Blitzkrieg - The Invention of Mechanised Warfare

Yet the Nazi officers invented nothing. The tactics they deployed so brilliantly were a synthesis of the methods developed during the previous world conflict. In practice, no single nation can claim sole paternity of mechanised warfare: the British contributed the tank, the Germans the storm troops, the Russians the deep battle…

It took an extraordinary conjunction of circumstances for Germany alone to have, on 10 May 1940, a well-honed instrument of mechanised warfare at its disposal. And even then, few officers within the ranks of the Wehrmacht were aware of the power of this tactic. The campaign in France and the exploitation of the Sedan breakthrough represented for all belligerents a revolution and a resounding demonstration of the validity of the theories of Fuller, Martel and Estienne, who — long before Liddell Hart, Guderian and de Gaulle — had prophesied the advent of the fighting engine.

Hugues Wenkin provides a comprehensive account of the origins of the Blitzkrieg, its relentless mechanics, its limitations, and the traces that endure to this day in our contemporary armies.

An engineer by training, Hugues Wenkin is a specialist in twentieth-century warfare. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the Second World War. His work is always grounded in archival research, which he tests against geographical realities by returning to the sites of the fighting. This factual approach enables him to shed new light on military questions. His revelations concerning the fall of Fort Ében-Émael were unanimously acclaimed (Ében-Émael – L'autre vérité, Weyrich, 2016).