Part II

Session2
How To Stop a Blitzkrieg.
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 What is a Blitzkrieg?
“The term Blitzkrieg gets used, often sloppily, to cover
different though related things.
Literally― lightning war.
As such it could be applied to many campaigns (ex. The 16th
Century campaigns of Frederick the Great; Israel’s 1967
fighting), although the word popularly rose to describe the
so-called German way in warfare in 1939-1941.
Fast battle ground movements by armored and mechanized
infantry units to take the enemy’s army off guard with
advances, regroups, bypasses and advances again.
The ground assault backed by tactical air power (dive
bombers and medium range bombers), gave it a new
touch.*”

To conquer quickly, not obliterate, restrain your losses.

I would add― initial surprise

* Paul Kennedy 2
 How many Blitzkriegs and attempts
were there since 1939?
WW II―5
•German invasion of the Low countries, Denmark, Norway and
France, 1939-1940.
•German invasion of Russia and counter- attacks, 1941-1942.
But, ultimately the Russian pushed back to Berlin.
•Japanese invasion of the Philippines, Malaya, Burma & DEIs.
•German advances to El Alamein and counter attacks by the
British, 1942. British out gunned Rommel, Germans had a long
vulnerable supply line.
•The German Battle of the Bulge attack, Dec 1944-Jan 1945, but
with no airpower. Ultimately repulsed by US armor and
clearing skies allowing Allied tactical air strikes.
Post WW II―3
•The 1967 Israeli actions with Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
•US and Allies in Gulf Wars I and II. Shock and awe.
Successful 3
 Why the German WW II Blitzkrieg?
• For starters, the impetus of the 1000 year Reich drove that
they were destined to and had the right for Lebensraum.
• Memory―To avoid the four years of static WW I trench
warfare on the Western Front, 50 miles back and forth.
• In 1939, England, France and Poland combined, fielded a
larger army than Germany. Need to overcome this: Divide.
• The battle had to be decisive and short:
– Finite resources particularly fuel for an industrialized Army.
– To take advantage of un-coordinated Allied actions.
– The French were hunkered down in the Maginot line.
– The British were working appeasement and were concerned
with the Empire. It had aircraft and armor, but on its island.
– If the US was concerned at all; it was still 4000 mile away and
country was generally isolationist.
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 Panzer D IV Battle Tank JU 87 Stuka Dive Bomber

German Blitzkrieg
Forces

German SdKfz [special ordnance

All equipped with tactical radios Vehicle] 251 half-track APC,
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with mobile infantry
 Blitzkrieg - Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa proved in
the end to be a disaster for the
Germans, and the Soviets were
badly damaged. Although the
Germans had failed to take
Moscow outright, they held huge
areas of the western Soviet
Union, including the entire
regions of present-day Belarus,
Ukraine, and the Baltic states,
plus parts of Russia proper west
of Moscow. German forces had
advanced 1,050 mi and
maintained a north-south front
of 1,900 mi. The Germans held
up to 500,000 sq mi of territory
with over 75 million people at
The eastern front at the time of the Battle of Moscow: the end of 1941, and went on to
Initial Wehrmacht advance – to 21 June 9 July 1941 seize another 250,000 sq mi
Subsequent advances – 10 July to 1 September 1941 (before being forced to retreat
Encirclement and battle of Kiev – 1 to 9 September 1941 after defeats at the Battle of
Final Wehrmacht advance – to 5 December 1941 Stalingrad (1942–43) and the
Battle of Kursk (1943)
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 The German Blitzkrieg of Russia
• Initially in 1941, in 6 months the Germans quickly pushed hundreds of
miles deep to the gates of Moscow, with 1900 mile north/south front
by the largest invasion army ever ― Blitzkrieg style.
• Then there was a Russian winter, the coldest since 1812,
and a long supply line. The Russians retreated with a scorched earth.
Then the spring thaw and the unpaved Russian roads were a sea of mud
– Rusputia.

• Hitler believed that the war on Russia had to be a Vernichtungskrieg ―

war of annihilation not to a surrender. So the war picked up again in
1942-1943.
• But, the Russians had depth, a large population and industry east
beyond the Urals, sufficient national food and fuel supplies.
• They had more manpower [>2X Germany] and they began to stem the
German armored assaults, reducing the core German forces and moving
westward to regain their lands. 7
 Blitzkrieg Falls Apart―1942-1943
• The Germans were fighting a three front war.
– They were shifting armor and air units between
fronts, lessening the Blitzkrieg's impact.
• Blitzkrieg: short intense action to an enemies
defeat.
• They were more than conquers:
― They shot and staved millions of Russian POWs.
― They pillaged the county sides that they had
over-run.
― In the Ukraine, where they were originally
greeted as liberators, through their heinous actions
they turned the bulk of a 40 million strong Ukrainian
population against them. 8
 What Distributed Technologies Were
Required to Counter Blitzkrieg?
• A lot of Armor, thus factories and assembly lines.
• Where did the modern tank come from?
• US Army conversion to reliable diesels engines.
– Army breaks the Navy’s hold of small diesel engines.
• Armor unit mobile communications
− Germans made major use of VHF-FM radios.
• Countermeasures.
• Tires.
• Fuel.
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The Russian Tank and Anti-tank Armor

