Attached is a 1940 magazine article reporting on the Nazi march through Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France by military historian and biographer Fairfax Downey (1894 – 1990):
Thunder rumbles, lightning flashes and strikes. Incredibly swiftly it is over. So, compared to the campaigns of the First World War, was the German Blitzkrieg, rumbling, flashing and striking down Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. How did it work? What made it click?
“Air superiority and improved weapons. The fast, hard-hitting motorized column and the stealthy, treacherous Fifth Columns. First-rate tactic, long-planned strategy, and fine staff work. All these add up to the answer, given by the Nazis themselves. A stream of published German military documents has been flowing into our War Department where they have been translated…On these documents are based the following battle pieces.”
Click here to read an article about French confidence in the Maginot Line.
Click here to read about the day when the Nazis took Paris.
More primary source articles about W.W. II France can be read here…
