The War Hitler Won: the Battle for Europe, 1939-1941
Journal of Military and Strategic VOLUME 14, ISSUE 1, FALL 2011 Studies The War Hitler Won: The Battle for Europe, 1939-1941 Robert Citino "A Distinctive Language": The German Operational Pattern In the fall of 1939, the German army (Wehrmacht) began a run of decisive victories that was quite unlike anything in living military memory. With their fearsome tank (Panzer) formations operating as an apparently irresistible spearhead, and with a powerful air force (Luftwaffe) circling overhead, the Wehrmacht ran through or around every defensive position thrown in its path. The opening campaign in Poland (Case White) smashed the Polish army in 18 days, although a bit more fighting was necessary to reduce the capital, Warsaw.1 Equally 1 For Case White, begin with the belated "official history" commissioned by the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Das Deutsche Reich und Der Zweite Weltkrieg, volume 2, Die Errichtung der hegemonie auf dem Europäischen Kontinent (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1979), especially "Hitler's Erster 'Blitzkrieg' und seine Auswirkungen auf Nordosteuropa," pp. 79-156. Labeling this "official history" is misleading--it is far more a meticulously researched critical history by a team of crack scholars. Robert M. Kennedy, The German Campaign in Poland, 1939, Department of the Army Pamphlet no. 20-255 (Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1956) continues to dominate the field, and Matthew Cooper, The German Army, 1933-1945 (Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House, 1978), pp. 169-176, is still useful. Both Pat McTaggart, "Poland '39," Command 17 (July-August 1992), p. 57, and David T. Zabecki, "Invasion of Poland: Campaign that Launched a War," World War II 14, no.
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