Blitzkrieg: Implementation and Countermeasure
Good day,
Following my other two articles discussing Defence in Depth and Deep Operation, I have moved onto writing this one on the famous Blitzkrieg offensive strategy. Like Deep Operation, I have kept this to a fairly short 1.4k words, to avoid the tl;dr syndrome that I fear plagued my Defence in Depth article. Without further delay:
Blitzkrieg, meaning "lightning war", rose to prominance during the German offensive into France during the Second World War. Contrary to popular belief, the innovation was not purely German in origin: examples of Blitzkrieg-esque warfare predate the onset of Fall Gelb.
During the First World War, Allied Forces fighting in the Battle of Megiddo utilised cavalry penetration and ariel attacks on enemy centres of supply and communication in order to bring about the collapse of the enemy frontline. This went on to be one of the main pillars of Blitzkrieg warfare: to attack and destroy enemy command, communication and supply in order to paralyse the enemy frontline, enabling subsequent collapse or destruction.
Fundamental to achieving the conditions allowing for an attack on the enemy rear-area is the concept of "Schwerpunkt", which calls for concentrating maximum power on a small segment of the enemy line to enable a breakthrough to occur. This calls upon an armoured assault directly upon the enemy line, heavily supported by considerable artillery fire and tactical air attacks, as well as motorised infantry.
A breach having been established, formations of fast armour and motorised infantry are rushed through, whilst dismounted infantry inhabit the breach in order to keep it open. These armoured formations are then directed straight toward the enemy rear area, smashing through or bypassing any organised enemy resistance, aiming to locate and destroy enemy headquarters, supply dumps and communication centres. A successful assault in this manner can cut off the enemy frontline units from their commanders and resupply, leaving them without orders, hope of relief or fresh supplies.
While all this is happening, more and more units pour through the breach in the enemy line, which is unlikely to be closed as a result of enemy command and control being in a state of chaos. These units fan out, widening and securing the breach, as well as encircling adjacent enemy positions or following the fast armoured formations into the enemy rear area.
Within a few days, the successful blitzkrieg assault will have penetrated deep into enemy territory, siezing vast quantities of supplies as well as destroying or driving back enemy headquarters and reserve forces. Frontline units will have been entirely encircled and in the process of being destroyed. Any secondary or tertiary defensive lines-to-be (such as river lines or bridgeheads) will have been overrun, removing the possibility of falling back in good order to a new defensive line for the enemy.
The competant commander would capitalise on this, contuing his lightning advance against the enemy and encircling or destroying pockets of resistance. The momentum must be maintained to minimise the possibility that the enemy will stabilise the situation and reform his frontline.
Such a calamity would, for your enemy, spell certain defeat: his combat units are surrounded, his reserve forces are surrounded or retreating in chaos, his command and control hierarchy is in a state of total collapse, and much of his supplies and communication network with the battle zone lie in enemy hands. In short: all co-ordinated resistance has been overcome.
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The Blitzkrieg is not, however, to be regarded as an unbeatable strategy: when used against the Allies in the Battle of France, it was a stunning success, because, not only was it an innovative strategy, hut it achieved from the onset it's most important objective: surprise and shock.
Indeed today there exists an entire new doctrine titled "Defence in Depth" which was developed speficially to counter the Blitzkrieg and which relies on multiple layers of defensive positions in order to render an Armoured breakthrough on the frontline a much less serious occurance and ensures the rear area is protected at all times from a Blitzkrieg-style attack.
During the Battle of France, French and British armoured units did succeed in pushing into the rear of the Blitzkrieging formations, posing a very real threat that they themselves would be cut off and the "cutting edge" of the blitzkrieg shattered. This attack was, fortunately for the Germans, repulsed and the blitzkrieg stormed on. This does, however, highlight the most important aspect of countering a Blitzkrieg: cutting off or blunting the leading edge.
