Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk [Hardcover]

Len Deighton (Author), Walther K Nehring (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000

An account of Hitler's rise to power in a defeated, demoralized Germany analyzes the German blitzkrieg campaign that led to the nearly fatal encirclement of British and French forces at Dunkirk. Reprint.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Len Deighton’s Blitzkrieg has a freshness that makes it welcome. Deighton has keenly wanted to find out and explain the matter for himself, and has then retained the flavour of discovery for his audience. It is an attractive technique with a genuine ring.”
–Tony Haworth, Times Educational Supplement

“What Mr. Deighton did for the Battle of Britain in Fighter, he has done for the land war here . . . a rattling good yarn helped by outstandingly useful illustrations.”
–James Cameron, Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Len Deighton is the author of over thirty bestsellers of carefully researched fiction and non-fiction. His books include Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain, and Blood, Tears and Folly: An Objective Look at World War II. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Book Sales (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785812075
• ISBN-13: 978-0785812074
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #680,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little old now but a great book, January 19, 2001

By 

Tom Munro "tomfrombrunswick" (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk (Hardcover)

This book is now some twenty years old. Len Deighton is mainly famous for writing novels about espionage. This book and a companion book were written for his own private interest in an attempt to understand the Second World War.

The book is basically an attempt to explain Hitler's victory in 1940 in the Western Campaign. Deighton was one of the first to highlight the fact that force levels favored the allies. The balance of forces not only favored the them but the quality of some German weapons were also inferior. For instance the French produced the best tank in the early part of the war.

Deighton goes back to the First World War and looks at the sorts of strategic dilemmas that led to that war being bloody. He then looks at the role of the tank and the German doctrines developed by Guederian who he credits with the development of Blitzkrieg. Deighton sees the essence of Blitzkrieg not so much in the use of air power and armor to achieve a breach of an enemy line but rather what comes after it. The book is divided into four sections. Only one section and that is about sixty pages describes the initial part of the campaign against the Western allies in 1940. What happened was that the Germans initially moved into the Netherlands and Belgium. This led them to move the British Expeditionary Force north. The reason being that the allies expected a Schieflen like attack wheeling behind Paris as occurred in the First War. Instead the Germans moved their Panzer Divisions through the Ardennes and cut off the British Army and Units of the French and Belgium Army from the main mass of the French Army. The British and French units were either forced of the continent or surrendered. This then meant that the Germans had a massive material superiority and were able to win the battle for France which occurred some time after the expulsion of the British.

Deighton defines Blitzkrieg as the movement of the Panzer Divisions around after the initial break through. The allies reaction was one of confusion and inactivity. Later in the war narrow penetrations such as this would be subject to massive flanking attacks seeking to encircle the attacking forces. Blitzkrieg to Deighton was the use of rapid movement to create a sense of paralysis and hopelessness in the other side.

At the conclusion of the book Deighton goes on to say that in his view, the campaign in the West was the only time that Blitzkrieg was successfully executed. The character of the Russian campaign was different. Narrow based penetrations failed on numerous occasions such as the Russian attacks at Kharkov in 1942 and the Russian attacks on Army Group Centre in Operation Mars.

Deighton is a novelist and his books are easy to read. This book is good as it has thousands of line drawings of the types of weapons used by all sides. It has tables of the performance of all weapons and graphs explaining the performance of aircraft. It is an extremely interesting and readable book. At the current price it is good value.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars May 1940. WWII is Over, Germany Victorious, December 23, 2000

By 

"michaeleve" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk (Paperback)

This is a well researched, heavily illustrated and easy to read book on the subject of Blitzkrieg or 'Lightning War'. The specific area of interest is it's application by the Germans in their invasion of Holland, Belgium and France in the summer of 1940. The meat of the book is in the middle. Part 3 (Blitzkrieg: Weapons & Methods) looks at the development of the Blitzkrieg concept, originating, Deighton says with Prussian military doctrines. Ideas by English Tank experts such as J.F.C. Fuller and B.H. Liddel Hart were added later. This section of the book naturally spends a fair amount of time on the emergence of the Tank and it's use as one of the principal weapons of Blitzkrieg.

Blitzkrieg is defined as 'a swift, sudden military offensive, usually by combined air and land forces'. Deighton adds - 'and as evolved by Heinz Guderian and used by his forces', giving credit to the man who perfected the concept. Indeed, the German breakthrough at Sedan in May 1940 (see Part 4 'The Battle of The Meuse') and the subsequent routing of the French army is a spectacular example of the use of Blitzkrieg. Offcourse any discussion about battles in France in 1940 must conclude with the Germans surrounding and trapping over 250,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the French coast near Dunkerque.

It is to do with Dunkerque that the most startling supposition emerges from the book. The introduction was written by Gen. Walther Nehring, who in 1940 was Guderians' Chief of Staff and was with him at Sedan. Nehring writes with conviction, and Deighton's arguments seem to support the view, that if not for a precipitous Halt Order by Hitler, the German forces could have captured the entire BEF. It is argued that the prospect of a 'Disaster at Dunkerque', rather than the miracle that we have come to know of, would have been too much for the British to stomach. The opportunity for sueing for peace and of obtaining an end to the war by May 1940, would have been a real possibility in such circumstances.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable history of the early days of WW2, June 27, 1998

By 

Aussie Reader ""Rick"" (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk (Paperback)

I read this book in 1980 not long after it was first published in 1979 and I found it to be a very easy to read account of Hitler and the German Army during the early period of World War Two. As mentioned in the earlier review, the author offers a general overview of this period but covers such things as Hitler and his relationship with the German Army and its commanders, Hitlers 'style' of warfare, the concept of 'Blitzkrieg' and the weapons & tactics involved and finally the camapign in France. The book is well researched and is very easy to read with 20 maps, 59 B&W photos and a number of line drawings and charts to assist the reader. I do not think that the book or any of its ideas has aged since it was first published in 1979 and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to understand how the German Army conquered all before it in 1940.