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Originally posted by Akka le Vil
As a matter of fact, the "Blitzkrieg" that is such a famous "German invention" was described and recommanded in Vers l'armée de métier, a book wrote in 1934 by a certain general de Gaulle...
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Nice try, but Fuller and B.H. Liddel Hart in Britian, and Guderian in Germany had already beaten de Gaulle to this concept, and they had a much better grasp of it. The first nation post WWII to actually put together a mobile force and doctrine to use it was....Italy! Of course their equipment, senior officers, and organization totally sucked.
In the original editions of the book de Gaulle thought the only role of the airforce in modern war would be to lay smokescreens. He modified later editions of his book after his experiences with Stukas in 1940......his entire command got wiped out without ever actually seeing any German ground troops
The one who actually connected all the conceptual dots correctly, AND put together a force with the correct parts, AND succesfully led them into battle was Germany's Heinz Guderian.
France had a grasp of mobile warfare but didn't really understand it, which becomes glaringly obvious when you look at their tank designs. The Brits were much better, but they were STILL figuring out basic lessons in 1944 (five years into the war).
The Germans invented this concept and were the best at it throughout the war, one of the main reasons they were so hard to defeat even though their grand strategy and economic policies were almost laughably bad.
Austin
