Inside the Nazi War Machine: How Three Generals Unleashed Hitler's Blitzkrieg Upon the World
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In 1940, as Nazi Germany spread its wings of war, the French stood secure in the knowledge that they possessed the largest, most formidable, and best-equipped army in Europe. They also possessed a stalwart ally in Britain and the support of Holland and Belgium. But the people of those countries were all about to face a new kind of enemy, who fought a new kind of war. France’s defeat was no longer impossible.
it was inevitable.
For years, Hitler had planned to conquer Europe and rule a reich that would last a thousand years. But first he had to remove the threat of France—the only standing danger to Germany’s domination. The Nazi general staff was understandably wary of taking on Europe’s most powerful armed force. Still, an unimpressive, halfhearted battle plan was drawn up under orders from the führer.
But in the minds of three brilliant generals—Erwin Rommel, Erich von Manstein, and Heinz Guderian—the plan would have to change, and with it, the face of modern warfare.
Expert military strategist Bevin Alexander examines the groundbreaking martial concepts developed by these men. The foundation of their plan was to forgo the standard soldiers-against-soldiers style of combat. Instead, they would unleash the power of tanks, grouping them into juggernauts that would slam into and through enemy lines, as aircraft supported them and ground forces swept in behind them.
Thus, the blitzkrieg—lightning war—was born. With this aggressive single-minded plan, the Nazis bypassed the supposedly impenetrable Maginot Line, charged into the heart of France, and alerted the world that the deadly might of Germany could no longer be ignored.