Summary

The German army in the Second World War sought to fight and win swift, decisive victories in a succession of short campaigns -- blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Flexibility was as essential as the will to win. Battle groups -- or shock troops -- were created from miscellaneous, and often disparate, military units to undertake a specific local operation; it was the army's skill in combining superior numbers, aggressive tactics and the battle group commander's ability to exploit the changing situation on the ground which brought success on every battlefield. The actions described here by James Lucas, the military historian known for his close studies of the German solider, cover all theatres of the war, and include battle groups large and small, deployed usually to smash a breach in the enemy line or seal off an enemy penetration. Many of the accounts demonstrate the autonomy given to a commander of relatively low rank and the use he made of his powers. The battle groups' contribution to Wehrmacht fortunes offers powerful lessons in the tactics of battle management. Book jacket.