Talk:Battle of annihilation/Archives/2011/December

Examples in WW II ?
What about examples in WW II ? Of course battles like Battle of Kiev (1941) or Battle of Białystok-Minsk or Ruhrkessel didn't end the war, but annihilated big armies. MatthiasKabel 12:26, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor be considered an (attempted) Battle of Annihilation? If the US' aircraft carriers were present at the time of the bombing, the Navy's strength in the Pacific would shatter —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.221.123.121 (talk) 21:42, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

This was a German main strategy in Blitzkrieg 1939-1942
It was one of the elements in blitzkrieg (Vernichtungsschlacht). Trew & Sheffield claims that Adolf Hitler wanted to fulfil his political program by short decisive wars. For the German armed forces that meant the annihilation of the enemy through a single, crushing blow and became the strategy concept they wanted to carry out with their warfare. The difference from Helmuth von Moltke’s thoughts of it in 1870 was their means including the possibility to gain higher speed during operations with their mechanized and airborne units.

Battle of annihilation did also become one the responsibility for why the germans abondoned Blitzkrieg in the Sovietunion. They could not defeat the russians in one single decisive battle. Logistically was they not prepared either. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.202.70.59 (talk) 18:59, 2 November 2010 (UTC)