The German Blitzkrieg strategies of WWII, named by a foreign journalist in the opening days of the conflict, were one of the most important in a long line of critical, innovative German military strategies. Although it was used for the horrendously immoral and illegal violations of law and liberty under one's of history single worst regimes ever - the vile National Socialists - it was still an amazing tactic separate from its application.
What makes it interesting in the broadest sense is that the Germans thought of it at all. More on that later, though.
Here's how blitzkrieg worked. First, you acknowledge the central thesis of blitzkrieg: the schwerpunkt, or focus point. This was the point on the battlefield where maximum effort was to be quickly and mrcilessly concentrated in order to produce a breakthrough to exploit. While the French, British and Americans had very orthodox, uncreative theories about mechanized warfare (tanks) that involved conventional deployment and non-mixed tank units, the Germans realized that concentrating power allowed them to overwhelm opponents. It's the simple maxim of divide and conquer.
Second, the German theory of fast-tank warfare depended on mechanized infantry and artillery. The tanks, troops and heavy guns had to move from place to place quickly in order to exploit breakthroughs. Though the tanks were critical to the overall strategy and ubiqitous to the while practice of blitzkrieg, it was mixing mechanized infantry (troop transport, meaning trucks and half-tracks) and self-propelling artillery in with the tanks that made the strategy so powerful. The strategy was also used in conjunction with air force domination of the skies, and bombarding the schwerpunkt. Sometimes the use of parachustist troops was included, with the logic that the advancing troops would continue an aggressive advance in order to relieve parachutist comrades threatened far behind enemy lines. But the mechanized infantry (and artillery) allowed a full-fledged force to exploit the breakthroughs, rather than a more limited force of only tanks.
Thus it was that the Germans could put the full range of military force begind enemy lines; concentrated forces and mechanizd mixed elements were the key.
They would start out approaching the focus point (schwerpunkt) with ground forces and air force.
Then, when they achieved breakthrough (due to surprise, to concentration and to airpower) they would advance to the next line, whether it was reinforcements, artillery or whatever.
After breaking through the artillery, the aggressors proceed to the supply, command and communications units. By now the first line is reacting to the breakthrough and trying to close the gap. In doing so, they will begin to be encircled by the aggressors and forced into defensive pockets.
The command posts abandoned or destroyed, communication and supplies are now captured or obliterated. The front lines, moving into smaller pockets for defense from the enemy they now see to the front, side and back, will not be resupplied or get new orders. They'll be confused, slow to react, separated from the rest of their force by the breakthrough panzers and cut off from command and supply by the tanks.
One key innovation here is that individual commanders are given lattitude to achieve a goal as they see fit. They're chosen for their cretivity, drive, intelligence and grasp of the overall battlefield, as well as the more traditional traits of loyalty and grasp of a small part of the battle. Their superiors tell them the goals, mission and targets, but then the commanders have flexibility and responsibility in bringing about a victory. They can see the situation change, encounter enemies different from those in the intel report, or generally have to adapt to an unforeseen (or unforeseeable) event.
Fighting tens or hundreds of miles from the front line, the commanders would often have limited recourse from central command, which would have a hard time sending orders back and forth without a direct knowledge of what was happening on the ground. Although the German forces were all equipped with tactical radios, this was more useful to the commanders in the field than the higher-ups further back. The leaders had to be able to manage their own soldiers.
That's why blitzkrieg strategy was so suurpising to come from Germany: even though it was heavy on planning and strategy, it was reliant on flexibility and the autonomy of lower-level commanders. German economy and life are generally very focused on order and discipline, but the type of officers best suited to blitzkrieg would be more autonomous and creative.
Blitzkrieg ended up not being enough for Germany after it was misapplied by Hitler (after the initial phases of the war) and thank goodness for that. But the fundamental ideas were still groundbreaking, even if fundamentally un-German.
