A MODEL OF CRISIS PLANNING, BY GENERAL-MAJOR MUELLER-HILLEBRAND.
"The purpose of this tentative study is to describe the German campaigns in the Balkans and the seizure of Crete. It will be perfected, as source material and comments become available, and finally published as a pamphlet. It is believed that the study, the first of a series dealing with large-scale German military operations in Eastern Europe, will reveal many lessons of value to military students. Other studies such as The German Support of Finland, The Axis Campaign in Russia, 1941-45: A Strategic Survey, and German Army Group Operations in Russia will follow.
German victories over Poland, Denmark and Norway, and the Low Countries and France and their ally Great Britain were gained cheaply by blitz tactics. In the broadest sense, however, those victories were merely tactical. They only tended to clear the foreground and to bring the European Axis fare to face with political and strategic al problems of ever-widening range and complexity. To an aggressor these problems could only be solved by force. Relieving himself unable to act decisively in the west, Hitler sought to resolve his problem to the east, but simultaneously was pulled to the south by Mussolini's rashness and by the peculiar situation existing in the Balkans. At the same time he was forced to consider his northern flank and the support of Finland, which had so heroically taken up arms against Russia in defense of its liberty.
From the point of view of German strategy, the Balkans posed a difficult problem which had to be resolved before action could be taken against the USSR. Hitler hoped to attain his aim by diplomacy and to a certain extent did. But in the end the maneuvering of Great Britain and the military failures of Italy compelled him to use force. The campaign that followed was based on severing the lines of communication between Yugoslavia and Greece by an armored thrust from the Bulgarian border in the direction of Albania. Once the Belgrade – Salonika railway was cut, Yugoslavia was isolated. After that, the tactical operations amounted to little more than police action. The culmination of the campaign was the German airborne attack upon the island of Crete which made such a profound impression upon Allied military men. In this account it is seen through German eyes…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand
paints up some WWII Soviet aircraft.
