German Forces In Blitzkrieg By the middle of 1939 the world was poised on the brink of war. Hitler’s Nazi Germany had occupied Austria, then Czechoslovakia while the world looked helplessly on. In August Hitler turned his eyes on Poland. This time France and Britain would not stand aside. On 1 September 1939, Hitler plunged Europe into the Second World War by invading Poland. Massively outnumbered, the Poles resolved to fight for their country, hoping in vain that the British and French would attack Germany from the West to even the odds. Germany, with five times as many modern tanks and aircraft as Poland, sliced through the Polish Army striking for Warsaw. The gallant Poles held out for three weeks after Warsaw was surrounded, fighting hard the whole time, but were eventually overwhelmed. Nine months later on 10 May 1940, the Germans had recovered from their losses in Poland and struck westward against Britain and France. This time it was the Germans who were outnumbered, but it did not matter. Their blitzkrieg tactics sliced through weak spots in the Allied line. Their fast moving spearheads did not give the French High Command time to react, capturing Paris in just over five weeks, and defeating the most powerful army in the world in the process.

Germany At War

German Forces

Generalmajor Erwin Rommel

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