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 American Inventor J. Walter Christie
The M1928 Design
• 1928, US Army was not interested.
– Christie’s tank features speed and mobility
– Army wanted tanks that primarily supported infantry
• The British bought several Christie models and
incorporated some of the design into their Cruiser Mark III.
• The Soviets bought several in 1931, labeled as tractors, and
shipped without guns.
• The Christie design had:
– Sloping sides to deflect shells
– Inventive suspensions with both springs and torsion bars that
aided in fast cross country travel over open stretches.

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Christie never was able to sell any quantity of tanks.
He sold prototypes.
Above, 1936 version of the Christie Tank.

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WW II Soviet T-34 Tank with many of Christie’s designs
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 The T-34 Tank
In Many Ways Impressive, But With Lots of Flaws
• The US Army evaluated the T-34 at Aberdeen in late 1942 and
submitted an extensive report to the Russians.
• They liked the sloping body
• The easily used gun and aiming devices
• The lightweight diesel engines
• That it could climb and maneuver better than comparable US and
British tanks
• Detractions
• Poor quality steel
• Weak, under-designed treads
• Lamentable air filters that resulted in engine failures
• Terrible transmission, probably caused more losses than combat
• Poor welding, leaked water, which shorted the electrical systems
• Poor field radios, no crew communications
• Commanders compartment was a horror and the controls often
require a hammer to get them to move
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 So What Did the Russians Do in 1943?
• They accepted the evaluation at face value.
• But did nothing, just kept turning out quantity.
• But, began to send some mod kits to repair
facilities and did up-grades on a hit-or-miss basis.
• Field cannibalized destroyed tanks for parts.
• They seriously incorporated nine Aberdeen
recommendations into the new model T-34-85.
• After Kursk, they began to phase in the new
model, the T-34-85.
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 Counters to the Tank
• The British, Russians and Germans used mine
fields. They didn’t have to destroy the tank, just
damage its tread.
• Against the last German Blitzkrieg attack at
Kursk, the Russians placed 2400 anti-tank
mines/mile and 2600 anti-personnel mines
per/mile sometimes 15 miles deep.
• Russians used artillery and mortars housed in
prefabricated and portable concrete pill boxes.
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17
Three Interesting Russian Advantages
• 1. The Russians historically had and moved large
armies and crossed large rivers. Their army had far
greater emphasis on engineer units than did the
Germans.
– They used many pre-fabricated pontoon bridges that
were disassembled and used elsewhere.
• 2. The Russians used a large deception [Maskirivia]
organizations. [Discussion in the next section]
• These [1 and 2] had a well developed mid-level
management and command structure.
• 3. (Non technical) A large network of partisans.
– Early German mistreatment of non-Russian Slavic
populations in the western Soviet Union (Baltic, White
Russian, Ukrainian) came back to haunt them.
– Those still loyal of Communist Government.
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 The Anti-Tank Gun
• All sides developed Anti-Tank guns.
• The Russian Degtyaryov PTRD-4,
single shot, simple and produced
in vast quantities.

• The more modern Russian

57mm ZiS2

• German Panzerfaust, single,

preloaded shell 19
 Knudsen-Returns
In 1939 US Army has a total of 200 M-2 light tanks.
August 1940 – Knudsen convinced the Army to
contract with Chrysler to build tanks (M-3 first for
the British and later M-4).
Knudsen contacted noted industrial designer
Albert Kahn to start designing a new modern
assemble line tank plant for Chrysler near Chicago.

Lend-Lease Soviet M-3 Lee

Tanks at Kursk
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M-4 Sherman Tank, Sicily, 1943
 Albert Kahn

• One of the most prolific architects in American

history, Albert Kahn designed well over 1,000
buildings in his lifetime.
• By WW II, Kahn's 600-staff industrial design
operation was involved in making Detroit an
important center of America's Arsenal of
Democracy.
– Worked with Sorensen in the Ford River Rouge
complex
– Ford’s B-24 factory
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The Lend – Lease Studebaker Trucks and
the Willys Jeeps
• The Soviets built 665,000 Soviet trucks in
WW II or 58 % needed. US provided 470,000.
• The US provided the rest through lend-lease.
• The US trucks were significantly more robust,
more reliable, thus were often used to move
ammunition and rockets.

