Blitzkrieg Myth: 2.7 Million Horses, Pervitin and Liddell Hart's Spin

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In the 1940 invasion of France, most of the German army walked and relied on 2.7 million horses to move its supplies. The word Blitzkrieg came from Time magazine in late 1939 and the British press, not from German field manuals, and Hitler called it an idiotic term coined by foreigners in a 1941 speech. The real roots lay in World War I stormtrooper infiltration tactics and the older German idea of maneuver war, sharpened by the 100,000 man limit imposed at Versailles, Auftragstaktik, which gave junior officers a goal but not a method, and secret tank and aircraft trials inside the Soviet Union in the 1920s.

In 1940 the Germans massed armor at a single Schwerpunkt, drove through, ignored their flanks and encircled whole armies in cauldron battles. Heinz Guderian insisted every tank carry a two way radio, while many French and British tanks relied on hand signals and flags. The method depended on speed and enemy panic. At Kursk in 1943 Soviet defense in depth absorbed the attack, fuel ran short, and by 1944 Allied fighter bombers made daylight movement deadly. After the war, B.H. Liddell Hart helped German generals publish their memoirs while pressing them to credit his prewar theories.

The Germans themselves called the older tradition Bewegungskrieg, or war of movement.
Stuka dive bombers carried sirens called Jericho trumpets for terror alone, later removed because of drag.
Tank crews, pilots and drivers were issued the methamphetamine Pervitin by the millions to stay awake for days.
Late in the war, Tiger tanks were abandoned by their crews with empty fuel tanks.
Historians working in the archives in the 1970s and 1980s found the letters exposing Liddell Hart's bargain with the generals.

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