Word: brauchitsch
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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With the western frontier fortified, Brauchitsch could plan his attack, and the form it took was as old as warfare itself. Only the materials and the name were new. Blitzkrieg, in its simplest terms, is merely a war of movement, as opposed to a war of position, carried out with the fastest units available. Before World War I it was cavalry that flanked enemy positions, cut off communications, destroyed supplies. In both the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 the Germans won their decisive battles within six weeks after hostilities began...
Like many Army men, Brauchitsch welcomed Hitler as the liberator of the Army from its Versailles shackles. Unlike many of his colleagues, he was able to give his allegiance to the Nazis as well as to the Army. Marked as a man whom Hitler could trust, he rose rapidly after the Nazis came into power. In 1933 he was given command of the East Prussia Military District, one of the most important in Germany because of its vulnerability from both Poland and Russia. It was Brauchitsch who was responsible for the East Prussian fortifications that were built after...
...Brauchitsch became chief of Group Command 4 in Leipzig, the jumping-off place to the top jobs in the German Army. By then the Army was in a turmoil. Hitler was impatient to begin his grabs and the Army knew it was not ready. Loyalties were split between the Army and the Nazis, and there was sharp disagreement between those who were willing to back Hitler in a bluff and those who counseled delay. Brauchitsch kept mum, but when the purge came and Blomberg and Fritsch lost their jobs,* his good friend Reichenau recommended him to Hitler...
Just before the Anschluss, General Brauchitsch is supposed to have told Adolf Hitler: "Mein Führer, if you want to use the Army to support a bluff by military pressure, you can depend on us. For more serious business, we are not yet ready." A few days later he had taken over command of the Austrian Army. In September 1938, he said the same thing in almost the same words-and marched into the Sudetenland at the head of the German troops. He occupied Bohemia and Moravia last spring, but still the Army was not ready. Last month...
...Germany is now waging, preparations are twofold, and the first preparation is defense. Without its Westwall, where a major battle was in progress last week (see p. 28), Germany might have been overrun almost as fast as it overran Poland. As soon as he took command of the Army, Brauchitsch began pressing for the completion of the fortifications in the West. Not until the Westwall was completed could Germany strike in the East. Hitler observed: "It will make the French Army a prisoner in France...