German Armour in Poland and France 1939 - 1940

In 1939 the German army conquered Poland in eighteen days, and the following year they rolled up the French forces in forty days. The British escaped at Dunkirk, and they and the world wondered how the Germans had won such speedy and complete victories. Eric Grove describes the tactics and the weapons they used. Using fast moving armoured divisions supported by dive bombers and motorized infantry they carved up the static defenses of the Poles and paralyzed the French army from its high command to the soldiers on the ground. The Blitzkrieg tactics of deep penetration, which avoided any defended localities and plunged into the vulnerable interior disrupting support units, supplies and communications were the war winning formula of 1939 and 1940.