I-47. THE FÜHRER AT THE AIRPORT OF OPPELM AFTER A FLIGHT OVER THE FRONT LINE

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The German advance into Poland on 1 September 1939 was not a repeat of the tactics of the First World War of 1914-18. […] Hitler's method was that of 'Blitzkrieg' - lightning war. First, and without warning, air attacks destroyed much of the defender's air force while it was still on the ground. Second, bombers struck at the defender's road and rail communications, assembly points and munitions dumps, and at civilian centres, causing confusion and panic. Third, dive-bombers sought out columns of marching men and bombed them without respite, while at the same time aircraft machine-gunned civilian refugees as they sought to flee from the approaching soldiers, […].

From: Martin Gilbert, The Second World War, A Complete History, Herry Holt and Company, Inc., New York, 1989, p. 2.

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