What, originally, was "Blitzkrieg"?

The clue is in the literal meaning of the German word: "Blitzkrieg" = "Lightning"+"War". This characterises a military attack conducted with great speed and force; and it accurately describes assaults such as the one carried out by the Germans on several European countries including Belgium, the Netherlands and France in May 1940.

During WWII the term caught on among the British public and eventually it to be applied in its shortened form -- "the Blitz" -- to the bombing campaign endured by London during 1940 and 1941, even though that campaign was certainly not what the German military meant by "Blitzkrieg". The photograph displays a particularly poignant example of the so-called "Blitz spirit" that prevailed in London at that time.

The term "Blitzkrieg" was later applied in other fields including chess (used to describe "Scholar's mate", a chess beginner's blunder) and in comic books (it was used as the name of a series of DC Comics and as the name of a superhero in Marvel comics).

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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11 Comments

Richard D. Boyle

Elaine GIbson, Actually, it is a wrong answer. At no point during WW II did Britain suffer a blitzkrieg attack. Neither bomb attack nor rocket attack qualifies as a blitzkrieg attack by themselves.

Corey Taylor

This isn't fair, both the WW2 and 'military attack' options answer the question.

Ken Putnam

Richard D. Boyle, Better read the explanation again even though that campaign was certainly not what the German military meant by "Blitzkrieg".

Richard G Schwartz

Picture kind of gave it away.

Christopher Skinner

Darlene Davidson, Yes, but the question related to what the military manouver/ manouvre was

Phillip McCullough

Lest we forget!

Alan Waites

Elaine GIbson, Blitzkrieg means a rapid attack. Early in WWII, the Germans used this form against Poland as they had no answer to respond with. In the assault on Britain, a blitzkrieg had minimal results. The Stuka was only used on RAF airfields as the RAF were defending the airfields. When the Luftwaffe turned their attention to London more main stream bombers were used. This was when the term Blitz was used.