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23
 The American Love Affair with the Auto
• The depression notwithstanding millions of Americans GIs
have experience fixing autos, trucks and farm equipment.

• GIs kept our fleets running and improvised.

– Tanks modified with bulldozer blades from scrap.
Normandy: Improvised tank blades and
“Salad Forks” to penetrate the Hedgerows

• This national technical competence was a work around for

hurried and often inadequate training.
• The Allies’ troops less mechanically experienced.
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The Eastern Front and the North Atlantic
• On examination many similarities.
• Both covered vast areas.
• Neither the British in the Atlantic nor the Russians on
the Eastern front gave up the fight in spite of heavy
early losses.
• Both Fronts spanned three years and countered the
intent of Blitzkrieg's theory of a short war.
• Both Fronts were eventually won by a combinations
of new inventions, better management/more
intelligent command and grim battles– no silver
bullets.
• The Casablanca conference ruled out a negotiated
armistice – demanded unconditional surrender.
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 An Army Runs On:
• Food
• Tires
• Fuel

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Billions manufactured You have heard of the
K Ration, meet the
Hershey’s U.S. Army
D Field Ration

The Hershey U.S. ARMY FIELD RATION D was a highly concentrated food intended for
emergency use. One ration consists of three chocolate bars sized to fit in the soldiers’
pockets. Hershey was the first to product this ration. This was for the GI on the front
with no other source of food. It provided a day’s supplies of calories, vitamins and
stimulants, but packaged to taste like blah oatmeal, so it would not be eaten as candy.

The 10 IN 1 RATION-supplied sufficient food for ten soldiers and withstands all climatic
conditions. Chocolate bars of the Ration D type are included.

Hershey’s TROPICAL CHOCOLATE- in bar form, designed to withstand the effects of

extreme heat. High in food energy value. “Our entire output is scheduled for shipment
overseas through the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Red Cross.”
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13 June 1944: An English brewery donates a sizable amount of fresh beer
for the troops fighting in Normandy and a unique delivery method is created,
Strapping kegs to the under wings of Spitfires being shipped to forward airfields.
Flying at 12 000 feet chills the brew to perfection

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 US Rubber Reserve Company (USRRC)
• In 1940 most rubber products used natural
rubber and 90% of it was imported from SE Asia
remaining 10% from South America and Africa.
• Processed rubber doesn’t recycle readily.
• The Administration formed the US Rubber
Reserve Company to: (1) conserve natural rubber
and (2) expand synthetic rubber production.

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 Synthetic Rubber Production
Complex
• The US, Germany and Russia generally used
the same manufacturing processes using
hydrocarbon based raw materials in chemical
factories.

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 US Synthetic Rubber
• B.F. Goodrich Company scientist Waldo Semon developed a new and
cheaper version of synthetic rubber known as Ameripol in 1940.
Ameripol made synthetic rubber production much more cost
effective, helping to meet the country's needs during World War II.
• Building on Ameripol the Government launched a major (and largely
secret) effort to improve synthetic rubber production.
• A large team of chemists from many institutions were involved. The
rubber designated GRS (Government Rubber Styrene), a copolymer
of butadiene and styrene, was the basis for U.S. synthetic rubber
production during World War II.

• From 1942 on, US synthetic rubber production expanded greatly

once Japan conquered nearly all the world's limited supplies of
natural rubber in SEA.
• Rubber was required for tires and a vast array of other war products.
• By 1944, 50 US factories were pouring out a volume of the material
twice that of the world's natural rubber production before the
beginning of the war.
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http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/e
ducation/for-students/ww2-history/at-a-
glance/rubber.pdf

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 German Synthetic Rubber
• Germany had no ready access to natural rubber, but had an
advanced chemical industry. By 1935, German chemists
synthesized the first of a series of synthetic rubbers known as
Buna rubbers using coal as a basic component.
• These plant were prime AAF/RAF targets.
• Operation Pointblank bombing targeted the 12 major Synthetic
Plants, including:
– Schkopau plant (50K tons/year)
– Hüls synthetic rubber plant near Recklinghausen (30K tons/year)
– Kölnische Gummifäden Fabrik, tire and tube plant at Deutz on the
east bank of the Rhine.
– The Ferrara, Italy, synthetic rubber factory was bombed August 23,
1944.
– Ludwigshafen/ Oppau (15K tons/year,)
– Hanover/ Limmer (reclamation, 20K tons/year,)
– Leverkusen (5K tons/year,).
• A synthetic rubber plant at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland,
was under construction in March 1944. Sabotaged by slave labors
and never went on line. 33
 Russian Synthetic Rubber
• In the Soviet Union, production of
polybutadiene, used a 1910 process developed
by Russian Chemist, Dr. P.Lebedev. The
industrialization process was begun in 1932–33,
using potatoes and limestone as raw materials.
• The Soviet Union had no ready access to natural
rubber which was controlled by the British.
• Thus, by necessity in 1940 the Soviet Union had
the largest synthetic rubber industry in the
world, producing more than 50,000 tons per
year. This increased to as much as 100,000 tons
per year during the war.
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 Poison Gas– the Weapon that Wasn’t
WW I. Chemical warfare was a major
component of the first global war and first
total war of the 20th century. The killing
capacity of gas, however, was limited – only
four percent of combat deaths were caused
by gas.
Gas was unlike most other weapons of the period because eventually it was possible to
develop effective countermeasures, such as gas masks.

