Mark Black: Hitler's Blitzkrieg: A Very Brief History

Click to see in Amazon

This short history of Hitler's Blitzkrieg was fascinating, although at times the writing was a bit disjointed and repetitious. I didn't realise that Germany had fewer tanks at the beginning of WWII than all of their enemies but were able to win stunning victories because they used the element of surprise and new/old blitzkrieg strategies with the advantage of fast mobilisation and action using light tanks and aircraft. After WWI their military strategists re-wrote the battle regime to become aggressive and avoid bogging down in dreadful trench warfare again. Most of the military in other countries at the start of the war still had the mindset of defence.

On of the key things that surprised me was that part of their battlefield success was due German High Command delegating responsibility down to the squad level allowing them to react to battlefield conditions without waiting for orders from above. This surprised me as I would have expected German commanders would not have allowed such flexibility. In business this strategy has also been successful in appropriate circumstances.

I am enjoying reading some of the wide range of >50 page Amazon Kindle "Readers' Digest" summaries of major events in history and lives of key people which have been released on Amazon by Mark Black. I am a bit of a history buff and these brief reminders are helping me to expand and keep my memories in order.