Lightning War

198 Pages·1989·28.089 MB·English

by  Collective

npRIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY "^S
3H11Q11138353
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ning War

THE THIRD REICH
War
Lightning
By the Editors ofTime-Life Books
Alexandria, Virginia
TIME
DQle
Time-LifeBooksInc. The Third Reich OtherPublications:
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PUBUSHER:JosephJ.Ward General Consultants
Col.John R.Elting,USA(Ret.),formerasso-
ciateprofessoratWestPoint,haswrittenor
editedsometwentybooks,includingSwords
The Cover:A German Mark III tank rumbles un- ®1989Time-LifeBooksInc.Allrightsreserved. arounda Throne, TheSuperstrategists, and
opposed down a French street afterartUleiy fire Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinany American Army Life, as well as Battlesfor
hassoftenedupthetown'sdefenses.Inlightning- formorbyanyelectronicormechanicalmeans, Scandinavia in the Time-Life Books World
qpmuaoirwckek,rfttuhhlreunsNteestwhbeeWrtelwahenrdemsna,AcBphertillgiocuvimend,rrJLauunnxeeNmo1br94wo0au,yrH,gi,tDlaeernn'-ds idpenevcrilmcuiedssisniogornisnfyftso-troemmmastt,hieowndptushbtlooiurstahgeperr,iaonerxdwcrreeiptttrtietehnvaatlbrief WTiamre-ILIisfeeriesse.riHese,wTahsecChiiveiflcWoanrs.ultanttothe
FranceanddrovetheBritishforcesontheConti- passagesmaybequotedforreviews.
nentback toEngland. CharlesV.P.vonLuttichauisanassociateat
Firstprinting.PrintedinU.SA. the U.S. Army Center ofMilitary History in
PublishedsimultaneouslyinCanada. Washington, D.C., and coauthor of Com-
SchoolandlibrarydistributionbySilverBurdett mandDecisionandGreatBattles.From1937
Compjiny,Morristoun,NewJersey07960. to 1945, he served in the German air force
andtaughtattheAirForceAcademyinBer-
TU.ISMAE.-LIFEisatrademarkofTimeIncorporated lin.Afterthewar,heemigratedtotheUnited
StatesandwasahistorianintheOfficeofthe
LibraryofCongressCatalogingin ChiefofMilitaryHistory, Departmentofthe
PublicationData Army, from 1951 to 1986, when he retired.
Lightningwar/by—theeditorsofTime-LifeBooks,
p. cm. (TheThirdReich) WilUamsonMurrayisprofessorofEuropean
TrihsiesavnodleuvmeentiusaolnfeallooffaNaszeiiiies:etrhmaatnyc.hrOotnhiecrlebsootkhse BIinbclliuodgersapihnyd:exp.. mhialsibtaereynhaisvtiosirtyinatgpOrhoifoesSstoarteatUtnhieveNrasviatlyWaanrd
FSTiTinthhsoetetrshSNmeoSiefsnweSgrtOietereosldPeiornwcleurde: I1I9.4II1S.5SSe—rWBBioNNeCrs00a.i--md88p00Wa99a4i4r--g,66n99s71709—1-3-795^.-W1e(9lsi4tb5.e.rbnd.g.2.)IW.oTrilmed-WLairfe,B1o9o3k9s-. awCaaonnflcdfleeebgooaefo.nkPdHsoweToehnrhe,amsiC1lh9iwa3tr8nai-grt1yet9ea3fin9fn,anitrauhsen,mdeiEnruccoroluoeuspddieitaanregntdLiBuctaflhltee--s
TheReachforEmpire D75S2.L541989 940.54'21—dcl9 89-4722 three-volume study,MilitaryEffectiveness.
Conienii
The Breaking Morm
I 15
1 Ilaihing to the lea
ei
3 An Old Icore Avenged 101
4 Air War over Britain 145
ESSAYS
A Coitiy Noriiiem Conqueii 4
Vauiiing Neuie
tiie 50
liie Foot loldien' War in Belgium 92
A German lummer in Parii
134
the Periloui Divide
i76
Acknowledgments 186
Picture Credits 186
Bibliography 187
Index 188
i
1
^ii
Bomberspass overDe.
AmalienborgPalace^
morningofthe Gernfl|K^vasibn.
KingChristian's quick^ffirrender
sparedthepalace,as wellas
thenation,fromdestruction.
A
Coitly
Northern
Conqucrt