The opening stages of an enemy attempting to enact a blitzkrieg are quite obvious: a very small section of the friendly frontline comes under heavy assault from massed armoured units supported by massed artillery and aircraft attack. From the very second this report comes through, fast and decisive action must be taken to survive the next few days.
Nearby reserve units must be flung into action: if they can arrive before the breach they can assist in keeping it closed until further friendly forces can be mobilised to assist the frontline. If they fail to arrive before the breach is made, they will atleast delay the armoured thrust into the friendly rear area, buying valuable time for rear-area units to prepare themselves.
Following a successful penetration of the enemy into the friendly rear area, two things must be ensured: the penetration itself is kept as narrow as possible, and ones rear-area units must immediately be deployed into all-round-defence (or "hedgehog") formation.
Holding the edges of the penetration is vital: the narrower the gap, the easier it is for friendly artillery to concentrate their fire upon it. Friendly artillery must be devoted, as much as feasible, to constant shelling of the breach. The enemy must move a considerable amount of men and material through a relatively small breach, bringing such a breach under heavy and sustained artillery fire will cause huge losses in lives, armour and supplies on the enemy side, robbing the blitzkrieg of momentum as lack of supplies and reinforcements take their toll on the leading edge.
The "hedgehog" tactic is of equal importance: reserve combat troops must form these hedgehogs swiftly, and HQs, supplies and communications must be relocated to inside these formations. This enables friendly reserves to hold their position and keep fighting: as they cannot be outflanked and their command and supplies are all protected from being overrun by the enemy.
As your enemy passes by more and more hedgehogs (as is the doctrine: a blitzkrieg bypasses any enemies it cannot crush, leaving them to be surrounded by following units), more and more of their soldiers must be devoted to encircling them. These hedgehogs, heavily fortified and well armed and supplied with anti-tank and anti-aircraft equipment, will prove extremely difficult to breach and can continue fighting for a long time.
Utilising these two methods, the Blitzkrieg is effectively defeated: friendly reserves, supplies, command and communications all remain intact and entrenched within heavily fortified hedgehog formations, whilst enemy forces are all tied down containing the hedgehogs and taking horrendous losses from funneling vast quantities of equipment through the heavily-shelled initial penetration.
From this point, counter-attacks by friendly armoured reserves can begin in earnest: first to locate and destroy the, by now severely blunted and under-supplied, cutting edge of the blitzkrieg. Following the ceassation of the enemy advance by virtue of your own armour, one can proceed to "liberate" the hedgehogs. The enemy will have few reserves of his own to utilise, as they will all be tied down containing the hedgehogs, and as such friendly forces can attack each siege one at a time, freeing the hedgehog and destroying enemy forces.
This dismantling in detail of the enemy invasion force is the final stage of turning back the Blitzkrieg: it has been halted and now the exposed and immobile line-infantry units of the enemy are vulnerable to attacks from armoured reserve units, liberated hedgehog forces, or from within the hedgehog they are currently containing. It is then merely a matter of time before the hedgehogs are all liberated and the enemy advance has been comprehensively defeated with heavy losses in men and material and, most importantly, a large segment of their motorised and fast armour forces.
To conclude, the Blitzkrieg itself is a deadly and irreversable assault on an enemy if they are caught unprepared for it and do not react quickly and decisively, though it is also a serious risking of your own forces in the hopes that the enemy will be unable to react to and contain your exposed forces. It is important today to realise that the strategy itself is somewhat outdated: Defence in Depth has become a standard pattern amongst most militaries in their deployment of forces, a deployment which is naturally suited to absorb a Blitzkrieg style attack.
Edit: At request, I've tried to hunt down some of the sites I read prior to writing this article. Naturally my memory isn't perfect and at the time it was largely random reading rather than dedicated reseach, but here's a few sites that offer quality information: here, here, and here are sites that look familiar and offer some decent text on the subject.
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Originally Posted by René Artois
