Can you help me with some ?'s on a history study guide, so I am studying the correct materials for finals?

Question

1. List and Explain the three major mistakes Hitler made during WWII.


2. Define and Explain the tactic of Blizkrieg.


I don't know how to explain these, I know that Blizkrieg was "lightning war", but I don't know how to explain the tactic.

Please help me.

Answer 1

1. invading Russia without first pacifying Britain. "War on two fronts".
2. Declaring war on America without being obligated to do so. "We have awakened a sleeping tiger" - Yamamoto
3. Not allowing his Generals to fight the war themselves, his policy of "fight to the death, hold to the last man" meant that they could not withdraw to better positions and lost men needlessly.

Blitzkreig - "lightning war" the formulation of General Heinz Guderian, while it did involve the concentration of overwhelming force at a single point was much more than that. Essentially it was the use of combined arms, Artillery and 'Stuka' dive bombers would weaken the enemy's line, the Panzers would punch a gap through it and wreak havoc behind the lines and the infantry would follow up to reduce strongpoints, take ground and prisoners. Most of Germany's tanks and aircraft were radio equipped, which gave them a significant advantage over the armies they fought in the early campaigns, who were still using flags to control their formations. Blizkreig wasn't perfect though, even Rommel had some nasty surprises in France when he was hit by British counter-attacks to his flanks, notably at Arras.
HTH
Paul.

Answer 2

Three Major Mistakes.

1. Invasion of the USSR. There he met USSR's three friends.
December, January and Febuary. A Russian Winter is the best defense the USSR had.

2. Fighting a war on two fronts. Hitler fought the US, France and Britain on the Western Front, and The USSR on the Eastern Front. The allies just slowly ate at Germany's side until they met at Berlin.

3. Underestimating the pace it would take the USSR to mobilize. Hitler thought he could invade and subdue France in a week. Leaving him plenty of time to defend Germany's Eastern front from the USSR. He was wrong. the USSR mobilized faster than Hitler thought. Although... Interesting fact. 1 out 4 Russian soliders had a gun when they entered battle, they rest had to pick one up from a dead solider.

Blizkrieg was a tatic where the germans use mechanized infantry... Tanks... and used them to do as much damage as possible. Becuase Germany attack of tanks.... which was always unexpected...there wern't that many tanks, but Germany mass produced them....so the country that was being invaded couldn't defend itself quick when the tanks rolled in. HIGH casuality rates among emenies. Than the German Foot Infantry would come through and clean up the mess.

Answer 3

1.First and foremost Hitler underestimated the resolve of Britain to fight, and never followed through with 'Operation Sea Lion', the invasion of England.
2. He never accheived air nor sea superiorty.
3. He lost North Africa and the ability to strike towards the middle east and from there the oil fields of southern Russia in a vast pincer movement.
4. Pertains to 3, Hitler was distracted by the fighting in Greece and delayed 'Operation Barborossa' by a month or so thus getting stuck in 2 of the worst Russian winters in years, by not taking Moscow, and then failing to heed his Generals pleas to withdraw fron Stalingrad, he lost vast resources, ie; men machines hell the whole 6th army.

Blitzkrieg was a 'Lightnening Attack', it involved tanks and aircraft going far ahead of the infantry and blowing up targets of oppurtunity, along with a mechanised army that could rapidly be moved by trucks instead of horses it was an extremly radical form of warfare at the time. The Germans did use horses and mules, but after the bombing and tanks went through they were used more for supply lines.

Answer 4

1. Starting war with Russia, opening the 2nd front & causing Germany to be sandwiched in the centre. After invading Russia, Hitler split the Army Groups such that they lack the resources to capture their objectives such as Leningrad, Moscow & Stalingrad.

2. Stopping German advance into Dunkirk for 3 days when the forces were within easy reach of the port & could have captured or destroyed the 300k+ troops there which were eventually evacuated back to England.

3. Failure to take Britain when she was at her weakest point as the British troops had to leave behind many weapons & equipment when they escaped from France. Instead, Hitler listened to Goering's boasts that the Luftwaffe could destroy the BEF at Dunkirk as well as neutralise the RAF before he would even consider invading Britain.

Blitzkrieg (German for Lightning War) was the brainchild of some German officers, most notably Heinz Guderian (he had written a book - Achtung, Panzer!) where the air & land forces are to combine forces in joint operations to destroy the enemies. Also, the land forces are reorganised into combined arms unit & mechanized. (ie, infantry & armour regiments & brigades are put into the same divisions & supported by comabt engineers, signals & field artillery units)

The tactics of this combined arms warfare are:

Mass the armour (instead of parcelling them out to support infantry) for a knock out blow against enemy defenses & outflank them wherever possible in order to take the enemy by suprise as well as to avoid frontal attacks at heavily defended positions which would entail loss of element of surprise & heavier casualties. After the armour units have punched holes in the enemy's lines, the infantry is to follow close behind (preferably in vehicles so that they can keep pace with the armour) & help in breaking through. The artillery units are also to be self propelled or at least towed by mechanised vehicles so that they can quickly move forward & redeploy to support further armour thrusts.

