Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk [Hardcover]

The book is basically an attempt to explain Hitler's victory in 1940 in the Western Campaign. Deighton was one of the first to highlight the fact that force levels favored the allies. The balance of forces not only favored the them but the quality of some German weapons were also inferior. For instance the French produced the best tank in the early part of the war.

Deighton goes back to the First World War and looks at the sorts of strategic dilemmas that led to that war being bloody. He then looks at the role of the tank and the German doctrines developed by Guederian who he credits with the development of Blitzkrieg. Deighton sees the essence of Blitzkrieg not so much in the use of air power and armor to achieve a breach of an enemy line but rather what comes after it. The book is divided into four sections. Only one section and that is about sixty pages describes the initial part of the campaign against the Western allies in 1940. What happened was that the Germans initially moved into the Netherlands and Belgium. This led them to move the British Expeditionary Force north. The reason being that the allies expected a Schieflen like attack wheeling behind Paris as occurred in the First War. Instead the Germans moved their Panzer Divisions through the Ardennes and cut off the British Army and Units of the French and Belgium Army from the main mass of the French Army. The British and French units were either forced of the continent or surrendered. This then meant that the Germans had a massive material superiority and were able to win the battle for France which occurred some time after the expulsion of the British.

Deighton defines Blitzkrieg as the movement of the Panzer Divisions around after the initial break through. The allies reaction was one of confusion and inactivity. Later in the war narrow penetrations such as this would be subject to massive flanking attacks seeking to encircle the attacking forces. Blitzkrieg to Deighton was the use of rapid movement to create a sense of paralysis and hopelessness in the other side.

At the conclusion of the book Deighton goes on to say that in his view, the campaign in the West was the only time that Blitzkrieg was successfully executed. The character of the Russian campaign was different. Narrow based penetrations failed on numerous occasions such as the Russian attacks at Kharkov in 1942 and the Russian attacks on Army Group Centre in Operation Mars.

Deighton is a novelist and his books are easy to read. This book is good as it has thousands of line drawings of the types of weapons used by all sides. It has tables of the performance of all weapons and graphs explaining the performance of aircraft. It is an extremely interesting and readable book. At the current price it is good value.

Blitzkrieg is defined as 'a swift, sudden military offensive, usually by combined air and land forces'. Deighton adds - 'and as evolved by Heinz Guderian and used by his forces', giving credit to the man who perfected the concept. Indeed, the German breakthrough at Sedan in May 1940 (see Part 4 'The Battle of The Meuse') and the subsequent routing of the French army is a spectacular example of the use of Blitzkrieg. Offcourse any discussion about battles in France in 1940 must conclude with the Germans surrounding and trapping over 250,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the French coast near Dunkerque.

It is to do with Dunkerque that the most startling supposition emerges from the book. The introduction was written by Gen. Walther Nehring, who in 1940 was Guderians' Chief of Staff and was with him at Sedan. Nehring writes with conviction, and Deighton's arguments seem to support the view, that if not for a precipitous Halt Order by Hitler, the German forces could have captured the entire BEF. It is argued that the prospect of a 'Disaster at Dunkerque', rather than the miracle that we have come to know of, would have been too much for the British to stomach. The opportunity for sueing for peace and of obtaining an end to the war by May 1940, would have been a real possibility in such circumstances.