet it wasn't the only reason for which Germany defeated its enemies. Germany also tactfully new where to attack and knew the areas where they would not be expected to come through. The maginot line was a series of really strong forces along the French-German border. It was 93 miles long but it was 250 miles short of the sea. The French began building extensions but they weren't finished in time. The French had 400,000 men on the Maginot line and both the French and the Germans knew that attacking the Maginot line would be suicidal to attack. The Allies predicted that the Germans would attack from northern Belgium. They thought this because southern Belgian was home to the Ardennes, a hilly region covered in woodland.The Allies predicted that if the Germans attacked from there, and a big IF at that, then it would take them 2 weeks at least to break through the dense woods and even then only in small numbers.Well, the Germans attacked from there and the French only had 100,000 unequipped, badly trained men, there.The Germans broke through the hills in 3 days, and they broke through by the hundreds of thousands 1800 Panzers broke through and infantry sections came through by the thousands.