Answer 5

1. Mistakes by Hitler
- Allowing the withdrawal of British and French troops from Dunkirk. Hitler held back his panzers in order to allow their infantry support to catch up with the tanks. Hermann Goering said he would be able to wipe out the remainder of the Allied forces with the Luftwaffe, but the Luftwaffe could not fulfill that pledge. The British were able to remove enough of their troops to offer a credible defense of the British Isles. Had the Panzers been allowed to overrun the Dunkirk salient the British would not have had the force to turnback a German attack on England.

- Changing bombing tactics during the Battle of Britain. In order to invade Britain, Germany neede to be able to neutralize the advantage that the Royal Navy had over the German Kriegsmarine. To do this, the German plan was that the Luftwaffe would destroy the RAF. Then when the Germans invaded the British Isles the Luftwaffe could use its air superiority to destroy the Royal Navy. This is how the Battle of Britain began, the Germans concentrated their attacks on air fields and the air craft industry. Through the Luftwaffe was losing more planes during these raids, the RAF was nearing destruction. However, a couple of German bombers that got lost on one mission dropped their bombs before returning to base. At the time they dropped their bomb loads they were over London, which due to cloud cover they did not even know, the bombs dropped in a residential area. In retaliation, Churchill ordered a bombing raid on Berlin, British planes had up to that time mainly dropped propaganda leaflets on German cities, not explosives. The British raid was successful. Hitler was so incensed that Berlin had been bombed he changed the bombing priorities of the Luftwaffe to the destruction of British cities. Though the Brits were forced to endure a terrible pounding especially in London, the RAF was freed from the pressure of the Luftwaffe. This allowed the RAF to eventually inflict enough damage on the Luftwaffe that the Germans abandoned their plans to invade Britain.

- The biggest mistake Hitler made was to invade the USSR while the UK was still in the war. Especially postponing the invasion until the summer so the Wehrmacht did not have enough time to complete the invasion before the winter.

- One more interesting mistake that Hitler made was his treatment of Jews, minorities, and conquered groups. Even setting aside the moral and ethical sides of the atrocities Hitler ordered, which were vast, Hitler lost out on many opportunities. The brain drain that his anti-Semetic policies caused were crucial in helping the US and Britain achieve nuclear weapons. The loss of man power was also huge. German Jews had supported the German Empire in World War I and throwing away man power in a war is never a good idea. The amount of German Military and industrial resources that were used up in the concentration camps were vast. Also areas, the Ukraine in particular, welcomed the German troops because they felt they were being freed from other oppressors. However those good feelings were short lived when the Germans turned out to be worse than the original occupiers.

2. Blitzkrieg "Lightning War" This doctrine was developed to over come the trench war fare that was prominent in WW I. It was based on the speed an manueverability of mechanized troops, particularly tanks. It also used close air support to help the tanks achieve unprecendented advances. Planes and artillery are used to help tanks punch a hole in the enemies lines. The tanks then rush through the gap capturing key cities and cross roads and cutting off front line troops from support and supplies. This allows the infantry to follow up and wipe out or capture the opposing soliders.

Answer 6

1) first mistake was the annexation of Austria. that was forbidden by the treaty of Versailles but he did it anyway. this was the first provocation of war.

the second mistake was his invasion of Poland, an even bigger mistake. for this reason, the war began. Poland was neutral and Britain and france had agreed to help her if she was attacked.
you never attack a neutral country...another parrallel between hitler and napoleon.

the third mistake which is the most significant reason for why he reminds us of napoleon is that he attacked russia. the russian winter is ruthless and unsparing. he who undermines the damage it can do will only see for himself.
that is what happened to hitler and previously napoleon. i beleive it was called operation barbarossa....definetely doublecheck me on that but it was something like it.

the first two were before the war so it depends on what your teacher wants. the third is the most blatant mistake during the war.

2) blitzkrieg is first seen in WWII. it is lightning war and what that means is by the use of of airplanes you attack your enemy uickly and then retaliate.

i hope that helps...good luck :)

ps..oh yes...i just read the answers of the guy who wrote before me and for during the war his answers are a 100% correct...use those

Answer 7

Well, question one is difficult to answer as it really depends on the class because it's really a matter of opinion. However, I will bet one of the answers is dividing the troops to fight on two fronts. That's a big no-no in war. Another possible answer would be breaking treaty with Russia. Rule number one in the World Domination Handbook is never get involoved in a land war with Russia. Seriously!
As for Blitzkrieg, it was basically putting all of ones troops in one area and just pushing through straight to the capital. Traditionally in warfare, once you capture the capital the rest of the country will fall.