Without reading the thread and just relying on memory -
Blitzkrieg means “lightning war” in German. It was the battle doctrine for Nazi Germany in WWII, where they tried to avoid the stalemate of WWI by first attacking with their airplanes, then following up with tanks. The infantry then moved in to complete the conquest of the territory. They conquered France in about six weeks this way. The French relied on the Maginot Line, which the Nazis bypassed by invading (I think) Belgium. After that, it was a rather overwhelming victory for the bad guys.
Lightning war. Attacking as suddenly, violently, and surreptitiously as possible to inflict the maximum damage in the minimum time. Used by the Nazi invaders.
It owed mostly to the stupendous von Hutier Tactics of 1917; but needed the traditional German Auftragstaktik ( subordinates use their own initiative fluidly as opposed to rigid control ) dating from before v. Moltke the Elder to be effective.
However Napoleon and the other French generals of the Revolution earlier combined exceptional speed and terror in their aggression.
I may not be typical. A lifelong interest in history and military history. Decades spent in uniform including quite a few years in Armor. Its kind of in my wheel house.
It was not coined by Guderian and wasn’t even an official doctrinal term.
Without cheating, I was familiar with the historical context, but I somehow didn’t remember that blitz meant “lightning.” I’ll add that I vaguely remember hearing the word in the context of chess back when I played, but much less common than simply “blitz,” either as a strategy or simply the common name for a quick timed game. Blitz, of course, is popular in sports, although I can’t say I’ve ever heard it followed by “kreig.” I’d be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was trying to make a sports reference and inadvertently invoked Godwin.
Which is why I said upthread that, if you were going to be as off-base as the memo’s writer, you could have at least written Sherman.
And I didn’t need your Wikipedia cite. The fact that Sherman’s death by friendly fire always strikes me as faintly humorous is probably part of the reason I am a bad person. Knowing who Jackson was and when he lived was part of the reason the memo caught my attention. It was nearly as incongruous as saying “We’re going to follow the example of Hannibal,” etc.
