The use of the Luftwaffe was another tactic deployed by the German army because in Poland ahead of the armies, the Luftwaffe prepared the way. Its mission was firstly to destroy the Polish Air Force on the ground, then to assist the ground forces, attack military installations and terrorize the civilian population. The Luftwaffe was so effective that it practically annihilated the Polish Air Force within three days. To put it mildly the Luftwaffe was supreme, its dive-bomber units delivered pinpoint attacks at crucial moments in the offensive, and the Germans ability to coordinate the Luftwaffe with the motorized and armored forces was a whole new kind of warfare. In Poland and in the rest of western Europe at this time, Hitler's superb tactics were also a major factor in the out come of these battles. He used the most modern and sophisticated tactics that his enemies did not know how to over come the onslaught of the amazing German campaign. In Poland an example of the tactics he used was that his objective was the swift destruction of the Polish armed forces, using crushing surprise blows. Converging attacks on Warsaw would come from Silesia, and then with the help of Pomeranian and East Prussia, the German forces would execute two pincer movements, one on Warsaw and the second further to the east to trap any escaping forces. A couple of days later we were to see that the pincer movements met and then snap shut, trapping thousands with no hope of escape.
Germany had planned every thing so well in advance that on the 31 August the German troops were already for attack, whilst the Polish were caught still moving towards their concentration points ready for attack. Poland, before they even started, were at a disadvantage because of the fact that it was not easy for them to defend against German aggression, being open to attack on three sides. Also it was immensely difficult for Polish troops to defend 2,000km effectively, and Poland's commander-in-chief, made matters worse by deploying many of their troops in Dazing and around Poona, although he had received accurate information on the forces massing against him.
Poland had a poor army and although they threw almost everything at the Germans, including charging at the German Blitzkrieg attack with only defenseless horses with men on them holding swords and lances, but these were worse than useless against the might of the German attack.
The Polish Air Force had 433 operational aircraft the majority being fighters and bombers. The army only had around 40 divisions and so were virtually helpless, but they had more pride along with them than any other army. They had so much patriotism within them selves that they were even prepared to just charge into the German tanks and give away their lives in an effort to try and stop the German advance, but against their German Blitzkrieg tactics they stood no chance of stopping it.
The German's meanwhile had 897 bombers, dive-bombers and ground-attack aircraft, plus 210 fighters and 474 reconnaissance and transport machines. So as you can easily see the German's had a very considerable advantage, in the air, over Poland. On the ground the story was the same as well, the German's were greatly superior than their opposition because they had far more tanks, guns and better equipment than the Poles. Another main difference was that the German's were far more disciplined and immensely well trained so not only did this make warfare easier but also it made the Germans quick advances easier, because at some points in the German attack they were going at an average pace of up to 70 miles a day Germany's tactics worked so well in Poland that they seemed almost unstoppable and when in May and June of 1940 when Hitler unleashed his forces against Western Europe it seemed, and was, another relatively easy victory for Germany. In one week Holland had surrendered and France was not looking in good shape.
The difference between the war in Poland and the war in France was the fact that both sides were roughly equal in numbers and equipment, so this proves that Germany's tactics were far better than the French's. Not only did the German's think up of the new kind of lightning war (Blitzkrieg), but they had the commanders to carry out these tactics as well. The German commanders were among some of the greatest tacticians in the world at that time and with the overall help of Hitler to decide the next plan of action, Germany definitely had the upper hand. On the other side France had their commander-in-chief, general Maurice Gamelan, who was one of the reasons why the French lost the battle, because he was 68 years old and so he had lived through the last world war and because the allies had won then he's philosophy was to keep the tactics more or less the same because he thought that if the allies won the last world war then surely there tactics were the right and so should work again, so his tactics were out of date. That is why why when the German's were fast advancing towards the French boarder, he said that Germany would not be ready to cross the river for nine days, but in fact because Gamelan had not anticipated the rate of the advance of the Germans, it only took them four days and so caught the French under surprise. On May 18th 1940 Gamelan was sacked and replaced by Leyland who himself was 73 years old, and so you could almost say that the French made their own defeat because they sacked a person who had old fashioned methods of warfare and replaced him with someone who had even older methods of warfare. The French had many weaknesses which helped the Germans to victory, such as the positioning of their troops in the strategic places.
The French had what they called the Magi not Line this was a line of defenses which ran from the Swiss boarder up to the Forest of Ardennes, and so behind the Magi not line the French deployed their weakest army because they thought that there was no way the Germans would get through, and they definitely thought that they would not get through the Ardennes. Further up north, where they thought the attack was most likely to come from, they placed their best troops ready for attack, but when the Germans came charging through the Ardennes all they had to fight were a few poor standard troops, and then to make things worse for the French their communications were unbelievably poor, because they only had two phones for the whole of their army and one those was not working. So after coming out of the Ardennes (which could not have been made easier) the Germans used their Blitzkrieg tactics to power through the last French defenses and then spread out and attack the French supplies, communications and then leave a few troops to defend the area. The French were also politically weak because they had a government that could not agree on anything.
Overall we can say that Blitzkrieg was a major tactic used in Germany's battles in Poland in 1939 and in Western Europe in 1940, but it was definitely not the only reason how Germany did so well, it was other reasons as well such as the Luftwaffe with their immense tactics and maneuverability, the failure of the French communications so that they could not get any messages to the places they wanted them to go was another reason swell. The Germans were well disciplined and their men were very well trained. They had the state of the art tanks and guns far better than any of their enemies. Hitler and his co-commanders had the best tactics in use at that time and that was where they developed the idea of Blitzkrieg. The fact that the French were politically weak because their government could not agree on anything was also a major factor. Overall we can say that Blitzkrieg was an amazing tactic used by the Germans, in fact it was so amazing that we still use forms of it still today, but it was definitely not the only tactic by which it gave the upper hand to the Germans in the 1940's.