In the spring of1940, sixmonths afterhis conquest of
Poland, AdolfHitlerwas ready again to wage war. His
first move was the simultaneous invasion ofDenmark
andNorway, anundertakingthathegrandlycalledthe
"boldestandmostimpudentinthehistoryofwarfare."
Code-namedWeser Exercise, for the riverwhere part
oftheinvasionforceembarked,theoperationcalledfor
—
100,000 troops, 71 ships, and 28 submarines almost
every vessel the Germans could muster.
On April 9, Danes awoke to the ominous drone of
German planes. The aircraft buzzed the royal palace
(left)fwhereatfouro'clockKingChristianXreceivedan
ultimatum demanding unconditional surrender. Be-
fore dawn, German bombers knocked out Denmark's
most important airfield, the German navy seized
Copenhagen harbor, and a column ofGerman troops
knifed into the Jutlandpeninsula. Denmark capitulat-
ed. But for Norway, which was under attack at half a
dozenpoints (map, below); the ordealhad onlybegun.
„„„^GermanSea
Routes
'' Routes
'*' AirLanding
3 100 200mi
1 , ^-1 '
NORWEGIAN
SEA
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
Egeijsund
I I *t\-M,
I I
tNORTH«
>^ ^
/
\
Aalliori.'
1 1 i
'isCj^PElVMARKJr BAI.TIC
'^Copenhagen SEA
(III
IyHb»CuxKhiaevle.i)|/^ ;/ .%^-k. LITH.
// •'Wamemiinde
Hamburg " Konigsbcrt;
kSwinemiinde ,
Wilhelnishaven —ElbeRiver
GERMANY
-^fjL'
Inferno In basesbothasaspringboardagainst Eariy the next morning, Hitler
Britainandtopreventhisfleetfrom struck.Luftwaffetroop carriers and
n
a Wo rcglan being bottled up in the Baltic. navy task forces landed German
fiord In one ofthe war's great ironies, soldiers all along the mountainous
Winston Churchill, Great Britain's coast.Althoughtheyhadonlyafew
first lord ofthe admiralty, had also hours' warning, the Norwegians
Germany wanted Norway for its decidedthatBritishsafetyrequired fought back. As Admiral Oskar
—
seaports notably Oslo, Bergen, theviolationofNorway'sneutrality. Kummetz's fifteen ships steamed
Trondheim, and Narvik. The navy's On April 8, 1940, the Royal Navy up the f]ord leading to Oslo, they
commanderin chief,AdmiralErich minedthewaters off"Narvik, thefar came underfire fixjm shore batter-
Raeder, had repeatedly told Hitler northern port linked by rail to the ies that sank the flagship Bliicher
that he needed these North Sea iron-ore fields ofSweden. (below), killing 1,000 ofits crew.
Rackedbyexplosions^^e 134NM)-
ton GermancruiserBUkcher
capsizes inthe OsloFjord,
fifteenmiles southofNorway's
capital.The survivorswere taken
prisonerby the^Norwegiansbut
wereliberated a fewhourslater
byGerman landingparties.
'misi-
i
f 9
Inwaiion Copenhagen and Narvik. Hitler mark but every important port in
warnedthecommandinggeneralof Norwayhad fedlen to the Germans.
by lea
Weser Exercise, Nikolaus von Fal- Theinvasion showedremarkable
and Air kenhorst, that success depended interservice cooperation. Rather
on "daring action and surprise ex- thandispatchhisfirstwaveonslow
ecution." Falkenhorst's combined and vulnerable transports, Hitler
It was risky launching simulta- attack force responded beyond had the troops carried by fast-
neous atta—cks on targets scattered even Hitler's expectations, and by moving warships. The Luftwaffe
so widely 1,000 miles separated nightfall onApril 9 not only Den- provided air cover for the landing