German World War Two Tank Picture

German High Speed Tank Warfare

In describing the collapse of Poland, following the German invasion of 1939, Winston Churchill later wrote in his memoirs; "Neither France nor in Britain had there been any effective comprehension of the consequences of the new fact that armoured vehicles could be made capable of withstanding artillery fire, and could advance a hundred miles a day."

In volume II of his war memoris, Churhill further admitted, "Not having had access to official information for so many years, I did not comprehend the violence of the revolution effected since the last war (WWI) by the incursion of a mass of fast moving heavy armour. I knew about it, but it had not altered my inward convictions as it should have done."

*Listed above is a German World War Two tank picture of a Tiger tank.

Resistance to the new idea of high speed tank warfare was great. It was stiff in France and even stiffer in Poland. The German armourerd divisions believed in the new idea and by implementing such tactics, they swept away all resistance in Poland in 1939 and then in France in 1940. Poland had no armoured or motorized divisions and they were short of anti-tank weapons. Sadly, they were still pinning their hopes on horse cavalry for defense. The French however are to be criticized even more. They had the ingredients of a modern army but failed to deploy them properly.

At the time of the German invansion, France actually had more tanks then their adversary. Some were even larger and more heavily armoured, although they were slower than their German counterparts. The problem lay with the French High Command. They were still bogged down with World War I tactical thinking. They intended to use their armour as a supplement to cavalry and infantry or as vehicles for reconnaissance.

Another weakness inherent in both the Polish and French forces was the lack of air power to support and cover their ground armies. Germany had both. Some of the blame for the defeat of the French and Polish forces can be traced to their fatal degree of self-satisfaction as a result of victories in earlier conflicts. The French were still puffed up over the defeat of the Germans in World War I. The Poles had vanquished the Russians in 1920. That being said, German armour and tactics simply overwhelmed them as World War II began.

The invansion of Poland began on September 1, 1939. The Germans employed forty infantry divisions, including six armoured tank divisions. Army Group North under Bock was made up of the Third and Fourth German Armies. Army Group South under Rundstedt contained the Eigth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Armies. The unusual result from such a lightning strike was German concern over the two rapid advances of its tank divisions. The rest of the army could hardly keep pace. Poland sucumed on October 28. It was no contest.

Hitler's forces broke through defences on the West on May 10, 1940. On May 13, Guderian's panzer corps crossed the Meuse River at Sedan and the German tanks pouring through the gap, reached the English Channel coast within a week. Allied armies in Belgium were cut off and Great Britain was isolated. Hitlers terms of conquest were delivered to the French on June 20, 1940. On June 22, the French surrendered.

The French had lost thirty divisions in the first phase of the battle. The Germans by contrast had strengthened their ten panzer divisions and their one hundred and thirty infantry divisions were hardly scratched. Two Army Groups under Bock and Rundstedt, spearheaded by the fast moving panzers, were simply more than the French were prepared for. German armour showed up on the fields of battle in an impressive array of designs. The following is a list of what the allied armies had to face.

• Mark III
• Mark IV
• Mark VI
• Panther
• Panzer II
• Panzer III
• Panzer III J Special
• Panzer IV
• Tiger
• King Tiger
• Goliath

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