In the later stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, its overall effectiveness
diminished.

Post WW I Geneva convention against using but not against producing gas.

WW II. Britain planned to use mustard gas on the landing beaches in the event of an
invasion in 1940. The US considered using gas to support the planned invasion of Japan.
[American Heritage (August/September 1985) P.36 "Why We Didn't Use Poison Gas in
World War II."]

Both sides had chemical weapons but the general fear of retaliation prevented them from
being used. Both sides equipped the troops with better gas masks
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 The WW II Modern Gas Mask
The gas mask that people in the USA
are familiar with was developed in
1944 by the US Army Chemical
Warfare Service.

It was made of plastic and rubber-like

material that greatly reduced the
weight and bulk compared to WW I
gasmasks and fitted the user's face
more snugly and comfortably.

The main improvement was replacing

the separate filter canister connected
with a hose by a filter canister screwed
on the side of the gas mask, that could
be replaced easily.

Also, it had replaceable plastic lenses,

much helping vision

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 Soviet/German Air Strength
• By 1944 the Germans had moved all but 500
aircraft from the Russian front to face tens of
thousands of Soviet aircraft.
• Stalin continually complained that the Allies
were not doing enough to relieve pressure by
the Germans. The Allies’ 1944-1945
combined land and air campaigns provided
some relief.

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 Prominent Russian Aircraft

Ilyushin IL-2/10 Shturmovik)

Ground attack aircraft
42.330 built

Yakovlev Yak-9 Fighter

16,769 built

In addition to the 150K or so Soviet built MiG, Yak, Ilyushin and other
aircraft, the Soviet Union received [Lend-lease] or impounded.
P-39 5007 P-63 2421 P-40 XXXX Hurricane 2962
P-51 IMP P-47 196 Spitfire 1331 B-24 IMP
A-20 2008 B-25 662 B-29 30 IMP
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 Battlefield Communications

Blitzkrieg uses surprise and rapid

movements, communications can
work as a counter veiling force

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In the Ranks–Frontline Communications
Handie-Talkie®/Walkie-Talkie
• The Motorola SCR-300 "Walkie-Talkie" The first US
backpacked radio transmitter /receiverto be widely used,
created by an engineering team in 1940 at the Galvin
Manufacturing Company (fore-runner of Motorola).
– The team consisted of Dan Noble, who conceived of the design
using VHF-FM, Henryk Magnuski who was the principal RF
engineer, Marion Bond, Lloyd Morris, and Bill Vogel.
• Later Motorola also produced the hand-held UHF-AM
SCR-536 radio "Handie-Talkie".
– The terms are often confused today, but the original Walkie-
Talkie referred to the back mounted model, while the Handie-
Talkie was the device which could be held entirely in the hand,
5.5 pounds and a 1 mile range.
– Both devices ran on vacuum tubes and used high voltage dry
cell batteries. Handie-Talkie became a trademark™ of
Motorola, Inc. on May 22, 1951.
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 Noemfoor, Dutch New
Guinea, July 1944. A US
soldier (foreground) uses
SCR-536 “Handie -Talkie" SCR-300-A “Walkie-Talkie a walkie-talkie during the
Battle of Noemfoor.
(Photographer: Allan F.
Anderson.)
Motorola engineer, Donald Mitchell, recognized the strategic value of portable
communications after he observed a National Guard training exercise and saw
how radios installed in vehicles were abandoned in the mud and confusion of
battle.
He returned to the company convinced that military communications had to
follow man to the greatest degree possible and immediately began to engineer
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a radio that could be carried in the hand.
 Conclusion
• Blitzkrieg ultimately did not work.
– It initially worked on small, weak countries
• France had other considerations
– But, the British, Russians and US didn’t stop fighting.
• Ultimately, the Germans experienced a defeat
even worse WW I.
• The Japanese also had initial success, but in the
end had to “Endure the Unendurable” the
occupation of their Home Islands.
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