ORIGIN DISCUSSED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 180, 1 July 1940, Page 3

ORIGIN DISCUSSED

LIGHTNING WAR TACTICS LESSONS FROM HISTORY A platitude is the type of saying which we repeat so often that the words ceased to have meaning. In other words, it is a way of speaking. Think, for instance, of the pat saying", 'There's nothing nefw under the sun.' I dare say many of us use it. But the use of it doesn't spoil our paying inconsistent and indiscriminate tributes to the newness of modern uhenomena as they come I along. A phenomenon thrown up in high relief by the German military success in Norway and the Low Countries is the l'ilghtning stroke in warfare. This is the tactic of which the Nazis are commonly thought to be the patentee. Yet the Mlitzkrieg is well known in military history as far back as Alexander the Great. Perhaps the best exponent of it was Gustavus Adolphus. And there are so many similarities between the Nazi, tactics and those of Adolphus that the lessons of Adolphus must have been part of the training of the Nazi military- At any rate, Adolphus relied exclusively on the Blitzkrieg. ✓Gustavus Adolphus is reputed.lv the greatest king in Swedish history. He is probably less well known in the Anglo-Saxon world (thanks to the movies) than his remarkable daughter, Queen Christina. But his stature was much greater. And there was a wide gulf fixed between them, for he Was the standard bearer of the Protestant cause in the beginning of the 17th century, and she turned to Roman Catholicism. Adolphus lived in which we call the age of Cromwell. One might almost call him Cromwell's counterpart, though his ciwn piety had a more cheerful hue than the Protector's. A Pious Monarch'. The pietism of the Kinf whom the Swedes call the Great sets him up as a person apartf rom the antireligious Nazis. The Nazis make the state into a god. Adolphus put God above everything and, like many other warriors in history, hated war. In* fact,, he could find no words strong enough to apply to Avar. It was "not a river, nor a lake, onr a-whole "ocean of all sorts of evil.' He considered! his wars to lie purely defensive—on behalf of Sweden and the Protestant cause. Here Ave come to the similarities witlx the German Adolf. Herr Hitler thinks his Avars are purely defensive. The approach is the same, thoi\gh it is a rax*e commander who brags about offensive aAvrs. And this much can be said for both the Adolphs—that the line separating defensive and offensive Avars is no • enuous as to be scarcely distinguishable. The problem isn't a? 2asy as some of our authorities think it is. But the essence of the Blitzkrieg is the tactical offensive, Avhatever the mental approach may be. A general adhering to the Blitzkrieg cannot even stand on ceremony about neutral rights, let alone indulge in quibbling about offensive and defen sive operations. All at costs the initiative as the saying now is. must be kept. And it is in this respect that the two Adolphs are in their method of Avarfare. They aimed at getting there lirst.