But the Poles were resilient to the end, and they fought very hard and bravely. They held out as long as they could because they were expecting help from the French and the British, by them attacking Germany from the west. Britain and France declared war on Germany. But the French were very slow to mobilise their troops, who were all stuck behind the Maginot line anyway, so no such event happened.
On the 17th of September, by the time that it was clear that Poland was going to be defeated, The Soviet Union invade Poland from the east. So any chance of a comeback was destroyed. Poland was split in half between the Soviet Union and Germany, as agreed in the Nazi-Soviet pact. As well as all the terror bombings that had already gone on, in both halves of the former state there were systematic killings and deportations to continue the terror.
Soon after this the Russians tried to invade Finland but were beaten by them numerous times, not using blitzkrieg tactics, before eventually winning with a vastly superior amount of men. So maybe it wasn’t just the superior equipment, it was also how you used it.
After seeing what had happened to Poland when the Germans invaded Norway in 1940, the Norwegians didn’t put up much resistance, as they would prefer to keep their people alive and buildings standing. This was a wise decision, as they wouldn’t have stood a chance, as they were pacifists and had no trained army to defend themselves with, only a small bunch of armed militants. There were British and French troops sent. We only sent territorial soldiers, without any heavy weapons, air cover or any skis. The French did better, they sent soldiers with skis, but the skis had no straps, so they were useless. Unsurprisingly the allies achieved nothing, and soon went back home again. So the help from the allies was again useless.
There were many reasons why the Germans were successful in France. One of which was down to the brilliant quality of the German troops, who were very well trained and dedicated. But most of which were caused by France’s own ignorance. They were very overconfident and complacent. To start with the French sent forty of its best divisions in the wrong direction. These were sent to cut a German attack through north-west Belgium, which never happened. Instead the Germans attacked through the Ardennes forest in the south of Belgium, which lead to a part or the French boarder with no Maginot line and only ten of the worst divisions to defend it, it was certainly the weakest defended point of the boarder. It was defended so poorly because the French refused to believe that a whole army with tanks and artillery could pass through the Ardennes forest. The Germans knowing the French beliefs on this, and coinciding with blitzkrieg tactics, avoided the enemy strong points, and attacked their weakest point with great force, (most of their military forces).
They used the speed element of blitzkrieg so well that not only did they surprise the French, they even surprised their own generals. So the ten poor French divisions stood no chance against the huge German strength.
Their cause wasn’t helped by the ignorance of the French generals, who, even though they received intelligence reports that the Germans were moving through the Ardennes, refused to believe that the Germans were going to attack through this region, and didn’t bolster their defences around this part of the boarder. So the Germans didn’t have much to fight against, so it was an easy victory at this point in the war.
Another factor not helping the French was their commander of the army. His HQ was stationed a few mile outside of Paris, nowhere near the fighting, so by the time that an order that he gave reached a section of the army, they’d already been defeated! The General himself was a very old man well past retirement age, and was completely out of touch. He had no idea about modern warfare, and because of this France prepared for another World War I. The French used out of date tactics and didn’t use their equipment well. An example of this is that the French tanks were just as good as the Germans’, but the Germans grouped theirs together in big powerful groups (Panzer divisions), and France’s similar number of tanks were spread out all over the place and unreliable. The Germans were simply better organised and more modernised than the French.
The country was very politically divided at the time. Some of the population were friendly towards the Germans and wanted them to control France anyway. But in general most of the population were more interested in internal political affairs than ‘some war that was never going to happen’. This attitude was taken because for months and months nothing actually seemed to happen that would effect France. This was dubbed ‘The Phoney War’. This effected the soldiers as well. They were fed up with sitting around doing nothing behind the Maginot line. They tried to get as much leave as possible and drunkenness became normality. There was no will to win among the men, and there was sheer amazement at the speed of the German attack throughout Europe and then France itself. Hitler’s defeat of France took just six weeks, and is considered his greatest campaign of the war. The French soldiers’ nerves were shattered by the Stuka dive-bombing, and the French didn’t help themselves very much by mistaking their own tanks for enemy ones, at the Sedan, and fleeing.
Another reason that the Germans were so successful was the small amount of help supplied by the British. France mobilised six million men, and we only supplied just over two hundred thousand, which was simply just not enough. This confirmed France’s fear, that Britain wasn’t taking the war seriously.
This essay has shown that the German army was a large, well-trained and organised machine, with dedicated soldiers. Also it has shown that the blitzkrieg tactics were good and very effective. This is supported by Russia’s poor attempt to invade Finland in 1940, not using blitzkrieg tactics. But they did eventually win due to superior numbers, which the Germans also had, compared to their opponents at any one place and time. Also the speed of the German attacks throughout Europe took did help to defeat armies, who were surprised by it the speed and opportunism of the attacks. But also it has shown that their opponents were unprepared, with out of date tactics and equipment, and out of touch leaders. Germany on the other hand was well prepared, with modern tactics and equipment, and had strong leaders with modern ideas.
So after all of this, it is clear that blitzkrieg tactics helped the Germans a lot, but were not the only reason for their success.