Blitzkrieg: Revolution or Evolution?
Dec 2007, Vol. 152, No. 6
By Weichong Ong
On 9 April 1940, Hitler launched Operation Weserubung, the invasion of Scandinavia. In less than three months, Hitler’s Blitzkrieg (lightning war) in the West had brought Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and France all under the Nazi yoke. To many, Blitzkrieg is the ‘canonical case of peacetime military innovation’ that triggered a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). However, a closer examination of the manner in which the Germans ‘innovated’ in the interwar period (1920s and 1930s), and their victories in spring 1940 suggests otherwise. To the Anglo- French Allies and the rest of the world, the Wehrmacht’s swift victories of spring 1940 clearly demonstrated that the Germans had developed a revolutionary style of war. To the Germans however, Blitzkrieg was never a revolution, but the incremental development of concepts and doctrines that originated from the campaigns of Frederick the Great, Blücher, Moltke the Elder, and those of the First World War. Indeed, Robert Citino observes that the ubiquitous term of Blitzkrieg is a misnomer that the Germans ‘did not invent’, and rarely employed outside of quotation marks. To the Germans, Blitzkrieg was not the creation of something new, but a renaissance.
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By Weichong Ong
On 9 April 1940, Hitler launched Operation Weserubung, the invasion of Scandinavia. In less than three months, Hitler’s Blitzkrieg (lightning war) in the West had brought Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and France all under the Nazi yoke. To many, Blitzkrieg is the ‘canonical case of peacetime military innovation’ that triggered a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). However, a closer examination of the manner in which the Germans ‘innovated’ in the interwar period (1920s and 1930s), and their victories in spring 1940 suggests otherwise. To the Anglo- French Allies and the rest of the world, the Wehrmacht’s swift victories of spring 1940 clearly demonstrated that the Germans had developed a revolutionary style of war. To the Germans however, Blitzkrieg was never a revolution, but the incremental development of concepts and doctrines that originated from the campaigns of Frederick the Great, Blücher, Moltke the Elder, and those of the First World War. Indeed, Robert Citino observes that the ubiquitous term of Blitzkrieg is a misnomer that the Germans ‘did not invent’, and rarely employed outside of quotation marks. To the Germans, Blitzkrieg was not the creation of something new, but a renaissance.
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