The Lightning War

World War II was Adolf Hitler's war, started at the time and place of his choosing. After six years of dramatic, relatively bloodless triumphs - his assumption of power, the rearmament of Germany, the reoccupation of the Rhineland, the union forced upon Austria, the seizure of Czechoslovakia - the Führer was determined to prove himself on the battlefield.

On April 3, 1939, Hitler issued written orders to his High Command authorizing the invasion of Poland any time after September 1. On May 23, he lectured his top officers for hours on his plans. He argued that the solution to Germany's problems - arising, as Hitler saw them, from the need for more living space for the people of the Reich - was unattainable "without invading other countries or attacking other people’s possessions."

In his newly declared quest for military victory, Hitler's primary strategy was blitzkrieg, or lightning war, in which coordinated forces of armored panzer divisions, high-level bombers, dive bombers, and motorized infantry divisions would blast through enemy defenses in a sudden, massive assault.

Here, from award-winning journalist Robert Wernick, is the story of Hitler's lightning war - from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of France.